Le Passager nº 4

I had big expectations of this movie. SF Thriller with great actors and amazing visuals, and short description sounded quite interesting. With that budget and great acting team, and strong visuals, how could it go wrong? Well, it did. Problem is it didn't go anywhere. Story, especially mystery thriller was non-existent, characters had no background and were bland and one-dimensional, so much wasted potential. I gave it 5 starts for visuals and acting but actors could do so much with bad story and bad script.

Problem is, there is no mystery, at least, not explained mystery, not even searching. They opened with interesting event then just closed with open ending which, at least to me, made no sense. And I felt like I watched nice trailer or commercial, almost 2 hours long. As for SF part, there are a lot problems in scientific inconsistencies and errors and so many things that made no sense or bear no logic. So much money invested in research that was so poorly planned and was not resistant to one single error. Some things just don't happen, especially not in high profile, super-expensive missions. This movie expects us to suspend our disbelief too much.

So in short, no real thriller or mystery, sf failed a lot on science part, too many illogical things, characters undefined and flat. And I was really waiting for this movie!

Well, it had actors. And it had dialog. And there was a plot. So I guess it was a movie. Nothing overtly bad about this movie. But nothing really great either. Just a movie about a problem in space and a plot that crawls along, with no real twists (except predictable ones), no great dialog, no great acting. Just a movie about some stuff that happens. OK to watch if you want to pass the time. Just don't expect a lot.

Zoe (Anna Kendrick), David (Daniel Dae Kim), and Marina Barnett (Toni Collette) launch into space on a two year trip to Mars. Less than a day after takeoff, a 'Stowaway', Michael (Shamier Anderson) is found in an access panel and with his discovery, the life support systems begin failing. It becomes a race against time to find a way to survive aboard a space craft without enough oxygen for four people.

The acting is fairly well done and the script is predictable, but entertaining. The flow is solid and the ending is satisfying, but a lot of questions are raised about the validity of the science around the film. Why do certain plot points need to happen? This film feels a lot like 'Gravity' (2013), in that it's enjoyable if you don't think too much about it.

Worth a once over.

Gathering together quite the cast for just his second feature length affair, Arctic director Joe Penna returns to the survival thriller genre once more to deliver a realistic sci-fi yarn for Netflix, that while featuring a truly intriguing central set-up, is a film that fails to capitalize on the talent and potential that lay at its fingertips.

Set entirely in out of space with just the four named cast members to keep things ticking along (a huge leap up for Penna considering his debut was a one man show), Stowaway captures us early on as Toni Collette's commander Marina Barnett and her crew that consists of Anna Kendrick's doctor Zoe and Daniel Dae Kim's scientist David discover that their small space vessel harbors an unannounced addition in the form of Shamier Anderson's Michael, a guest that's motives are unclear and a potential burden too their mission that is set for Mars.

For the fist 30 or so minutes you can't help but be intrigued by where Stowaway might be going, there's a lot of questions about how Michael managed to get on board, what drew him to the ship and how the crew might manage to deal with an extra mouth to feed (both with food and oxygen) and Penna and his behind the scenes crew do well too capture the unlavish lifestyle of living in such a confined space ship but as time wears on you begin to feel as though the film is squandering its chances to create a twisting and turning space-themed narrative that fails to maximize the various elements that could've made it a streaming winner.

Without launching directly into spoiler territory, its safe to say that come the films latter half, this is despite a fairly well designed tension riddled set-piece finale that will have your knuckles whitening, the film peters out into nothing more than a mid-tier thriller that feels formulaic and familiar and one that will be quick to be forgotten by viewers as soon as the credits roll and Netflix is directing you to the next must-watch piece of their collection.

Its arguable that if the film had some more likable characters, with all of Collette, Kim, Kendrick (not always entirely convincing as a fearless astronaut) and Anderson doing decent work with rather bland and pedestrian caricatures, it may've stood a better chance to stand out from the crowd but in a genre that is ripe with great thrillers such as Gravity or Ad Astra, Stowaway feels like a missed opportunity to create something special and is a film that is entirely skippable without fear of missing out on something worthwhile.

Final Say -

It's well put together and in the first instance fairly gripping but Stowaway gives way to an increasing sense of blandness and lack of answers to vital questions as its initially great set-up gets pushed aside for a so-so affair that never gets out of second gear.

2 1/2 vacuumed packed meals out of 5.

Honest opinion, dont bother watching this one.

I'm not a harsh critic, and I like all kinds of tv shows and movies.

This movie has a basic storyline, a pinch of drama, no backstory and a weak and uneventful ending.

It just moves along at a snails pace until you realize, oh, this must be it, the end.