I.S.S

I.S.S was yet another movie that I recall seeing the trailers for several times and then hearing nothing else about it. Several films that were released at the beginning of this year fell off the face of the earth. Now to be fair the film didn’t look particularly good or interesting but still. Normally there are strong feelings for movies either way, people that love them won’t shut up and people that hate them are even louder (it's me, I’m people). That said, too many movies from January-March were not talked about at all. So what is missing?

There is some super heavy handed foreshadowing right at the beginning, but that’s alright. We get to the main plot rather quickly which I love because that is how story structure should work.

We are leaning fully into a Russia vs America story here. It is made very clear from the beginning that this is something that Russia was planning as the other Americans reached the space station. They are covertly trying to sabotage each other, though they all seem to have some kind of moral reservations about it. The problem is that my immediate reaction to this premise was; they could all just not. They are more likely to kill everyone then to only kill the other side, so they could just work together and all be fine. But I suppose that makes for a boring story.

The tension is being built up really well. I was fully stressed out the whole time Gordon was on the side of the space station. And then the tension was really well escalated between the characters after the Russians murder Gordon. The interpersonal relationships between the characters are also extremely well written.

The whole cabin fever thing is working really well. They are all paranoid and stuck in the space station, regardless of who you want to trust once one person dies everyone is on edge.

Apparently we want control of the I.S.S because of something that the Russian bioengineer is developing that will help what is happening on the ground.

As all of this is happening the I.S.S is losing altitude and is actively falling out of the sky. Neither side could get their communications with the ground back up so they have no way of knowing if help is available.

The way that the antagonists of the movie stayed pretty consistent and the moral compasses of the other characters went through some struggles was really well written. The astronauts trying to do what’s best having some conflict was great.

The movie is paced out pretty well, nothing is dragging on. With a tight hour and a half run time they seem to have budgeted their time very well. There is a very clear act structure. I think it could have ended exactly 1 scene earlier but that’s being a little nitpicky.

I.S.S is a lot better than I thought it was going to be. The story was clear, it was perfectly paced and exactly the right length. And I really loved the way that they built the tension. The escalation of events was done really well. I am actually a little sad that we didn’t get to go see this in the theatres, and I’m bummed it didn’t get any attention upon its release. It’s not Oscar worthy or anything but it's a pretty good movie. Basically, all the tension that we wanted from Passengers was present here. It was presented much better and at no point did I feel let down by the narrative. I give it a solid 7.5/10 it is definitely worth the watch.