Kevin C. Wong

Movie - The Midnight Sky (2020) [-]

The Midnight Sky is a science fiction drama set in 2049. After a global disaster effectively kills off humanity Dr Augustine Lofthouse (George Clooney) is left alone at an Arctic research base. Well, not so alone as a young girl, Iris (Caoilinn Springall), was accidentally left behind during the hurried evacuation. Takes a while but the two start to bond.

Meanwhile there is one space mission still active. The space ship Aether is on the way from Jupiter's moon K-23, a habitable planet discovered 30-odd years ago. Aether was sent to determine if it's suitable for habitation and it is and now the five crew are on their way back. But with Earth dead Dr Augustine wants to warn Aether. The communications antenna at his base is not strong enough so he and Iris need to journey 100 km to an automated station that has a more powerful antenna.

On the one hand Augustine and Iris brave the arctic terrain and bad air (whatever it was that killed off everyone is in the air and the contaminated air is working its way to the poles). Meanwhile the crew of Aether have a couple of emergencies to keep them occupied on the way back...

I'm kind of surprised I watched the whole 2-hour movie because it's a rather dull and slow-paced story.

***** SPOILERS *****

he drama seems manufactured. Augustine and Iris loses it's charm half way through the movie once I realize both characters have to die: Augustine is easy because he has terminal cancer and therefore Iris has to be a hallucination (which turns out true) otherwise it'd be a grim ending for her.

The science kind of drove me nuts. Undiscovered habitable planet close to Jupiter. Aether is huge with so much empty internal space for just five people. The amount of time that seems to pass at the base before Augustine decides to go out and meanwhile the base (which had dozens of people requiring multiple large helicopters to take out) seems fully powered with no problems. In the end only two people, a couple, head back to K-23 and that does not seem viable to continue the human race.