Watching movies about a dystopian future in a post-apocalyptic world hit home different than ever before simply because our current situation seems to be getting more unpredictable by the moment. The Midnight Sky is directed by George Clooney and is based on the novel Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton. This film is set in 2049 where Earth’s air has now become contaminated due to an unspecified global catastrophe. Dr. Lofthouse (George Clooney), a scientist suffering from a terminal illness has chosen not to evacuate his base in the artic but spend his last days at the observatory. He soon realizes that only one spacecraft ‘Æther’ is still active and currently returning to Earth after having discovered a habitable moon, K-23. However, they are unaware of the conditions on Earth and Lofthouse must now push his physical limitation in order to warn them.
Hope or Doom?
This film focuses more on desolation rather than hope and does a good job in most places with that thought. The fact that the Earth’s population is mostly wiped out and all who remain is a scientist who is terminally ill, a strange girl who Lofthouse finds hiding in one part of the observatory, and 5 astronauts up in a spacecraft is a pretty grim reality. As the film progresses and you can’t help but hope there would be more substance to the story than there is. A few streaks of hope shine here and there in the plot but don’t lead to anywhere fruitful.
Clooney is pretty damn good
While the movie may not have hit the mark in a lot of areas, one place where it hits the bull’s eye is with Clooney’s acting. The narrative has taken time to add layers to Clooney’s personality making him the most well-developed character in the film. Clooney also does a brilliant job as far as his acting is concerned and plays the role of a dying scientist whose routine of waking up, drinking, getting drunk, and giving himself some dialysis gets disrupted when he has to step out into the biting cold to travel to another base where the antenna signal is stronger in order to communicate with the spaceship Æther.
Extravagant but empty!
The Midnight Sky is absolutely gorgeous visually. Right from the inside of the intriguing space station to the view in outer space to the biting cold down in the artic, the landscapes are beautiful and the camera is intentional about highlighting the visual elements. Since the visuals are so grand the plot of the film often gets lost or overpowered by various extravagant sets. Most of the film makes you feel like you are drifting in space as the pace of the film is slow and very artistic.
WATCH OR NOT:
If you love space movies, sci-fi films, or George Clooney then certainly give The Midnight Sky a watch.
