The Astronaut

Nothing about this movie makes any sense to me. It looks fantastic, if I had this on in the background with the sound down, I would guess it was fair to good film, but turn the sound on and start paying attention and forget it. The story, the characters, the bombastic sound all make this feel like a fever dream miss mash of derivative scenes from other sci fi films to the point where I kinda guessed what to expect by the end, I wasn't quite right but pretty close.

There is little logic on display and every character comes across as selfish and unlikable so it's hard to care less what happens to any of them, except the cute little girl but that's a kind of a given Kids are cute through no fault of their own. I realise it is incredibly difficult to make a movie never mind a good one but I still don't understand how such weak logic and characters can muster so much budget, support and quality crew.

I understand what the filmmaker is trying to do. There are two problems. The third act twist comes a bit out of nowhere and it drags some baggage with it that makes following the story very jarring. The other problem is that there aren't any breadcrumbs to help the twist snap into place. It really ends up feeling like no thought was put into the whole story. The more you think about it the less sense it makes. That is the problem with the movie. There is a right way and a wrong way to tell this story. It definitely felt like they chose the wrong way.

Edit: If anyone is getting paid, it's people giving this a rating over 5/10 stars and down voting critical reviews. My review is honest and somehow the next day my review has multiple down votes. I watch 1000s of movies. I rated this fairly. There's no way out of all movies ever made, this is above a 5/10. I'm being generous. Also, look at the count. How many people have reviewed this. That says more than the actual reviews. NOBODY is watching it or even cares to review it.

I just read another review, sorry but nobody is paying people to give this movie a bad review.

The actors did a great job.

I was actually into the movie until the final act. The other reviewers are spot on. Not sure what the writers were thinking. Feels like they ran out of time or just didn't care about the end.

The CGI looks like a low budget film from 25 years ago. It would've been better if they left out the majority of it.

Everything was great until the final act.

The movie started with great suspense and there are many thrilling part (not that much horror) but as the movie reaches the climax everything disappeared. U wont be able to understand why it happened and why the movie ended like that! Poor storytelling. And also bad screenplay. Boring in short......

I admire the makers' commitment to the film's sound and production design. That made me buy into the first two acts, especially the tense middle section. It, in fact, made me contemplate a different version of Cloverfield, but some aspects were still amiss. However, the final act is a total bummer. Yes, the twist might be unexpected, and on paper, it sounds like a really interesting idea. Yet what we see unfold on screen is surely lacklustre.

The film also shows a NASA astronaut (who has just returned from an expedition in space) looking up conspiracy theory websites about UFOs (..are you being serious right now?). It's almost as if a filmmaker is obsessively using Reddit to improve their filmmaking. From that moment on, the storytelling lost its grip on me. Until then, I was moderately enjoying it as a chamber horror flick with psychological thriller undertones. Kate Mara is always a dependable performer, and she doesn't disappoint.