Written by Elliot Lines
The Midnight Sky, directed and starring George Clooney, take on the moments before an apocalyptic event and combines it with a journey through space. Much like Interstellar this journey consists of a dying world but hope out there with astronauts sent on a mission to find a habitable planet. There is an undoubtable feeling that this idea is all too familiar, based on the novel 'Good, Morning, Midnight' you'd hope this would serve up something different.
Looking at the two different stories told here as separate entities, you have two totally different mediums. Clooney plays the scientist 'Augustine', who choses to stay behind to continue with his research. Suddenly he gets lumbered with a child that has been left behind. The stakes get real when he realises that the returning ship from a "habitable" planet will be coming home to nothing, but he needs a more powerful satellite to contact them, causing a perilous journey through the artic. This journey feels real, it seems like there is genuine angst and determination to complete his mission, but this is where the film feels disconnected.
The constant jump from each story causes the suspense of the journey to dampen. The crew of the ship are unaware of the dangers, and we spend time just watching them go about their daily routine. It is inevitable that something will go wrong, when does it not in space, and it's ideas and events that we have witnessed in every space bound film out there.
That said, there is curiosity as to whether the crew would survive and if 'Augustine' was successful in his mission, but curiosity at most. There is no real connection with these characters, they could quite easily cut to the chase and reveal the result. It's the ending that attempts to tug on the heartstrings, with a reveal that is predictable from an earlier scene within the film, if only there were more to these characters, this moment may actually pay off.
Nothing can be taken away from the imagery witnessed throughout, especially across the Arctic and even more so on the planet of K23, a stunning picturesque new world that humans could potentially thrive on. Unfortunately this wasn't enough to pick up what seems like a disjoined venture, with one story seemingly added just to add some sentiment to the wider picture.
