Slingshot comes from the mind of Nathan Parker, the son of famed filmmaker Alan Parker, whose first credited movie Moon was an impressive science-fiction movie in which Sam Rockwell plays a maintenance man at automated mining facility on the moon who discovers someone who seems to be a more able version of himself. It just so happens they’re both clones more or less forced to work in isolation with a genetic defect that makes their physical and mental health deteriorate and then they’re replaced by another clone.
Moon had a haunting somber tone to it helped by Rockwell’s performance. Slingshot is an attempt duplicate the critical acclaim of Moon. Unfortunately, it comes a little late to the party as it’s another sci-fi movie that tries to be “more psychological” than just a generic space cowboy movie. The blue-print of the movie is obviously Solaris, the Russia 1972 version, and probably the 2002 version directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney. But I imagine the casting of Laurence Fishburne as Franks, the captain of a three-man crew, is supposed to be a nod to Fishburne’s role in the cult classic sci-fi horror movie Event Horizon. He even blurts out a line that is similar to one heard in the 1990 movie Cadence in which he co-starred with Charlie Sheen and Martin Sheen.
Both Event Horizon and this one have the same elements as the protagonist John (Casey Affleck) begins to suspect if the events he’s witnessing are real or a side effect of the hibernation and medication he has endured. He’s on a spacecraft, Odyssey 1, on its way to explore Saturn’s moon Titan. There’s also flashbacks to when John was training as a candidate for the mission and he meets Zoe Morgan (Emily Beecham), who was one of the designers involved in the program. You know it’s a flashback because John has a moustache and it’s obviously set on Earth with multiple extras and bit players.
You know a movie is bad when it begins with an unintentional meme of John and Zoe in bed and he’s looking at her as she smiles and rolls around in the bed. But I’m going to save you the time. She’s not dead. That’s because Solaris and Event Horizon has done the same damn thing. It just so happens in an undetermined time frame that John and Zoe met, fell in love, began a relationship, and broke up when it was announced John was going to go on the mission, because Zoe didn’t want him to go.
On Odyssey 1, John worries if there are going to be some problems as it seems an accident might have compromised the hull. Franks wants to go along with the mission while the third crew member, Nash (Tomer Capone), doesn’t and it appears he slowly becomes unhinged. How original!
Slingshot is a collection of cliched tropes that have permeated every science-fiction movie that’s set in space. There’s always something going wrong with the spaceship they’re in. There’s always a character who slowly becomes unhinged and we wonder how long it’s going to take for him to screw up royally. There’s always a leader who wants to continue with the mission but may have some other motive. And there’s always the question of what we’re seeing is really happening or is the protagonist hallucinating.
That’s what happened in Spaceman with Adam Sandler and The Midnight Sky with Clooney even though the latter movie dealt with someone at an arctic outpost in the future. But I keep wondering why filmmakers think they are being original just by churning out the same old stuff with these movies. Not every sci-fi space movie has to be Star Trek or Star Wars. Nor do they have to be Interstellar or 2001: A Space Odyssey.
However, I would like to watch a movie that is great to watch. This isn’t one of them. Affleck meanders through his role. He looked more animated and alive covered in a bedsheet in A Ghost Story. Fishburne seems to be playing a variation of his Event Horizon role. And the relationship between Affleck and Beecham is so unrealistic, they seem to be saying their lines as it’s the first read-through.
Next to month of January, the Labor Day Weekend is considered a dumping ground for movies that have been released with the only intention to fulfill a contractual obligation. Bleeker Street acquired the rights in February of 2024 and kept it on the shelf for six months before releasing during this time where it was only on 845 theaters and made the most over the four-day weekend at $589,000. The final tally was over $818,000.
Moon didn’t make a lot of money either but at least it managed to break even with great reviews. And Slingshot won’t be remember as Moon.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 