I'd christen her Victory, she'd make it

[sovay]

I was having an appalling night and I am still not doing so hot, but I improved it significantly by watching Space Sweepers (승리호, 2021). I can't remember the last film I saw that remembered about Lagrange points. Or space elevators. For the grounding of old-school science fiction with twenty-first century climate justice, a complete absence of romance, and a cast who are the ever-winning combination of fantastically badass and complete bloody disaster, I will give it a lot of latitude for nanobots doing whatever the plot needs them to. Points also for a future of universal translators in which people both speak their own languages and code-switch as needed. I think it would pair very well with Pacific Rim (2013), which also leans enthusiastically into every trope of its genre except when it doesn't feel like it. I wish I'd been able to see it on a big screen at the 'Thon.

Comments

[lauradi7dw]

We liked it a lot. I wouldn't have thought of having it with Pacific Rim, but that's interesting.

[sovay]

We liked it a lot.

Cool!

I wouldn't have thought of having it with Pacific Rim, but that's interesting.

They have similar emotional and worldbuilding feels to me, especially the attention to material culture (spatch was thrilled to spot a "Cash for Your Warhol" in the clutter of advertisements and graffiti aboard one station) and the way that every now and then an entire movie's worth of someone's backstory flies by in literally two sentences and a line of text.

[kate_nepveu]

Yay! Glad you liked.

[sovay]

Yay! Glad you liked.

Thank you! And now I have finally seen a movie that came out this year, too.

[selkie]

I’m glad you had a film to bolster you! Apologies if we snurched the last of your energy.

In this morning’s news, child has decided to try for the Olympics in archery and physically contorted in borrowed agony when someone shot a 2 in the Mexico-Turkey match, which you’d have been awake to see live.

[sovay]

I’m glad you had a film to bolster you! Apologies if we snurched the last of your energy.

Thank you! I don't think it's your fault. I would like not to have gotten sick on top of being sick (and for anyone reading this comment who wants to know, I tested negative for COVID-19 at the beginning of the week).

In this morning’s news, child has decided to try for the Olympics in archery and physically contorted in borrowed agony when someone shot a 2 in the Mexico-Turkey match, which you’d have been awake to see live.

I thoroughly support this goal of your child's. I wish I'd known there was archery on at aaagh o'clock a.m.!

[troisoiseaux]

I think it would pair very well with Pacific Rim (2013)

Okay, SOLD. Where is it available to watch?

[sovay]

Where is it available to watch?

Netflix! Thanks to pandemic. I imagine I would have seen it a couple of times in theaters otherwise.

[troisoiseaux]

...ARGH. I literally just cancelled my subscription!

[sovay]

I literally just cancelled my subscription!

I'm sorry!

[handful_ofdust]

I hoped you'd see that! So much to love about that whole scenario, but yes, the crew in particular.

[sovay]

I hoped you'd see that! So much to love about that whole scenario, but yes, the crew in particular.

I heard about it first from skygiants, then my father showed me the first fifteen-ish minutes a few nights ago, and then I very definitely wanted to see the rest. We had just gotten to the point in the poker game where everyone except the actual former career criminal was flagrantly cheating. I love how much the crew of the Victory lean into different character tropes that I like, so that ordinarily one or two of them might have been my favorites in a different movie, and here I just love everyone in this perpetually broke and chaotic space-junk-whaler party.

[radiantfracture]

I do love a ragtag band of misfits.

[sovay]

I do love a ragtag band of misfits.

They are exceptionally good at both of those adjectives!

*

[minoanmiss]

Ooh! *makes a note*

Re: *

[sovay]

*makes a note*

It's just really delightful—an intelligent blockbuster, which are vanishingly rare, and blue-collar space opera, ditto; in fact a whole lot of touches about the world and the characters are the sort of thing I see much more often in written fiction than on film; and it just really works. I have a couple of minor complaints about aspects name-checked and left unexplored, but for all I know they were casualties of avoiding a three-hour film. Space Sweepers as it stands runs a little over two hours and never feels like it. It's remarkably economical for the lot that happens in it.

[dramaticirony]

Glad you enjoyed it! This was a welcome reminder of a film I've been meaning to see.

[sovay]

This was a welcome reminder of a film I've been meaning to see.

I have vague and probably delusional hopes of writing it up properly, but in the meantime I look forward to hearing what you think!

[cyphomandra]

Ooh, I did not realise this was on Netflix!! I have a nostalgic fondness for Lagrange points largely due to too much Gundam Wing, and I also loved the manga series Planetes, which sounds not dissimilar. Will def watch.

[sovay]

Will def watch.

Enjoy!

(I didn't know Gundam Wing had Lagrange points. I approve.)

[genarti]

(I didn't know Gundam Wing had Lagrange points. I approve.)

It does! Five space colonies, one at each Lagrange point. I tend to think that sci fi movies and shows and anime put tons of stuff at Lagrange points, but when I stop to think about that it's really just that I assume Gundam Wing did it because it was a trope, which is not necessarily the case. Anyway, I agree with cyphomandra about the nostalgic fondness. (I haven't watched or read Planetes, but I keep meaning to, because I've heard good things.)

[sovay]

I tend to think that sci fi movies and shows and anime put tons of stuff at Lagrange points, but when I stop to think about that it's really just that I assume Gundam Wing did it because it was a trope, which is not necessarily the case.

I associate them primarily with the habitable gas torus of Larry Niven's The Integral Trees (1984) and The Smoke Ring (1987), which I adored in seventh grade, also the covers by Michael Whelan.

I hadn't heard of Planetes at all, but when I sketched the setting of Space Sweepers to rushthatspeaks, he mentioned it at once.

[skygiants]

I'm so glad you finally saw it (and that you liked it)!! For a good long while Space Sweepers was the only film I had seen in 2021 but I had seen it twice and that seemed like an okay tradeoff. I love this whole motley crew of complete bloody disasters!

[sovay]

I love this whole motley crew of complete bloody disasters!

As noted above, it was like someone scooped a handful out of my normal range of favorite characters and then concentrated them in the same space, improvising childcare and occasionally tasing themselves!

[genarti]

I'm so happy you saw Space Sweepers and that you enjoyed it! I really loved it, start to finish, including all the casual multilingualism and a lot of the casual details that made it feel so lived-in -- the scuffs and duct tape and lived-in costumes and everything.

[sovay]

I really loved it, start to finish, including all the casual multilingualism and a lot of the casual details that made it feel so lived-in -- the scuffs and duct tape and lived-in costumes and everything.

Lived-in futures really seem to be making a comeback and I for one appreciate it, since I don't see what else you can do with them.

[asakiyume]

I can remember practically nothing about the film, but I do recall that I liked the multilingualism of it a whole lot!

[larryhammer]

leans enthusiastically into every trope of its genre except when it doesn't feel like it

That is an excellent encapsulation of Pacific Rim.

[sovay]

That is an excellent encapsulation of Pacific Rim.

Thank you! I loved that movie.

[larryhammer]

I spent the first ten minutes on the edge of my seat, worried that it wasn’t going to commit to its ostensible genre, then finally sank back cackling, “It’s an honest to goodness live-action mecha anime! It really is!” And basically spent the rest of the movie cackling and squeeing.