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

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.