The Space Between Us Reviews

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it has been a while since I have seen a movie which was so completely all over the place. Indeed, it was dealing with living on Mars, the first baby on Mars, growing up on Mars, discovering Earth for the first time around, kids growing up without parents, kids growing up in the foster care system, … Seriously, you could make a whole movie focusing only on each one of these ideas but it didn’t stop here, they also gave us a road-trip AND a teenager romance on top of that. So, there is no doubt that the damned thing was really scattered but some of these ideas were not bad. On top of that, Asa Butterfield was a perfect choice to play the main character and he made the most of this material. Concerning the rest of the cast (Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino, Britt Robertson), it’s rather hard to pick which one had the most thankless role. Coming back on the teenage romance, they made a cute couple, even if Robertson was actually 10 years older than her character, but it was quite a stretch that the only person he would be chatting with online would turn out to be the perfect girl of his dreams. If we could all be so lucky but I’m afraid that’s not how the internet actually works, even when you are living on Mars… Like I said before, there was so much going on in this movie, it is hardly surprising that almost nothing was properly developed. And I shouldn't forget the last minute twist about Gardner's father's identity which was also so lame. Anyway, to conclude, my rating was probably too generous here but I think the damned thing was still watchable if only because it was a decent reminder that we should cherish more our planet after all. 

Gardner Elliot, the first human born on Mars, travels to Earth for the first time and embarks on an adventure with Tulsa, a street-smart girl with whom he had been in contact.

Movies about Mars hardly have the best track record (in my opinion, there've been only two good ones to date: The Martian and the original Total Recall), so I was hoping this one would be an exception, but… alas, no. While still watchable, it is, first and foremost, a hackneyed teenage romance, and the story is thoroughly predictable. I even saw the twist ending coming from a mile away.

Good old Gary Oldman, God bless him, he's trying his best, but I always feel sorry for him when he gets landed with these roles that give him nothing to work with.

So yes, objectively this is a bad movie, but personally I can't muster that much hatred for it; I just think it's mediocre. It's corny, but harmless.

My rating: 55%