deltaforce7 Review of Approaching the Unknown

Approaching the Unknown (2016)

Pathetic attempt at a psychological drama

[1/10 · 6 June 2016]

I kind of think that a movie director has to make up his mind about a movie first making sure that at least he clearly knows what it is going to be about. This movie seems like an attempt at a psychological drama of loneliness and failure. Why did they even bother with the space theme? It could've been filmed entirely in a couple of studio apartments somewhere. The movie fails at many points. KEEP IN MIND that people ALREADY have real-life experience of spending up to 437.7 (!!!)days in space in ZERO gravity (Valeri Polyakov, Russia, Soyuz TM-18). Here are a few of the most obvious failures: 1) Solitary space travel? Why? To make more room for this "psychological" drama? 2) No teamwork, failure to obey the chain of command. This is no way to fly into space. 3) Building an entire super-expensive interplanetary mission around a poorly tested water-making machine? Plus, if EVERYTHING depends upon such a machine, why not carry at least one more to be safe? 4) What kind of a ship comes complete with a whole SHOWER, but has no significant reserve of water for drinking? 5) Who accelerates a space ship, then stops it for some "shopping" for extra "supplies" (while we don't even get to see them or know what they are needed for), and then accelerates it AGAIN? What? "The fuel is no problem, 'cause we got plenty of it?" 6) If a pilot of the space ship is such an expert on the ship itself, then how come that he screws everything up so constantly? 7) They couldn't store enough water on the ship, but instead they filled it with dirt for this unreliable "reactor" to be extracting water from this dirt? WHY? At first, I though they wanted to run tests on the water reactor using some samples of soil, but who could imagine that they were going to rely upon it during the entire 270 days of flight? 8) First there are complaints about excessive water condensation, but the next moment there are complaints about aridity and dry air. It could not be both at the same time. 9) The pilot of the space ship takes off from Earth sitting in a vertical position instead of lying down. Weird. Also, should he be able to see anything during takeoff through a "shroud" that protects his module? The "shroud" is ejected when a space ship reaches space. Then they can look through windows. 10) What kind of a water supply system could be built in such way that some electrical malfunction would contaminate water with battery chemicals? I see it this way: this movie was made by some wannabe "psychologists" who wanted to make a drama, who lacked technical background, so the movie turned out as a display of their own phobias, personal weaknesses, suicidal tendencies, and fears of failure. Well, they manage to achieve a full-scale failure with this movie! If you are a sci-fi fan like myself, then watch something else.