Film of the week
TheMidnightSky(Cert12,122mins,SciFi/Drama/Action/Romance) Starring:GeorgeClooney,FelicityJones,David Oyelowo,KyleChandler,DemianBichir,TiffanyBoone, CaoilinnSpringall.
In February 2049, three weeks after a global catastrophe known as “the event”, scientist Augustine Lofthouse (George Clooney) lives out his final days alone at the Barbeau Observatory in the Arctic Circle, one of the few places yet to be choked by dangerously high levels of radiation.
He performs blood transfusions to counter the cancer ravaging his body and awaits the inevitable, until he stumbles upon a young girl named Iris (Caoilinn Springall) left behind in the evacuation.
They form an unlikely double act as Augustine prepares to contact returning spacecraft Aether under the control of Commander Tom Adewole (David Oyelowo). The crew is unaware of the devastation and Augustine needs to warn Tom and his team – Maya (Tiffany Boone), Mitchell (Kyle Chandler), Sanchez (Demian Bichir) and Sully (Felicity Jones) – that life on Earth will soon be extinct.
Adapted by screenwriter Mark L Smith from LilyBrooks Dalton’s novel, TheMidnightSky is a ponderous sci-fi drama that orbits in the same galaxy as The
Martian and Gravity. With the exception of a spacewalk sequence, which is genuinely thrilling and cranks up tension with clinical precision, Clooney’s return to the director’s chair after a three-year hiatus wheezes and puffs almost as much as his character.
Logic deserts the script at critical junctures – ailing Augustine can swim effortlessly in sub-zero water without any ill effects – but Clooney and luminous co-star Springall bravely soldier on.
A revelation withheld until the picture’s dying breath is heavily foreshadowed while Alexandre Desplat’s orchestral score slingshots from heart-rending to heavyhanded. JiuJitsu(Cert15,102mins,SignatureEntertainment, Action/Sci-Fi/Thriller/Romance AS A comet snakes across the sky over Burma, the concussed body of Jake Barnes (Alain Moussi) is scooped from the ocean and delivered into the care of American soldiers commanded by Captain Sand (Rick Yune). Jake claims to have lost his memory and when intelligence officer Myra (Marie Avgeropoulos) injects truth serum, the secrets of his past are shrouded in fog. Soon after, a robed figure named Keung (Tony Jaa) forcibly infiltrates the American stronghold and orders Jake to follow him. It transpires that the amnesiac is a skilled Jiu Jitsu fighter, who has been chosen to face an extraterrestrial predator named Brax (Ryan Tarran) as part of a ceremonial hunt that takes place on Earth every six years. Aided by fellow “ninja alien killers” Harrigan (Frank Grillo), Forbes (Marrese Crump) and Carmen (JuJu Chan), Jake prepares for close combat to the death. Bookmarked into chapters by animated comic strip panels, JiuJitsu is a gung-ho retread of Predator, which delivers far less of the titular martial arts than you might sensibly expect. Digital effects are unconvincing and occasionally laughable while choice lines of perfunctory dialogue, cowritten by Logothetis and James McGrath, feed best into Nicolas Cage’s typically manic supporting performance as a shaggy-haired mentor with a personal stake in Jake’s victory.