‘Midnight Sky’ blew chance at satisfying sci-fi thrills
An unfortunate misfire, George Clooney’s “The Midnight Sky” is a post-apocalyptic science-fiction film with a secret or two, both of which are rather obvious and unwarranted, an overlong running time and derivative action and plot. The film is based on the 2016 novel “Good Morning, Midnight” by University of Massachusetts graduate Lily Brooks-Dalton.
In scenes set in 2049 that recycle bits of “The Martian” and “Gravity,” astronauts aboard the Aether race to return to Earth after a long voyage to find a habitable planet named K23. The astronauts are Commander Tom Adewole (David Oyelowo), pregnant communications officer Sully Rembshire (Felicity Jones), young newbie Maya Peters (Tiffany Boone, “Hunters”) and veteran pilot/navigators Tom Mitchell (Kyle Chandler) and Sanchez (Demian Bichir).
Meanwhile, back on Earth something terrible has happened to the air and presumably billions have died. At the Barbeau Observatory in the Arctic, a lone, voluminously bearded scientist (Clooney), Dr. Augustine Lofthouse, has stayed behind after all others were evacuated (to where?). He tries to communicate with the Aether, but his signal is not strong enough. He coughs and has a terminal illness requiring him to give himself transfusions. He finds a little girl (Caoilinn Springall) stowed away with him. She does not speak, but draws an iris to let him know what her name is. The dying man and the girl named Iris bond.
He decides against all logic, which is in short supply here, to travel many miles on a snowmobile with a child across forbidding, windswept, icy terrain to get to a weather station with a stronger antenna. Meanwhile, back on the Aether, Maya and Tom find comfort spending time with virtual friends and relatives. Then, the spacecraft is hit by icy debris, damaging several systems.
Commander Tom, Sully and Maya must go outside to try to repair the damage. If three go out, how many will come back? I knew something bad was going to happen when they cued up “Sweet Caroline” of all things on the ship’s jukebox.
The adaptation by Mark L. Smith (“The Revenant”) features frustrating lapses in credibility. Iris travels through the North Pole and gets chapped lips. That clip from Stanley Kramer’s haunting, post-apocalyptic effort “On the Beach” (1959) is also a tip of the hat to “Midnight Sky” actor Ethan Peck, Gregory’s grandson.
“The Midnight Sky” is first-rate in every way regarding its physical production, including a moody score by Alexandre Desplat. But the story is problematic. Unlike the film adaptations of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” and P.D. James’ “Children of Men,” “The Midnight Sky” has a big soft center, where a hard and cold reality should be. Of Clooney’s several visits to sci-fi land, including the regrettable “Tomorrowland” (2015), I’d say “Gravity” (2013) remains the keeper by a long shot.