Apparently, movies have yet to learn by now the dangers of sending but a few scarce humans–in this case, just one–beyond Earth’s reaches and into the vastness of space to save humanity from some planet-threatening problem. Of course, this risk of the ‘what can go wrong does go wrong’ variety, drives a time-tested plot of which audiences are readily entertained; just look at recent cinema, “The Martian,” “Interstellar,” and “Gravity” for proof.
The real danger that movies should be wary of is building a story around this premise alone, and without adding anything new to the equation. The result, which the latest solo-in-space-survival flick “Approaching the Unknown” shows, is that audiences will fail to care if that character is fated to drift further and aimlessly out of orbit and into the forgotten beyond. While there might be enough familiar elements to satisfy those who are looking for something akin to background-watching, “Approaching the Unknown” doesn’t have enough original elements to generate the inertia of interest necessary to captivate viewers in its own right.
The astronaut whose fate we are tied to is William D. Stanaforth (Mark Strong), on a one-way, sacrificial trip to Mars to colonize the planet for the rest of humanity–if he doesn’t perish before arriving. A former military man with instinctual intelligence and steely conviction, Stanaforth is also loaded with lazily tacked-on self-affirmations (“I’m not going to Mars to die; I’m going there to live.”), making him a comparable but cliche fixture to spend a full ninety minutes with.
Strong, last seen in this year’s underperforming Sacha Baron Cohen spy-spoof “The Brothers Grimsby,” lends his action-hero looks and serious resolve to playing Stanaforth and it’s to the actor’s strengths that he brings the character to life. While he seems like the perfect person to have in a real-life situation–brilliant enough to discover a process to create water from dirt and fearless enough to disobey orders to manually fix his ship in a bind from Earth-residing NASA engineer and old pal Louis ‘Skinny’ Skinner (Luke Wilson), his cold exterior doesn’t lend itself to drawing the audience in, and proves the whole thing could use a little more humor and heart.
You can tell before it’s over that “Approaching the Unknown” is a movie that didn’t spend its efforts trying to differentiate itself from other sci-fi movies as it does attempting to cash in on their successes. Sure, a few flashback scenes of Stanaforth convey his detachment from non-existent family and friends back home, but there’s nothing beyond his person that amounts to be developed. You’re probably already braced for when the solitarily-confined character loses his grip on reality, talking to himself and hallucinating characters from his emotional past. But all of this within the first twenty minutes? It fast-tracks all of what the movie has to offer in the blast-off stage alone.
While “The Martian,” “Interstellar,” and “Gravity,” show that battling elements and confronting the certainty of death can do more than simply entertain audiences (each being commercially and critically received and Awards-positioned), Strong’s strengths aren’t in the department of amiability and warmth, unlike Matt Damon in “Martian,” or Matthew McConaughey in “Interstellar (or even Tom Hanks in “Apollo 13”), actors whose ingenuity comes second to their naturally likable selves. It seems the bigger irony that first-time writer/director Mark Elijah Rosenberg doesn’t get right in his directorial debut is that the greater the dazzling technology, the greater a natural human presence must be there for us to relate to. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the search team will be getting called for this failed mission.
“Approaching the Unknown” is rated R for language. Now playing in select theaters and On Demand.
