Review of The Midnight Sky (2020) by Periurban — 29 Dec 2020

George Clooney really should avoid all involvement in science fiction movies. He seems to have very little idea of the purpose of science fiction, and even less about how it should be executed. I say this as a self declared fan of Clooney’s output.

The underlying premise of this film doesn’t work. A space ship which travels within the solar system would never be so far out of range that it would lose contact with Earth. So, the fact of the global catastrophe would never come as a surprise to the astronauts.

There is no possibility of there being an “undiscovered” moon around Jupiter, let alone one that harbours life.

There is no need for a stronger antenna to communicate with the ship, so no need to go trudging across the wasteland.

The twin plot devices where the abandoned girl turns out to be an hallucination and the girl on the spaceship turns out to be Clooney’s daughter were so laughably hackneyed that they barely caused a raised eyebrow, and they did nothing to advance the emotional content of the film.

All of this daftness could have been fixed by just a little forethought - if the planet was light years away that would have provided a good reason for the lack of communication, and it is entirely feasible that people might visit an extra-solar planet previously discovered by an ageing scientist now slowly dying in an arctic laboratory.

If Clooney’s scientist had spent years awaiting the return of the Aether then his need to contact the Aether would be well motivated, and an inconvenient storm might damage the antenna at Clooney’s base, making his journey necessary. If the intention was that the reason Clooney was so obsessed with the Aether was that he knew his daughter was on board, then that one didn’t hit home in the moment, and is only something that occurred to me when writing this review, searching for reasons why Clooney would do any of the things he does.

Special criticism must be levelled at the music. The crew of the Aether discover the fate of Earth to the poignant tones of an abandoned love story. The mystery of deep space is conveyed by unnecessarily fussy and shifting melodies and harmonies. At times the music cues sound perfunctory, almost as if they were not written for the piece, and the fact that Clooney (as director) signs off on the music does lead one to question his judgement.

George Clooney has made many great films, and I have those ones on my shelf and in my heart. But this one will not be similarly treasured.