New Thing #16: I.S.S.

Sometimes a great premise can be too much of a burden for a film to carry. That is the case with “I.S.S.” The premise is ripe with opportunity - “Tensions flare aboard the International Space Station when a worldwide conflict breaks out on Earth.” Maybe it’s because I love the premise or because my friend has been working on writing a limited series with the same idea but, even after the middling reviews, I went in with hopes of something interesting and, sadly, the film didn’t come remotely close to living up to the promise I saw in the premise.

My biggest disappointment in the film is the lack of mystery. I believe a film like this should live in the gray area. Questioning allegiances. Wondering what people have up their sleeves. Trying to figure out who is playing whom. But in this film, almost every line is drawn and drawn immediately. The audience rarely discovers things when the characters do; it’s almost never a question of “What’s going to happen?!” as much as “Will the thing that seems to be happening actually happen?” You pretty much know what everyone’s going to do, so much of the film is simply waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is especially true at the end, except the “Will it happen?” devolves into “Why would anybody act like this?”

Technically, it’s a well-made, relatively low-budget film but it feels like the filmmakers should have spent more time on the script and less time on the FX. The amount of time and money spent on a fairly obvious and unimpressive metaphor involving CG lab rats feels like the first thing that most low-budget script advisors would nix. There’s also a storyline about the space station potentially falling out of orbit that added absolutely nothing to the proceedings.

Going in, I’d already read some reviews that knocked the character development but I have to say, it was worse than expected. Obviously, it’s hard to do much in a film that’s barely over 90 minutes but, again, the backstory was mostly there to draw the lines on how each person was going to act as opposed to building up any mystery as to what will happen when the shit goes down. You know where everyone’s allegiance lies from the jump and, well, yep. That’s it.

The actors do a good job with the material and keep the film afloat, and the 90-minute runtime keeps it from ever getting boring but it ultimately felt like a cliff notes version of a better story. It’s by no means a bad movie and if you go in expecting nothing, you may be pleasantly surprised but ultimately, like it or not, I doubt you’ll remember it this time next year.