A Space Odyssey that plays mind games.
“Slingshot” tells the story of three astronauts, who are on a mission to one of Saturn’s moons Titan to collect some methane, and the most challenging of the mission would be to slingshot around Jupiter. But their ship gets interfered by something that not even their technology can determine. In fact, the diagnostics thinks that nothing has damaged it, which of course comes to great concern.
The crew-consisting of the astronaut John (Casey Affleck), the aeronautics expert Nash (Tomer Capone), and their Captain Franks (Laurence Fishburne)-all go under a 90-day hibernation, and their pods give them warnings that the drugs they’re injected with can cause hallucinations. That’s no exception when their ship goes through something strange, and John begins seeing things, while Nash suggests they abort the mission.
The latest movie from director Mikael Hafstrom (“1408,” “The Rite”) presents this story in so many trippy ways, that even we, the audience, are always in question about which reality the main protagonist is in. And that happens to be John, who gets tired of the hibernations and the drugs that are poised to destroy his mind.
Franks believes that their mission is of upmost importance, and if they circle back and Mission Control finds nothing wrong with their ship-the Odyssey-1, well, it doesn’t look good for any of them.
Side effects of the drugs also regard to memories, which can be forgotten or returned, and a lot of it comes through John’s past with his girlfriend Zoe (Emily Beecham), who questions his decision of going into space for the mission. Not all these moments are as interesting as what goes down on the Odyssey-1, or what we think is going down, but she does appear on the ship, or he thinks she appears on the ship. Remember, it’s the drugs talking.
This month, we were given two entertaining space movies, whose thrills and character development merge quite well. There’s “Alien: Romulus,” which has left fans of the franchise entertained, especially by its throwback to the earlier “Alien” movies. And now, we have “Slingshot,” which may leave some audiences in confusion or disillusionment. Or they might be entertained. I can’t say for certain. I mean the case of whether movie goers will like a film as much as the critics do tends to flip back and forth. But in my opinion, it works as a late summer thriller.
Affleck convinces us of his character’s nature and disillusionment, and he strongly carries the film. And Fishburne makes an interesting antagonist, based on how he has the voice and charisma to play a captain trying to convince the main astronaut on what is real and what must be done.
It’s quite a coincidence that 2024 marks the 10th anniversary of Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar,” which was my favorite film of that year and one of the best of the 2010s. It told the story of astronauts-played by Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway-who must find a new solar system to save mankind and the puzzles within are ingenious and dazzling. And if you recall, Affleck played McConaughey’s now adult son back on Earth, as the dust storms continue to consume everything up.
“Slingshot” doesn’t exceed that underrated masterpiece, but it does exceed my expectations. I thought, given the month deteriorating the movie going experience, it would be crappy or mediocre, but it’s a lot more challenging than I expected. And now, I’m running of oxygen just writing this review. Time to go into hibernation. At least for 9 hours.
