I was initially very negative about the film. First, reasonable viewers have long been waiting for nothing from Russian cinema, especially fiction. If anyone takes it, it is from the position of “looking at the circus of freaks” in order to get a sophisticated evil pleasure from watching ours break the next bottom. Secondly, I just hate Bondarchuk and Akinshina, and this movie revolves around them. The movie had no chance in my eyes. But a miracle happened – the actors coped and did not annoy, and overall the film was not as shoddy as you might expect. Still, in recent years, in an effort to catch up and overtake America, our filmmakers began to get something done – first they learned to portray action, then tightened the graphics and finally reached competent work with the very “atmosphere” that is difficult to put into words, but which so clearly distinguishes a real film from amateur crafts at a psycho-emotional level. Sputnik was not ashamed to watch. He's a lot better than Black Lightning, Defenders, Attraction. Just can't compare.
What you like. Excellent work with light, camera, sound. It looks juicy, voluminous, there are no complaints at all, beautifully removed. I liked the deconstruction of some scenes, for example, here you show a person under hypnosis and immediately it turns out that nonsense is all and relax, the viewer, there is no hypnosis. At that point you realize, "Wow, they didn't use cliches, they cleverly destroyed the stage and built a human exposure on it." Another example: at the beginning it says that the alien is deaf, but then in the plot he reacts to the sound, and if it was left, it would be a huge plot hole, which in American cinema is full. But the authors gave one of the characters a comment that the creature is evolving and can now hear. This is a simple and obvious move that closes the holes and resolves fan disputes. Why is it so rarely used?
That's the little stuff.
But the downsides.
- In dialogue, the characters sometimes speak outright nonsense. The phrase “I am this creature, only without moral principles” is utter nonsense. I understand what they were trying to say, but this sentence was written by a completely ignorant idiot, unable to connect two words.
- The script is weak, it has obvious self-contradictions. As we learn in the end, the general did not intend to treat the astronaut, he wanted to build a weapon. But in that case, why would he prescribe such a special doctor who fights heroically for each patient?
- Why did the astronaut make his ridiculous escape in the middle? They did not run from the base, but just to the neighboring laboratory, to see the results and chat. Was it worth it?
The rival doctor hated the heroine, but suddenly changed his mind and shone to her - why?
The cosmonaut is kept at night in a cell behind an armored glass, although in fact in his personal room, although in fact they are taken away on a cart to feed the allyen by convicts. What does that mean?
- Why was the character Akinshina shown a scene feeding prisoners? Especially twice. It had consequences, yes, but the problem was there was no cause. They didn't want to show it to her at first, and they changed their minds about why.
- She wants to take a cosmonaut with an alien to Moscow, where they are qualified to share – and she does not understand that she is going to bring into the heart of the country a monster that feeds on fear and kills people at once? We are talking about a doctor who is behind people. I don't.
But the main disadvantage is the other: the plot has no purpose, the story is not directed to some clear result, morality, the characters have no arches. Simply put, in history it is impossible to distinguish what it is about. There is a moment when an astronaut begins to say things that should not be his own — he wants to survive at any cost, sacrificing everyone around him. And then the viewer thinks: "What if this is said by the alien himself, who has already completely subdued the mind of a person with whom the doctor has already fallen in love and now does not assess the situation?" That would be an interesting move. But then it turns out that no, the astronaut said it himself. So maybe this is a movie about moral decline in an extreme situation? But no, morality doesn't come out. Then he wants to run away, then he doesn’t want to, and now he has to be motivated to carry out the plan he insisted on a day or two ago. They get rid of monsters and cooperate. Characters are heroes, they don’t care about everyone. In one scene, Akinshina feels sorry for maniacs, because they are also people, or else she spends conscripts who are not guilty of anything.
In the end, I don’t know what this piece is about.
The plot of "a parasite homicidal doctor and outsmarted people" could be understood, surprised, extract morality from him.
The plot of "a monster and an evil general killed a lot of people" would be simple, but it still works for its genre.
The plot of “bad is not a monster, but bad us” is beaten and such films have already been, “Steel giant” for example, but it could shoot again.
But instead, we get the story "the astronaut doesn't know what he wants" and it leads nowhere. At all. This story is unspeakable because it lacks an ideological core. A captive cosmonaut lies to all around and plots betrayal of the homeland, and respects his parasite, a bad general risks his head to save his life, and a good doctor is ready to risk humanity so that such a man gets the opportunity to take his son from an orphanage. That's crazy. In all this we can see our truly Russian spirit throwing in all directions - readiness to act simultaneously and so, and vice versa, to have time everywhere, to suffer everything, to make friends with everyone and quarrel. Chasing all the rabbits. The film couldn't make a choice about what it was about.
But even with all this, I wouldn’t be prepared to say that the film is really bad, especially for domestic cinema. If only because it is interesting to watch, it is captivating, it is not boring, it is beautifully staged. There are a lot of holes in Western movies, too, but we are often willing to forgive them simply because we have fun, we like to follow events, the picture, the characters. And I would accept this film even with its crumpled content, if not for one thing.
There is one detail that has clearly drawn a line for me. Here in the plot dies a whole bunch of soldiers who just did their duty and did nothing. They die fighting a dangerous alien monster, not as heroes, but as pawns who are not even invited to sympathize with. And this massacre was provoked by the main characters, without feeling any pangs of conscience. You couldn't do that.