IO

(spoiler free)

Netflix are, it feels, constantly pumping out films and what with the seemingly endless scroll it can be hard to keep up with all the features they’re hurling to their streaming site so is ‘IO’ worthwhile stop-off point or should you just keep on searching?

In the future, planet Earth has become mostly uninhabitable due to a toxic atmosphere taking dominance. The majority of humans have up and left to a station on Jupiter’s moon, IO. Sam (Margaret Qualley) is studying samples of life left behind in the hope of proving that Earth can be habitable once again. One day, Micah (Anthony Mackie) arrives and is determined to leave for IO on the last space shuttle but will Sam join him?

This film does have some strikingly gorgeous scenery captured by André Chemetoff and enhanced by some CG visuals, it’s a Netflix Original which does make this intoxicated Earth look eerily beautiful, nicely mirroring Sam’s belief of her home world being worth saving, a place to admire, adore and appreciate even through all the smog and danger.

Director Jonathan Helpert approaches the film in a softly softly manner. In the first half this tactic pays off, it helps set up the dystopian landscape and provides a haunting sci-fi story to launch from but as we drift into the second act, the mood and pace begin to feel painfully slow. It also doesn’t help that the story hits some overused cornerstones from within the science fiction genre. The second half of this movie could have been way more dramatic but instead it is devoid of tension, connection, strain or spark.

It really doesn’t help that the ending we reach is wholly uninspired and extremely flat, it feels like a boring whimper to climax on. There’s just something predictable and lame about most of this film. It would have been much better had something attacked the senses but the film never reaches a point of great suspense and instead coasts along on a line with no rise and falls, just floating a straight path of dull unoriginal moments.

The first twenty five minutes or so are the strongest because it follows just the one figure, this solo heavy opening works and a lot of that is down to the quality of Qualley’s performance. She demonstrates emotion, a scientific strength and a comfortable take in her routine which fleshes out her muted journey through discovery, grief and what she’s come to learn from her father and the world. Mackie arrives like a futuristic Phileas Fogg and is strangely lacking in dramatic engagement. He growls and sort of bursts with anger at points but it looks like he’s bored with the film he’s in. The two of them together also share no impacting conflict or chemistry which doesn’t help the film.

The independence of Sam, her inner plight and the toxic world in the beginning are good parts but this is a Netflix film that is not worth the time, it’s a movie which feels like its duration is as long as it might take someone to fly from Earth to Jupiter.

Written by Troy Balmayer

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Rating – 5.5/10

Question: What is your favourite Anthony Mackie film performance?
(Leave your answers in the comments section below!)

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