Review of Solis (2018) by Christopher%20 U — 13 Dec 2018

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In that case, a lot of filmmakers have to line up and thank the movie Solis, since it lays on the flattery likes there's no tomorrow. Liberally borrowing from The Martian, Apollo 13, Armageddon, Gravity and, most bizarrely, an episode of Thunderbirds, we have a man trapped in a capsule, hurtling towards the sun.

The film started off somewhat intriguing, but quickly descends into a truly frustrating experience. The lead character is annoying, the woman who speaks to him on the radio repeats his surname over and over again, which is far more grating than it sounds, the characters make increasingly stupid decisions, and while we're supposed to wish for our hero to survive, when his life is in danger he seems to have absolutely no sense of urgency.

Things go so badly because he doesn't deal with problems as soon as they arise. He makes a series of increasingly dumb decisions, such as staring directly into the Sun when he could easily just turn round, and to add insult to boredom the film has what I guess is supposed to be an ambiguous ending, but first of all it hasn't done enough to earn that, and secondly it feels more like First Reformed, where the movie stops instead of coming to an end.

It's deflating at best and downright infuriating at worst, and renders the previous hour and a half a complete waste of time. It could have been an enjoyable watch, but it needed a capable hero, a better script, new ideas and a lot less repetition.