I was thrilled to see this movie, which I finally did. The trailer was promising, as was the name, that includes material which could be subject of several feature films. Sadly, I was disappointed.
First, if you make a movie and name it Cosmonaut, one would expect it to be exactly about that. I was expecting to see the heroes of Gagarin, Korolev, Leonov, Kamarov and many others who are only about once mentioned by name and never make an appearance(Gagarin, Kamarov and Korolev, were of course all dead by the time period (wrongly?) chosen). And the beginning was quite promising, starting with the truly amazing recordings two Italian brothers claimed to have made, of a faint heartbeat moving away from earth orbit. The (conspiracy?) theory of lost cosmonauts is an amazing subject, but don't expect much more of it in this movie. The storyline quickly goes into a fantasy world where a stick in the eye MFM relationship is more pronounced than the space flight aspect. I really cannot help but wondering why not choose these characters to be hot blooded college students, with all the fantasy that goes into it.
The real story of the cosmonauts is far more interesting, passionate, compelling and thrilling. I was expecting to see the pressures put upon them by a repressive regime, their non-weavering desire to succeed against all odds and incredible visions of space exploration. It's a remarkable human story-just not the subject of this movie. Don't expect to see the self-defense of a group of Soyuz cosmonauts against hungry wolves-a real story where they were not extracted from their landing area for a few days.
There is nothing wrong with making a fantasy sci-fi. And this movie could have been exactly that. But instead, using and if I may put it bluntly, hijacking the name 'cosmonaut', or the underlying story, it makes an unfair claim.
The movie does include some nice food for thought, one can see how Yulia, making sex with Andrei, and being with Andrei, just doesn't love Andrei. It's a point of the brutal selectiveness of love. And it is a story that could have been told just as well as going on elsewhere. It's a pity because the uniforms and old equipment look so cool, convincing and interesting. This could have been used to create a real space movie that could easily rival Apollo 13.
A movie that is really about the cosmonauts, is yet to be made.
First, if you make a movie and name it Cosmonaut, one would expect it to be exactly about that. I was expecting to see the heroes of Gagarin, Korolev, Leonov, Kamarov and many others who are only about once mentioned by name and never make an appearance(Gagarin, Kamarov and Korolev, were of course all dead by the time period (wrongly?) chosen). And the beginning was quite promising, starting with the truly amazing recordings two Italian brothers claimed to have made, of a faint heartbeat moving away from earth orbit. The (conspiracy?) theory of lost cosmonauts is an amazing subject, but don't expect much more of it in this movie. The storyline quickly goes into a fantasy world where a stick in the eye MFM relationship is more pronounced than the space flight aspect. I really cannot help but wondering why not choose these characters to be hot blooded college students, with all the fantasy that goes into it.
The real story of the cosmonauts is far more interesting, passionate, compelling and thrilling. I was expecting to see the pressures put upon them by a repressive regime, their non-weavering desire to succeed against all odds and incredible visions of space exploration. It's a remarkable human story-just not the subject of this movie. Don't expect to see the self-defense of a group of Soyuz cosmonauts against hungry wolves-a real story where they were not extracted from their landing area for a few days.
There is nothing wrong with making a fantasy sci-fi. And this movie could have been exactly that. But instead, using and if I may put it bluntly, hijacking the name 'cosmonaut', or the underlying story, it makes an unfair claim.
The movie does include some nice food for thought, one can see how Yulia, making sex with Andrei, and being with Andrei, just doesn't love Andrei. It's a point of the brutal selectiveness of love. And it is a story that could have been told just as well as going on elsewhere. It's a pity because the uniforms and old equipment look so cool, convincing and interesting. This could have been used to create a real space movie that could easily rival Apollo 13.
A movie that is really about the cosmonauts, is yet to be made.