Beyond, The |
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UK • 2017 • 103m •
   • Directed by: Hasraf Dulull. • Starring: Jane Perry, David Bailie, Brian Deacon, Amy Argyle, Kosha Engler, Nigel Barber, Noeleen Comiskey, Bruce Chong, Nick Kokotakis, Julian Graham, Alissa Juvan, Tom Christian, Melissa Graham. • Music by: Aleah Morrison, Matthew Wilcock.     In 2019, a groundbreaking mission is sent through a newly discovered wormhole. When the mission returns unexpectedly, the space agency races to discover what the astronauts encountered on their first of its kind interstellar space journey.
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Review:
We're presented with the characters, a bunch of scientists giving video interviews. The movie is made in the style of a documentary. The scientists mention early on in these interviews that the recording is for internal distribution, and not for the public, which explains why they openly talk about things that they maybe shouldn't be talking about. So far, so good. The interviews are believable for the most part, but each time one of the scientists explains a very complex problem in ridiculously vague and simple terms, it kind of throws you out of it for a moment. The movie definitely knows how to pull you in by presenting very interesting issues, but then stumbles around them until you're left wondering why they even bothered bringing it up. The visual effects are sub-par, but this is clearly a movie about science, and not visual spectacle. Bad CG doesn't distract too much. I will fully support any filmmaker who attempts to make a movie about science, and I'm fully aware that not everything can be The Martian, Sunshine or Interstellar.
The acting is alright. I want to mention that David Bailie and Nigel Barber did great, in particular, but the script is dodgy and you can actually see them struggle with it.
I have three problems in particular with the story in The Beyond. Beware of spoilers from here on.
1. A wormhole appears near Earth. The humans send probes into it, but the moment the machines "cross over", the signals dies. They catch a glimpse of a planet on the other side (There is a BS explanation about some of the signal making it out before the immense gravity cuts it off. I don't know how that would work, it made no sense to me) so naturally, they decide to send humans. However, David Bailie's character explains that humans would get spaghettified when nearing a singularity, that this wormhole cleary is based around. So they put a human brain into a super slick looking suit that they call Human 2.0. No joke. A big part of the movie is about them tweaking and developing this suit and its connection to the brain inside of it. But I didn't understand WHY the suit was necessary. A singularity doesn't care if you're made of meat, metal or Lego's. If you think it would spaghettify a human, then it would spaghettify a human brain inside of any kind of suit, as well. How the hell does this suit stop the wormholes gravity from tearing everything we send into it, atom by atom?
2. The wormhole has absolutely no effect on the Earth. This thing orbits near the ISS. We see an astronaut get pulled into it early on, so we know it's really damn low and close to the planet. Wouldn't its gravity mess a lot of things up on the surface? They mention nothing about the properties of this thing, but since they're afraid of spaghettification, it can't be safe to have it in close orbit around our planet. Right?
3. When all is resolved, the movie concludes by sort of claiming that these Human 2.0 things are a next step in human evolution. A new planet appears, and the suits (with brains in them) are sent to colonize and explore it. Humanity modified itself and is starting over on a new planet. Basically, something you'd read on a futurism or transhumanism WordPress website. It's just.. I'm not buying it, at all. I literally have no idea what these suits are or why they're the next step in our evolution. Evolution is based around small and incremental improvements that help a species thrive. Just because we put a brain in a suit, doesn't mean anything's been improved. The suit loses senses, and just seems like it would need maintenance over time. No healing properties are ever mentioned. There are way too many mysteries about this central issue in the story.
I liked the idea here. I just wish they sat down and fleshed out the science a little bit. It's way too simple and it jumps over full-stop problems without explaining them properly (and in some cases, at all). What really made me sad is that I can see a lot of hard work put into this movie, to make it look as believable and real as possible, only to have it all fall apart once you realize that the science - the central point of the whole damn movie - is just..
Review by petar-94308 from the Internet Movie Database.
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