The Space Between Us, mini movie review

 "Courage is just fear that has said its prayers."

 ~ Sarah Elliot (character), best line in the movie.

Rating: B-

Many of us look up to the stars and dream about living among them.  What would it be like?  How different from Earth would it be?  We get so caught up looking up that we forget to look around, failing to realize the beauty we already have.

Nathaniel Shepherd (Gary Oldman) dreams of Mars, but due to a health issue he is not allowed to participate on the first mission to live on Mars he helped start.  Gardner Elliot (Asa Butterfield) is the first child born on Mars to astronaut Sarah Elliot who dies giving birth.  Gardner's was never meant to exist, and so he's kept a secret, hidden on isolated Mars, dreaming of Earth as he searches Earth's online network for his unknown father.

Nathaniel would give anything to live on Mars.

Gardner would give anything to live on Earth, but growing up on Mars has allowed his heart to grow twice the size of a normal human heart and his bones to be weak, therefore making life on Earth impossible.

Thanks to a risky experimental surgery Gardner is allowed to come to Earth, despite Nathaniel's objections, to see the beauty we all take for granted and search for his father.  He finds Tulsa (Britt Robertson), a girl he found online and has fallen in love with, and together they set out on a journey.  The movie truly soars while watching Gardner's wide-eyed wonder and innocence during his discovery of Earth.

Is the plot predictable?  Yes.  Is it a sappy teenage love story?  Yup.  And unfortunately the plot is spliced together, particularly in the beginning, feeling jagged at parts.  The anti-gravity scenes felt off with hair tied up, lack of seat-belts dangling, and so forth.  Despite this Asa Butterfield does a fine job carrying The Space Between Us.  He's charming in the role.

I liked this movie!  I cried.  My Mom cried.  This movie has a lot of heart (And I'm not talking about Gardner's enlarged heart).  The story is sweet.  I don't know if this movie is for everyone, but if you like sci-fi and a nice love story this movie is one you might like.

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for brief sensuality and language.

Tomorrowland, Mini Movie Review

Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

The more I think about this movie the more upset I get.  Tomorrowland.  Based on the land of the same name in Disneyland.  A place of wonder and innovation.  Exploration.  Experimentation.

And a place where the dreamers go and build.

It's the sort of place Walt Disney himself would have loved to live.

And Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) just got a one way ticket to visit this futuristic land.  She's the "chosen one," the last person who can save Tomorrowland from becoming extinct.  I went into this movie thinking, "I'm tired of movies where the only way a conflict can be solved is if there's a "Chosen One."  My Dad came out thinking, "I'm tired of movies where humans are the bad guys."

In a nutshell Tomorrowland is Wizard of Oz meets Atlas Shrugged.

The movie is convoluted, emotionless, and violent.  Crazy violent for a PG rated film.  It should be rated PG-13 due to the amount of violence and swearing.  My Mom saw it before I did, and one thing she said over and over again was how she couldn't believe the amount of violence and swearing there is.  Some swearing is done in halves, like "Son of a b----," but it's enough.

The only redeeming quality this movie has is the actress who plays Athena, Raffey Cassidy.  She did an absolutely fabulous job.

By the end of the movie I felt more hopeless then inspired.

BTW, that pin is crazy dangerous.  For a land that boasts the best and the brightest, that's a really stupid design.  I get that the pin serves as comedic timing in spots, but who in their right mind in Tomorrowland thought this was a good idea?

MPAA: Rated PG for sequences of sci-fi action violence and peril, thematic elements, and language.