A Korean space opera with a large budget and a star-studded cast. Possibly the first of its kind, it's hard for it to live up to its hype. Despite the film not being perfect, it's still a big step for Korean cinema to branch out, and try new things.
“Space Sweepers” revolves around the crew of ‘Victory', a notorious space-junk collector ship in 2092. Earth is becoming uninhabitable, and humans are quick to ruin space next. The crew is down on their luck, need money, and need it fast. It is then rather convenient that such a solution falls into their laps, a humanoid robot girl, wanted by police as well as terrorists. Before long, it turns into a story about putting others above yourself or saving yourself.
The production ends up being a little cheesy, yet charming. Fun, but in the large scope of science-fiction films, middle-of-the-road. This goes for the themes in “Space Sweepers” as well. A rag-tag team of capable misfits that are out of their depth in a larger plot, choosing between surviving for their own good or choosing the greater good. It's been done before, but that doesn't mean it isn't entertaining. Of course, the message is perpetually good throughout, and it does manage to find that charming way of telling you to do the right thing, without making it a bit too predictable in its run.
The editing by Nam Na-young (I Saw The Devil, Swing Kids) and Ha Mi-ra (I Am Home) is for the most part very good, disregarding some of the fight and flight scenes, which made it a bit too difficult to follow the action. Comedic scenes are timed well, and the editing never feels distracting. The script could've also been shorter, and the pacing seems a little off in the second half of the movie. After about an hour, it feels like it was coming to the end of one film, setting up a sequel, but then the whole second film just followed. This makes it seem disjointed at times, although it never becomes dull.
There's two very important distinctions to make when looking at the acting in “Space Sweepers”, one of which is the Korean cast, the other being the foreign cast. The main Korean cast largely does very well, but are not really challenged in their roles. Kim Tae-ri (The Handmaiden, Little Forest) especially is underutilized, being a pretty one-dimensional character of the ‘captain', where she is usually known for well-layered and subtle portrayals. Song Joong-ki (The Battleship Island) probably delivers the best performance, but also seems to be a little limited in how much time he gets, despite being the main character. Yoo Hae-jin (A Taxi Driver, 1987) plays the entertaining and surprisingly unique cyborg ‘Bubs', known for its rather strange clothing choices, and does so in a fun and incredibly different fashion.
Park Ye-rin, the child actress that plays the cyborg girl Kot-nim, does so well. Adorable, lighthearted, and convincing. There's not much more you can expect from a child actress. Jin Sun-kyu (Extreme Job, The Good, the Bad, the Weird) probably plays the most entertaining character, as the strongman ‘Tiger Park' with a heart of gold, but also seems to get underutilized in what was promised and then delivered. This is largely a problem in its script, where this unique team of individuals who have all been hyped up to be special, don't end up really getting a chance to shine. They all get their moments, but they are brief and underwhelming for the most part.
Like many Korean movies, the American and English actors feel incredibly out of place, over-acting in ways that make it incredibly hard to believe their emotion. Kevin Dockry is an exception here, who plays a fun portrayal of a French captain of another ship, but barring him, it turns disappointing quite fast. It's difficult to tell whether this is a casting mistake or a direction mistake, but the performance of Richard Armitage (The Hobbit, Castlevania) might shine some light on this. Armitage delivers a fun but hammed up portrayal of the rich and genius villain ‘Sullivan' in the movie, but comes nowhere near his performances in other films. He's over-the-top in a way that the other foreign actors are too. Perhaps this is something that connects better for the Korean audience, but for the western audience it's mainly just very jarring.
“Space Sweepers” gets its best aspect in its concepts and its visuals. The CGI in the film is very impressive for its budget, but also in general does genuinely well. Despite there probably not being enough set-pieces, the few we do get are entertaining and quite creative. In addition to that, the production boasts really interesting designs for some of its futuristic concepts, like its space soldiers, some of the cities, and the general universe. The costume design by Kwak Jung-ae (The Host, A Bittersweet Life) is a little ridiculous and over the top, showing Americans with baseball jackets and Koreans with clothes that would be seen as vintage now in the year 2092, but it also gives it its own unique charm that you're not quick to see somewhere else. The cinematography by Byun Bong-sun (Telekenisis) is grand, and fitting of a space opera, but doesn't really reach any new heights.
The music by Kim Tae-seong (Han Gong-ju, #Alive) does a better job in this, probably not at all being out of place in any large budget space opera, and matching the grandness and adventure that the director seemed to be going for.
“Space Sweepers” could've done more for it to be outstanding, but for a first try in a new genre and with a limited budget, the end result seems promising for the future of Korean science-fiction. On top of that, it shows promise for the genre in general, showing that these don't have to be American blockbusters for them to do well.
