You wouldn’t necessarily expect a light, dystopian feel about oppressive work conditions from a family-friendly sci-fi Disney movie (released during the writers’ strike), but “Crater” delivers light-hearted fun. We manage just that while maintaining. Children’s adventure stories.
Directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez, the film is set in a lunar mining colony. There, miners agree to a contract with the promise that they and their families will get a ticket to Omega, a remote habitable planet. But loopholes in the law ensure that most people don’t actually live until that day comes.
However, due to rules allowing the descendants of deceased miners to automatically go to Omega, the film’s young protagonist Caleb (Isaiah Russell-Bailey, Hero Hunter in flashbacks) has his father (a.k.a. Scott Mescudi) ) to leave the colony. Kid Cudi) dies – just he doesn’t want to leave his friends behind. Looking to spend a limited amount of time together, Caleb and his friends, with the help of a new girl from Earth (Mckenna Grace), steal a lunar rover and discover a mysterious crater that Caleb’s father told him about. Embark on a journey of discovery. I hope to find him as some kind of death wish.
It’s refreshing to see Disney investing a modest budget into an original sci-fi universe for a live-action film (it’s also a film that arguably would have failed at the box office, but it’s been able to attract viewers through streaming). You can get it and you have to) and Alvarez is making good use of it. And while it may not have the unforgettable charm of other children’s classics, “Crater” doesn’t have to go out of its way to please non-family audiences. Above all else, the film surprisingly agilely incorporates an emotional core that makes the story more interesting than the adventure itself.
crater
PG designation. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. Watch on Disney+.
