Space Sweepers (2021) Review

“Space Sweepers” Theatrical Poster

Director: Jo Sung-Hee
Cast: Song Joong-Ki, Kim Tae-Ri, Jin Sun-Kyu, Yu Hae-Jin, Park Ye-Rin, Richard Armitage, Kim Moo-Yul, Oh Ji-Yul, Kim Hyang-Gi, Nas Brown, John D. Michaels
Running Time: 136 min.

By Paul Bramhall

The marketing material for Space Sweepers proudly boasted the production to be “Korea’s first sci-fi film project”, a claim which does somewhat of a disservice to the film industries frequent dabbling with the genre during the early days of the Korean Wave. 2001’s 2009 Lost Memories, 2002’s Yesterday, and 2003’s Natural City were all flawed but ambitious attempts at sci-fi world building, but for whatever reason it’s never been a genre thats stuck. It’s never entriely disappeared though, with more recent offerings going down the dystopian route thanks to the likes of 2018’s Illang: The Wolf Brigade, and 2020’s double offering of Peninsula and Time to Hunt. So while billing director Jo Sung-hee’s latest as Korea’s first foray into sci-fi isn’t quite the case, it is at least the countrys first foray into sci-fi that takes place in space, and the associated tropes that go along with it.

As a director Sung-hee has been one of the most consistently original voices in Korean cinema over the last decade, even if it feels like he flies somewhat under the radar. His debut, 2010’s End of Animal, was an impressively atmospheric piece of filmmaking (and made it into Our Top 15 Watched Movies of 2015), which was followed up in 2012 with his breakthrough sophomore feature A Werewolf Boy. Since then, Sung-hee helmed the comic book noir Phantom Detective in 2016, and with Space Sweepers he once again switches up genres, working with his biggest budget so far.

His latest reunites him with Song Joong-ki, who played A Werewolf Boy’s titular main character. Joong-ki has largely stuck to acting in dramas since their last collaboration, with his only big screen appearance in the intervening years going to a role in Ryu Seung-wan’s Battleship Island. Here he plays the leader of a ragtag group of space sweepers – essentially freelance salvagers that look to retrieve valuable space junk and sell it on – and he’s joined by Kim Tae-ri (The Handmaiden, Little Forest), Jin Seon-kyu (The Outlaws, Svaha: The Sixth Finger) and Yoo Hae-jin (A Taxi Driver, Confidential Assignment). It’s 2092, and the Earth has become close to uninhabitable due to pollution levels and climate change. With the world turned into a Bladerunner-esque slum, a corporation called UTS is in the process of turning Mars into an indillic place to live, full of lush forests and flowing waterfalls.

The catch is, only the rich get to live there, and the Head of UTS (played by a scenery chewing Richard Armitage, of Ocean’s Eight and Captain America: The First Avenger fame) seems like he’s up to no good in every scene he appears in. When Joong-ki and the gang stumble across a young child (Park Ye-rin, here making her debut) during one of their salvage attempts, who may hold the secret to either saving or destroying Earth, they soon find themselves being pursued by various different groups who want to get their hands on the girl.

As the above description probably gives away, Space Sweepers has a lot going on, and its epic 135 minute runtime provides plenty of breathing space to fit everything in. The main issue with Sung-hee’s latest, is that the ’everything’ in question has all been done before, and it’s difficult to recall even one of its many scenes that don’t in some way feel derivative of another sci-fi movie. I’d orginally made notes listing the movies which I was reminded of when watching Space Sweepers, but when I realised how long the list was at only the hour mark, I decided to scrap the idea. Sci-fi is supposed to be the genre where the imagination can run wild, allowing for ideas and conepts to be explored in new and original ways, but none of that originality is on display here.

The biggest problem is that Space Sweepers feels more like a visual checklist of sci-fi movie tropes that need to be ticked off. We get a robot as part of the crew (voiced by Yoo Hae-jin), intergalactic dog fights, and police in futuristic armour, but these elements never feels anything other than perfunctory. In some ways I was reminded of 1999’s Shiri, with Space Sweepers wanting to prove that Korea can do Hollywood style sci-fi the same way Shiri wanted to prove it can do Hollywood style action. The action in Shiri was more Michael Bay-esque than some Michael Bay movies, but despite the lack of originality it got by on the power of its story and characters. Space Sweepers doesn’t have that safety net, with the story never really engaging to a point where the audience feels invested in it, and the characters looking and sounding like they just jumped from the page of ’Korean Blockbuster Stereotypes 101’. 

We learn that Joong-ki was once employed by UTS as a solider, but when he sees a baby for the first time he can’t bring himself to kill her, instead going on the run and raising it himself. Things get muddled when we learn of a tragedy that sepeates the pair, with his adopted daughter floating somwhere in space, leading to his sole purpose in life being to locate her before she leaves orbit and becomes untraceable. It’s a worthy character motivation, but its explained poorly (and as per usual for a Korean blockbuster, with intermittent bursts of crying, shouting, and pained expressions). It’s not the only important plot point that lacks clarity, with Richard Armitage’s entertaining turn as the villainous CEO involving a seemingly Darth Vader like power to kill whenever he becomes enraged, which happens just frequently enough to expect an explanation.

We don’t get one, which is surprising considering just how much exposition dumping Space Sweepers is guilty of. For all of the impressively rendered visuals, Sung-hee’s script is remarkably clunky in parts, prone to prolonging scenes that don’t need to be, and frequently opting to tell rather than show. I would have been quite happy without knowing any of the characters tragic backstorys that led to them becoming the lowly Space Sweepers that they are today, but instead we have to watch inappropriately timed flashback scenes which bring the pace to a grinding half, and add nothing to the story. The multi-national cast could just as easily have been trimmed down, with the producitons too obvious goal of breaking out internationally involving a plethora of different languages being spoken, but it all feels like window dressing rather than anything of substance.

Interestingly Space Sweepers’s ambitions of international recoginition (it’s notably another production which has gone straight to Netflix, after the COVID-19 pandemic put to rest its big screen release) also makes its more distinctly Korean moments stand out more. During the happily ever after epilogue where we learn what happened to each character, it’s mentioned that Jin Seong-kyu’s heavily tattooed character had them all removed to look “less scary”, a throwaway comment that gives an unintended insight into Korea’s perception of tattoos. Most bizzare is Yoo Hae-jin’s CGI robot, who’s transgender and achieves its dream of getting skin grafts to look human, choosing the appearance of a woman. It’s never exactly clear whether we’re supposed to find the scenario amusing or sincere (or both), but is ultimately given so little screentime that it barely registers.

If Korea wanted to prove it can do sci-fi just as well as any other country, then from a visual standpoint it achieves its goal with aplomb. Sadly, Sung-hee seems to have missed the point that good sci-fi isn’t just about how many futuristic and spectacular images you can fill the screen with, it’s about exploring new and unique ideas that you can’t do in other genres. When the credits roll we can relax knowing that the world has been saved, but as “Korea’s first sci-fi film project”, Space Sweepers can’t be salvaged.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 5/10