Well it took a while, but last night I finally had a chance to see the latest russian sci-fi 'Sputnik'. Billed as 'the russian Alien', the similarities are obvious as the story revolves around a spaceman encountering something unpleasant in orbit. Set in 1983, it captures the cold war paranoia well, using what appears to be real soviet era architechture and locations. The film is in russian, with english subtitles, so following the action can be a little awkward at times, especially as the film has cyrillic titles on screen from time to time to indicate place names etc.
The characterisations and acting are excellent, with the three main roles of evil base commander, beleagured cosmonaut and renegade psychologist are handled extremely well. The space scenes are very reminiscent of the epic 'Salyut 7' and the eponymous creature (Sputnik means Traveller in russian) is very well done.If I had to level a complaint about the film at all, my only gripe would be the sound effects for the alien, which consist of wet gurgly noises like a dog eating a blancmange.
As far as the creature is concerned, there are major parallels with the Alien franchise, but the central tenet is subtly different. I don't want to add any spoilers and would encourage anyone with a strong stomach and enjoys a good monster romp to watch it.
Sounds a bit too gory for me!
ReplyDeleteI still rate the Russian "Solaris" although it is about an hour too long (never watched the American remake). The best stuff is in the second half on the space station. Think it's better than the book, (by Stanislaw Lem).
Its a great film, Tarkovskys direction makes you feel every moment and the sense of isolation is stifling. Not something for a saturday afternoon, as it demands a lot from the viewer. The new version with George Clooney has as much atmosphere as a cafe on Mars and although it does feature a good soundtrack, isn’t the best.
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