Don’t worry. This is a spoiler-free review. Anna Kendrick takes to space as the crew doctor aboard a troubled mission to Mars. But is Stowaway, now streaming on Netflix, worth watching?
Stowaway doesn’t break new ground with the story here. Space always brings the same challenges to a movie’s fictional crew and the usual issues arise here. Also, it’s worth noting there are two kinds of space movie. The one with a massive budget that shows the actors floating around and the other space movie that spins the ship to simulate gravity. This is the latter.
While the “gravity solution” isn’t unique, there are some new takes that I’ve never seen in a space movie before. Also the story develops and allows for some real drama even if, in parts, you need to be a bit liberal with how close to reality it all is.
Netflix almost seems to take massively successful movies and recreate them for the streaming platform with a few tweaks for copyright reasons. Stowaway would appear to be trying to recreate elements of the 2013 movie Gravity which won seven Academy Awards. Stowaway succeeds in posing unique dilemmas with sprinkles of drama, but nothing to match Gravity.
Regardless, it’s absolutely a worthwhile watch. It’s a nice way to pass an evening.
