Michael's Movie Grade: B
A very engaging sci-fi flick.
This movie involves a scientist and schoolteacher who is sent to space to help save the sun. He meets an alien whose sun is also dying and the two work together to save the universe.
What makes this movie work so well is the relationship between our main character and Rocky the alien. This relationship is surprisingly quite touching. The first scenes with them together are played comedically with the two characters having trouble communicating with one another. Though this comedy persists, the filmmakers masterfully move from broad comedy to very touching emotional moments very gradually. When we reach the finale, we care about these characters and their friendship so much that we are genuinely moved by it. Rocky is also simply a great character. He has a great design and his ways of communicating in the characters' early scenes together are very clever.
This movie also makes great use of flashbacks, going back and forth from him in space and everything that led up to him being there. These flashbacks are fantastically paced throughout the film, revealing to us little by little why he is actually up there. As we learn these various things about his life on Earth, the emotional impact of the film becomes more effective. These flashback scenes also include a rather touching romance that makes the conclusion to these flashback scenes all that much more emotionally effective.
This movie is filled with humor. One can argue that there is almost too much humor here and that sometimes it shows up in scenes that should be played straight. On the other hand, a lot of the humor is really funny.
On the downside, this movie is full of plot holes and little things that don't make sense and the runtime is simply longer than it needs to be.
Overall, a very strong movie.
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