In one reading, his actions are problematic in another reading, they’re remarkably romantic. ![]() However, for a film that begins on a girl, it is actually the guy who will ultimately decide how you feel about Orbiter 9. Similar to Netflix’s The Titan, Orbiter 9 wants quite simply to tell a story about love at the end of the world, and it twists and turns enough to hold your attention. For example, I absolutely loved the concept and visuals of an anonymous psychiatrist appearing to her patients as a holographic wolf! It’s enough to make Orbiter 9 a film set in a compelling universe I wanted to know more about even though the overall storyline left me feeling cold. However, the world-building is remarkably effective, and the script sprinkles in one fascinating sci-fi idea after another on the periphery. Even so, he could have come clean to her sooner, and the script could have definitely allowed her a little more outrage. A charitable reading would argue he actually does and only falls in love after that. ![]() The story would have actually been better served if the guy had been acting purely out of regret and ethical concern and not love. Plus, once it became clear the film wasn’t going to address the somewhat problematic gender politics inherent to its premise my enthusiasm dropped considerably. I’ll simply say that where Orbiter 9 takes things surprised me, which fueled my interest for a while until I realized I wished it had just remained a gender-swapped Moon. I’m not going to spoil it, at least not here. It’s as if someone mixed together Everything, Everything (the one about the girl with a rare genetic disease preventing her from ever going outside) and The Space Between Us (the one about the boy in the space station trying to have a romance with a girl down on Earth). There’s a definite YA romance feel to all of this. Wouldn’t you know it, Alex ( Álex González), the guy who makes the trip, is an irresistible brooder, and Helena falls for him. For science jargony reasons, this will be the first and last time anyone will stop by to make sure everything is working properly. Which is why she’s so nervous, anxious, and excited about an upcoming maintenance visit from an engineer. As a result, she’s never actually met another human being other than her parents before. In order for Helena to survive the lengthy mission they had to leave, but that was 3 years ago. As we learn from an old video she watches, her parents were originally meant to accompany her every step of the way on this mission to a faraway planet, but a technical glitch caused a shortage in the oxygen supply. It’s a sad, lonely existence, but she makes the best of it, working out, watching old black & white movies, seeing to her hydroponic plants. The plot starts out like a gender-swapped Moon: a young woman, Helena (Clara Lago), lives alone in a space capsule and occasionally interacts with the kindly computer AI running everything. There’s no Chris Pratt counterpart damning a Jennifer Lawrence counterpart and lying to her about it just because he was lonely, but there is…well, let’s just say there’s definitely a relationship begun under false pretenses. That is as long as you don’t get tripped up about the romance part because Orbiter 9 eventually moves dangerously close to Passengers territory. Add in some clever futurisms, admirable production values for the minimal budget they must have had, and a compelling lead actress and you get an entirely watchable Spanish-language sci-fi romance. 40 minutes later, the nature of the lead character’s existence is completely redefined, and the somber ending somehow plays it both sinister and hopeful. ![]() At the 20-minute mark, the entire premise is thrown out the window and turned on its head. In Netflix’s current run of middling-to-terrible original sci-fi movies, Orbiter 9 at least gets the prize for taking some of the biggest swings.
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