In the Flesh: Space Sweepers

Space Sweepers is not, as some critics would have it, “Parasite in space”, an assertion so transparently racist in its flattening of one of the most fruitful national cinematic cultures of the century that it merits little discussion. Jo Sung-hee’s sci-fi action flick may share a few themes with Bong Joon-ho’s blackly comedic film — the struggle of the working poor, the willful callousness of the rich — but at heart it’s feel-good pulp, a classic story of a gang of misfits cohering into a family over the course of a madcap adventure. In that, in spite of a few clunky elements, an uneven script, and a largely inert villain, it succeeds admirably. Its strong craftsmanship sets it an easy cut above most modern American blockbusters, and its battered industrial aesthetic gives it a casual, lived-in feel that makes it easier to invest in its setting and characters.

The film’s central cast is strong enough to pull Space Sweepers through its corniest moments, the fart jokes and boilerplate villain dialogue largely papered over by Kim Tae-ri’s hard-edged charisma as the drunkard captain Jang, the weapons-grade adorableness of mysterious kid Kot-nim (Park Ye-rin), and the rest of the ensemble. Transgender space harpoonist robot Bubs (Yoo Hae-jin) is a particularly affecting delight, her transition handled with admirable deftness and lack of moralizing. She’s just a cool robot who wants everyone to know she’s a girl. Neat! Vincent Cassel gives it the old college try as trillionaire company town CEO James Sullivan, but between the voice distortion, the shopworn “mankind is a disease” blather, and the cheesy black vein effects there’s only so far he can push it. He feels almost incidental, an afterthought to the heartwarming antics of the crew of the starship Victory.

What you’re left with is carnival food, neither inventive nor complex but satisfying by design, punching dopamine and serotonin into your brain with punch-clock efficiency. Its attention to character-building is admirable, though it takes a few false steps with pilot Tae-ho’s (Song Joong-ki) slightly bland backstory as the adoptive father of a war orphan. Mostly it defines its players with easy confidence, each new revelation about their pasts bringing a visible attribute of their current personality into sharper focus. If its antagonists are muddy, its special effects occasionally lackluster, there’s plenty of winning visual design on offer and the kid really is heart-melting. Worse ways to spend an afternoon.