Crater’ Review: A Refreshing Twist on Disney’s Teen Sci-Fi Adventure. What if The Goonies, Stand By Me, Willow, and Flight of the Navigator were all filmed on the moon and set in the future?
With a dash of wholesomeness, that is much needed in today’s society, and while Disney hopes the film will be entertaining, thrilling, funny, and adventurous, Director Kyle Patrick Alvarez wants Crater to be an emotional experience for the audience.
Does it live up to all those movies, while taking us, the audience, along for a thrilling and fun ride? Kind of. The acting is well done with the lead role of Caleb played by Isaiah Russell-Bailey from the Netflix series “Family Reunion.”, Mckenna Grace plays Addison, the girl from Earth who joins the group consisting of Billy Barratt as Dylan, Orson Hong as Borney, and Thomas Boyce as Marcus.
This is the group of teens who will grow together, learn something about themselves, and maybe become better versions of themselves by the end of the movie. It is well cast, and you feel like there may be an honest friendship between the actors.
Related: “Avatar: The Way of Water” will debut June 7th on Disney+
The standouts though are Borney and Marcus. The genuine feeling of caring and brotherhood is authentic and comes through in the performance. Which makes the film worth watching. Unfortunately, something must have been left on the cutting room floor, because their backstory is never fully developed, which is a shame for the audience. There is never enough time in films like Crater to have every character get full development.
There are moments while watching Crater when I was sucked into the experience of watching it, but could not get the videographer’s vision.
Crater’ Review: A Refreshing Twist on Disney’s Teen Sci-Fi Adventure
The look of the film has a weird, an almost digitally animated style that bothered me and took me out of it. This is not to say you won’t enjoy the look and feel though. With director of photography Jas Shelton, director Kyle Patrick Alvarez sought to create a very visceral, textured lunar environment unlike most contemporary space movies, which are often very clean and sterile. They succeed on all those fronts, but something still felt off.
Even with those few negative things, Crater manages to keep you on a thrill ride, while tugging at your heartstrings. This film, which is family-friendly, will keep the young ones entertained, but the older kids might go on an adventure and learn something about feelings, death, and emotions, and maybe learn how important friendship can be throughout life.
This film may grow on people, and turn into one of those classic movies like Stand By Me, which hangs like a ghost over Crater. By the end of Crater, we are left with most questions answered, that are asked during the film.
Overall Crater is a well-acted movie, with small issues regarding the cinematography. It hit all the emotions and gave us another coming-of-age tale that needed to be told. As a parent, I have no reservations about letting the whole family watch together but be prepared for some discussion about death and emotions that little ones may not be prepared for.
We give Crater 3.5 Moon Rocks out of 5. Crater is available to watch now on Disney +.
The Disney+ Original Movie “Crater” will debut exclusively on the service on May 12. Directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez, the coming-of-age sci-fi adventure stars Isaiah Russell-Bailey, Mckenna Grace, Billy Barratt, Orson Hong, Thomas Boyce, and Scott Mescudi. A 21 Laps Production, the film was written by John Griffin and produced by Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, and Dan Cohen. The film’s executive producers are Emily Morris, John G. Scotti, Rpin Suwannath, Gordon Gray, Paris Latsis, and Terry Douglas.
“Crater” is the story of Caleb Channing (Russell-Bailey), who was raised in a lunar mining
colony and is about to be permanently relocated to an idyllic faraway planet following the death
of his father (Mescudi). But before leaving, to fulfill his dad’s last wish, he and his three best
friends, Dylan (Barratt), Borney (Hong) and Marcus (Boyce), and a new arrival from Earth,
Addison (Grace), hijacks a rover for one final adventure on a journey to explore a mysterious
crater.
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