Sputnik embraces an ethos that will undoubtedly endear itself to some viewers more than others. Personally, I get it. There’s something extremely satisfying about a thoughtful sci-fi saga. Scientists that are driven by intellectual thought more closely resemble the way things play out in real life than an action star that shoots first and asks questions later. However, a movie favoring cerebral over emotional impulses is going to yield a decidedly lower level of raw excitement.
The year is 1983. Two Soviet astronauts…er uh excuse me…cosmonauts are sent into space. They unexpectedly encounter something out in the galaxy. They crash land in Kazakhstan. Only Konstantin (Pyotr Fyodorov) survives. Authoritarian military Colonel Semiradov (Fedor Bondarchuk) is in charge of the government’s effort to study him. Tatyana (Oksana Akinshina) is the controversial but effective doctor he brings on board to assist. English speakers will probably associate the title with the first satellite launched in 1957 by the Soviet Union. However, Sputnik is also the Russian word for “companion” and that’s exactly how it is meant here. Konstantin inadvertently brought something back with him.
Creature design and mood are the best parts. The potent but restrained use of special effects is highly effective. The alien looks a bit like the Hammerpede entity from Prometheus but with the face of a wolf spider. It’s impossible not to see how the DNA of Alien (1979) is an inspiration for the story. Many have taken note of the similarities. However, where Alien took place in space, Sputnik is a claustrophobic saga set in a laboratory where an explorer is being studied. Additionally, the personality of the extraterrestrial is significantly different. I contend this story actually adheres a lot closer to the narrative of Venom (2018).
Sputnik is fascinating. I was completely enrapt whenever the creature was on screen. I enjoyed so much about this film. Screenwriters Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev rely heavily on talky exposition for most of its runtime. Yet many plot developments leave the spectator with questions that are still left unexplained by the end. That’s a bit frustrating. The schizophrenic late in the movie shift to deliver a standard action movie style climax leaves a bad taste too. Sputnik is the feature directorial debut of Egor Abramenko. Given this audacious effort, I am interested to see what he does next.
08-15-20
4 Responses
your review made me interested in this. so watched it last night and
i agree with your last sentence and most of the last paragraph. i thought that part of the story and thrills were traditional. it has a fascinating beginning, but then the horror elements later on didn’t really help the movie. nice review Mark.
This has been such a strange year for film. I have seen a lot of movies I normally wouldn’t have seen given that Hollywood hasn’t been releasing much. I’m glad I saw this.
It was pretty talky and over intellectual, but needed more action. I agree with you, every time the alien was in the scene, I was mesmerized. 3 1/2 stars
So often the foreign language films that crossover to American audiences tend to be dramas, often from France or Italy. This was a rare sci-fi tale…from Russia of all places!