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Mark Elijah Rosenberg
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Connections, in both directions
But if the movie is often derivative — there are also echoes of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” both adaptations of “Solaris,” “Moon,” “Interstellar” and Epcot — the tense scenario can withstand repetition, and seeing it executed on a lower budget, with modest effects, carries its own interest.
Approaching the Unknownisn’t terrible, although it never builds to any sort of desired payoff and there have been so many better movies in this vein—Duncan Jones’ Moon, for example.
Maybe it’s unfair to compare Strong to Sam Rockwell’s performance in Moon or Damon’s own daring Mars escape, but other actors have found themselves in similar predicaments and commanded more attention despite one-man performances.
“Approaching the Unknown” can’t avoid comparisons with “The Martian” from last fall.
Watching writer-director Mark Elijah Rosenberg’s Approaching the Unknown, it’s impossible to avoid comparisons with Ridley Scott’s far more entertaining and skillful 2015 film, The Martian.
Unfortunately, his machine fails en route; way more unfortunately, he comes up very short compared to Mark Watney, the red planet-stranded astronaut played with such humor and energy by Matt Damon in last year’s “The Martian.”
It would be easy to dismiss the mission-to-Mars drama “Approaching the Unknown” as a “The Martian”-lite, except, unlike last year’s Matt Damon hit, there’s little that’s light about this essentially one-man show.
Set largely in Stanaforth’s spacecraft, Approaching The Unknown sometimes feels like an ersatz The Martian , though it was filmed before Ridley Scott’s hit NASA-thon, from a script that was already kicking around screenwriting labs when Andy Weir started serializing his novel online.
Approaching The Unknown is a dull blend of Europa Report and The Martian, despite Mark Strong's best efforts.