Netflix’s IO is BORINGGGGGG

I love a good slow-paced Sci-fi film. I love 2001: A Space Odyssey. I really liked Moon and it’s slow building character story. I even liked Prometheus for its great visuals and interesting concepts. However, there comes a fine line between being slow and interesting, and being just plain boring. Netflix’s IO is the later; a film that moves way too slowly, has no interesting characters, and by the time it gets to the actual meat of the plot, it is just too late for the audience to care.

The story in IO is about a young scientist named Sam, played by Margaret Qualley, who tries to save a dying Earth. Most of the people on Earth when to a near-by space station by Jupiter's moon IO. One day on her stay on earth, Micah, played by Anthony Mackie, shows up to talk to Sam's father. Without trying to spoil much, this is the synopsis of the boring film IO.

To give credit where credit is due, this film did try. It did try to make a more emotional and character focused Sci-fi post-apocalyptic film. See, that’s fine if the characters were interesting. I mean look at Moon, a film focused entirely on one character. Sam Rockwell's character and his interaction with the robot and seeing his emotions as the plot unfolds is pretty entertaining and fun to watch. The plot moves in a fast pace, and Rockwell's character is pretty interesting. In IO on the other hand, it tries to do the same set up, but without great acting, an interesting plot, or good characters.

Let us start with the acting. The acting in this film is fine; it really goes from passable to decent. Margaret Qualley's performance is fine. I feel like she's actually a pretty good actress, but in this film I feel like she really is not giving it her all. She does not really show that much range of emotions, and even when she does at some points, it just does not seem natural. Anthony Mackie's performance is also just fine. Again, I feel not much effort was put into his performance either. These are by no means bad actors, just one's who might not have cared that much for the project.

Another major issue with this film is the plot; or the lack thereof. The film really does not go anywhere for most of its runtime. It feels like a 2 hour film, even though it's only an hour and a half. Nothing happens till an hour and 10 minutes into the film, and by that time you really do not care at all. There is even a countdown for these characters to go do something (no spoilers), and honestly the film could have completely forgotten about the countdown and thrown that element out the window and it would have had no change to the plot at all. The characters just sit around do nothing for most of the time, till close to the last 20 minutes of the film.

The biggest sin of this film is making us focus on characters that we simply do not care about. If you'r not going to have much of a plot, then making the characters engaging is probably the most important thing for you to do; and yet, these characters are so boring. I did not care about any of their past traumas, nor did I care about their relationship. Maybe that is due to the fact that much of the character stuff is pretty predictable; I mean, I, probably along with most people, already knew that this film was going to force a dumb romance part with the two leads. Which is fine, but the way they go about it is so cliche and dumb. They just sit around, talking about their past and the world and IO, and because they're by themselves, they end up falling in love. Yawn. It does not feel like an earned romance, it feel like it was forced in because most movies need a romance element to it. It is pretty much like in the first two Thor films, and the relationship between Thor and Natalie Portman's character... yeah if you totally forgot about that that's fine, because just as forgettable and un-interesting they were in those films, these two characters in IO are just as forgettable and un-interesting. Except, with no action, no great visuals, or story to keep us interested.

Overall, it was a movie. It was an hour and a half long, an hour too long in my opinion, and it was just a movie. It was not bad, it was no Bird Box, but it was just so boring with the visuals and the plot and the characters. Really, don't watch this film. If you want people stuck somewhere in the future, go watch Moon instead. But just don't waste your time with this film.

Score: Boring/10 (Please subsribe to my Blog on the top right side. Put in your email to get notified whenever a new blog is posted. Also go follow me on LetterBoxd to see all my film lists and reviews: https://boomovies1.blogspot.com/?m=1)