Stars: 3/5
The recent apocalyptic film “IO” is everything but Earth-shattering.
The movie begins by explaining that the Earth humans live on now is not the same, and due to ignorance and neglect it had been destroyed. The Earth had become too polluted to live on and tried to kill humans in an effort to save itself. Because of this, Earth is now a mostly uninhabitable space where things can barely grow or survive.
Right off the bat, I don’t have much interest in this movie because we’ve seen this kind of post-apocalyptic scenario millions of times. Most of these movies are pretty predictable, but I had hope that this one would have a new and unique take on what has already been done.
Spoiler alert — that did not happen.
At the beginning of the film, we’re introduced to Sam, the daughter of a scientific researcher named Henry Walden. Walden and his family stayed on Earth when most everyone else boarded “Exodus” ships and went to IO, Jupiter’s moon, to escape the toxic atmosphere. On Earth, they have to use oxygen tanks and masks to survive.
Dr. Walden believed that Earth wasn’t dying, but just being reborn. This was hinted to be true, but the film constantly displayed the idea that people not on Earth left for a reason and didn’t want to come back. If people weren’t taking responsibility for destroying the Earth then, they probably wouldn’t start — not that they feel like they should or care to, with a fancy new planet with the luxury of breathing without an oxygen mask.
The viewer learns that Sam has a boyfriend named Elon who lives in the space station orbiting IO. Elon consistently updates Sam on life in the stars and begs her to leave Earth so they can finally be together in person. Sam always declines, claiming she must stay on Earth to help her father with his research.
Elon eventually messages Sam and states that the last chance for her to leave Earth is arriving. People on IO were beginning to focus on a new world expedition and colonization, leaving Earth behind for good and looking toward the future.
At this point in the film, it was obvious Sam and Elon were going to break up and that Sam’s father, who still wasn’t shown, was either dead or gone for a very long time.
Elon sounded rather excited about this new world expedition, and the fact that it takes 10 years to get there alone and all contact with Earth would be cut off didn’t look good for their relationship. She even told Elon that she wouldn’t be able to carry enough oxygen to go to the launch site and leave for IO.
When a strange man comes along, it also is obvious that there will be an only-two-people-in-the-world romance, because why not? The movie tries to do this rebuilding-a-nation kind of symbolism to add depth, but it just didn’t work. The history was interesting, and it showcased that history always repeats itself, but it wasn’t introduced well enough — the only thing that could have saved the movie was anti-climatic like the rest of it.
Even if Sam could prove the world could become habitable again, people probably wouldn’t come back to live on it anyways. Sam even admitted that she had no idea what the world was like before, because she grew up after Earth was destroyed. As things change people adapt, in a couple of years most people would be reading about Earth from a textbook. They wouldn’t even worry about returning to Earth because they never went and have no emotional connection to it.
Netflix has had a lot of success with their original movies, so I was expecting a lot more from them. “IO” was ultimately a let down and something we’ve seen done so many times. With a lack of action and intensity, the best elements were the biblical and mythical symbolism that were still predictable and not very revolutionary. Overall, it’s just another movie showcasing how we as humans are destroying the Earth and need to learn to do better. I agree with this message, of course, but the movie itself shoots for the stars yet never takes off.
