Crater
Space adventures for tweens is on the menu for this Disney+ adventure, which may not feature the best production values but boasts a great cast and empathetic storytelling.
You can practically see the gears whirring inside the head of the Disney honchos who came up with the idea for “Crater.”
“We’ll get a group of cool tween actors (culturally diverse, natch), put them on the moon sometime in the future and launch them into a fun and slightly scary space adventure where they go on a journey and make amazing discoveries… mostly, about themselves.”
(If I ever get tired of the critic game, I’ll rent myself out for pitch meetings.)
No, this new Disney+ sci-fi flick debuting today isn’t the most original material out there. And as a straight-to-streaming feature film, the production values aren’t terribly high with CGI that doesn’t have the polish of an MCU or Star Wars film.
But it boasts a great cast of youngsters and some empathetic storytelling, courtesy of director Kyle Patrick Alvarez (“The Standford Prison Experiment”) and screenwriter John Griffin (“Magic: The Gathering”).
The movie also gets a lot darker than you’d expect in the last act, though I found the ending filled with both regret and a sense of hope. It’s a film aimed at kids early teens and younger that doesn’t talk down to them or make the characters seem unapproachable.
My boys, almost 10 and 13, stayed engaged the whole time and gave “Crater” high marks. (Nine and eight out of 10, if you’re interested.)
The setup: In the year 2257, the moon has long been colonized as a mining outpost, though the real ambition is to be rich enough or lucky enough to be sent to Omega, a “next Earth” type of planet. It takes 75 years to get there, all while zonked out in cryo-sleep.
Caleb (Isaiah Russell-Bailey) has just lost his father after his mother passed away seven years earlier. They were both miners, and his dad (Scott Mescudi), always told him that one day he’d take Caleb to a special place: a remote crater far away from the biodome where they live. But he didn’t get the chance before he died in a mining accident.
It turns out moon life isn’t that grand. The miners sign a contract to work for 20 years in exchange for a trip to Omega for themselves and their kids. But the corporate/government meanies have fixed the game so it’s essentially indentured servitude, and almost no one makes it off the rock.
His father’s death guarantees Caleb a ride to Omega, but he really doesn’t want to go — especially if it means leaving behind the close buddies who form his crew.
His best friend is Dylan (Billy Barratt), a natural born rebel and leader. Borney (Orson Hong) is diminutive and full of pluck, and closely guards the welfare of his bestie, Marcus, who has a heart condition requiring pills every few hours. He’s played by Thomas Boyce, who’s so good-looking and square-jawed I predict he’ll be playing a movie superhero someday soon.
Given just three days before his transport to Omega leaves, his friends convince Caleb they have to steal a moonrover and make the trip to the crater themselves. To that end they recruit Addison (Mckenna Grace), the new girl who recently emigrated from Earth and had been dismissed as rich and snotty.
“Earth people have different ways. They're… they're peculiar,” observes Borney.
(Her help is required because they need the access codes to get the rover out and her dad is a science guy. Adults typically don’t share their work passwords with their kids, but… OK, nevermind; suspension of disbelief — ENGAGED!)
Much of the first act is filled with getting to know Addison and assimilate her into the group. The boys gawk at her fancy new space suit, while they’re wearing ratty second-handers. In general, everything on the moon has a grubby, utilitarian look.
They bond over their discoveries made on the journey, giant proto-cities and other structures indicating people once planned for much bigger things on the moon. They also play some juvenile games with the oxygen tanks that we know, even as it’s happening, that they’ll come to regret.
Of course they eventually make it to the crater, but not without harrowing dangers, meteor showers and even some encounters with some space ghosts. (You’ll see.) It’s around here the filmmakers take things in an unexpected direction, which initially seems rather downbeat but will prove out in the end.
What I admired about “Crater” is that it wears the clothes of a B-movie but has bigger ambitions. A lot of times with pictures made for streaming or video platforms, you get very formulaic stuff aimed at tickling a favored nerve center — horror, romcoms, martial arts action, etc.
This one’s trajectory aims for the stars instead.