The Titan *** (2018, Sam Worthington, Taylor Schilling, Tom Wilkinson, Agyness Deyn, Noah Jupe) – Movie Review 

Director Lennart Ruff’s 2018 Sci-Fi thriller The Titan is interesting, intriguing, a little bit different and really rather well done.

The screenplay by Max Hurwitz and story by Arash Amel are intelligent and literate. The premise, characters and dialogue are all quite strong, involving and gripping.

Sam Worthington plays hotshot Air Force pilot Lieutenant Rick Janssen, an American military man picked by a semi-crazed mad scientist, Professor Martin Collingwood (Tom Wilkinson) to join other specially hand-picked soldiers to take part in a ground-breaking experiment involving genetic evolution (they are going to change him physically to a super-human) and space exploration (the modified soldiers can live successfully on the harsh climate of one of Saturn’s moons, Titan).

Taylor Schilling as Dr Abi Janssen in The Titan.

Janssen’s wife Dr Abi Janssen (Taylor Schilling) and kid Lucas (Noah Jupe) are not happy. Abi knows a thing or two and doesn’t like what the Professor is getting up to on her husband. The only thing is, if mankind doesn’t get to live elsewhere, we are doomed as the planet Earth in in its dying stages – it is the year 2048 and we are victims of over-population.

All in all, likeable, looking good and defying its small scale, The Titan is a pleasant surprise. Worthington is a strongly solid hero, Wilkinson nice and creepy, and Schilling gets a major person in peril role and is ideal, doing quite a bit of distraught hair acting, too, along with the real stuff.

With splendid production design by Julian R Wagner, an admirable score (Fil Eisler) and cinematography (Jan-Marcello Kahl), and a nice little role for Agyness Deyn as the Professor’s doubting helper, Dr Freya Upton, The Titan is worth making a little detour to seek out. It is interesting that the kid, Noah Jupe, isn’t encourage to overact as he is in A Quiet Place, and his performance is much better for it.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review 

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