Space Sweepers Parent Guide

In the year 2092, climate change and pollution have rendered Earth barely habitable. The rich live in orbiting cities created by the UTS Corporation (which is also working on colonizing Mars), while the poor struggle to survive on Earth, or try to eke out a living scavenging space junk. The best of these space sweepers is the crew of the Victory, Captain Jang (Kim Tae-ri), Tae-ho (Song Joong-Ki), Tiger Park (Seon-kyu Jin), and Bubs the robot (voiced by Hae-Jin Yoo). While scavenging a lost spaceship, they discover a child-like robot named Dorothy that’s reported to be a weapon of mass destruction. Desperate for money, the crew sees a chance to collect ransom for Dorothy’s return, but soon discover a deep and dangerous conspiracy.

I’m not really sure where to start with Space Sweepers. To be honest, I have very mixed opinions about it, so I’ll just start in with what works. The main characters are spectacularly written and acted. Each has layers of personality, backstory, and growth that make the audience root for them, even when they’re making questionable choices. I would watch a movie about the Victory crew going on space pirate adventures, if such a thing were available. The special effects are surprisingly good for a production of this size, creating a believable and interesting world that rivals the visuals of some Hollywood blockbusters.

Where Space Sweepers falls short is in its inconsistent tone. Sometimes it wants to be a fun space romp, and other times it wants to be a serious dystopian drama. It never seems to find a balance between the two, which creates some jarring tonal shifts, ranging from overly serious to outright silly. The story has some great ideas but loses itself along the way. The first hour is enjoyable but the movie falls apart as it keeps going – and the bloated runtime means it has a long way to go. Tighter editing would have delivered a much more successful film. Space Sweepers raises interesting themes around environmentalism, classism, and late-stage capitalism, but it fails to say anything original, or even all that deep, about these topics.

This is not a film for children, as evidenced by the sheer amount of profanity. If you are a sci-fi fan, I think you might enjoy Space Sweepers. Overall, it’s a fun time with some original ideas and visuals – as long as you don’t expect it to delve too deeply into the issues it raises. You’ll also need to ignore some weird cinematography choices and be prepared to read subtitles or listen to dubbed dialogue (unless you speak Korean, that is). If anything, the crew made me want to revisit Firefly, so I guess that’s a plus.