IO (2019)

January 25, 2019 12:54 PM

As a young scientist searches for a way to save a dying Earth, she finds a connection with a man who's racing to catch the last shuttle off the planet.

Sam (Margaret Qualley), one of the last survivors on a post-cataclysmic Earth, is a young scientist dedicated to finding a way for humans to adapt and survive, rather than abandon their world. But with the final shuttle scheduled to leave the planet for a distant colony, her determination to stay is rocked by the arrival of another survivor, Micah (Anthony Mackie). She must decide whether to journey with him to join the rest of humanity and begin life anew, or stay to fight for Earth's survival.

(There should probably be a "Direct-to-Netflix Sci-Fi Movie Club".)

posted by jimw (12 comments total)

I couldn't let DirtyOldTown have all the fun posting mediocre direct-to-Netflix movies.

This was pretty dull. A tiny glimmer of mildly interesting sci-fi slowly plodding through a mostly-uninteresting plot.

Looks like this is a French film production that was filmed three years ago. A couple of the writers are connected to Chef's Table, which may explain how it came to the attention of Netflix.
posted by jimw at 1:03 PM on January 25, 2019 [3 favorites]

Things I was willing to accept:

-a mcguffin
-some kind of distributed scientific experiment giving results at the last minute
-any other nonsense but what actually happened.

I don't really think that resolving the character's fixation with art show in the second to last scene, and have it focus on that particular painting made this movie satisfying in any way.

So unsatisfying, it took me 3 sessions to finish it.
posted by tedious at 3:20 PM on January 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

Jimw I'm with you about having a netflix should-i-watch-this-or-not club. I enjoyed arq and radius, made it through extinction, but have stayed away from most of the others, including titan and that one with wil smith about the cops.

I probably won't watch this, unless its so bad its good.
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:09 PM on January 25, 2019

titan

Sooo bad. Wil Smith cop one one = Bright - had to look it up, completely unmemorable.

ARQ and Radius were not too bad.

How It Ends (meh, could barely finish it)

Hold the Dark (actually good)

Frankly, I haven't found many of their movies very good - but they do seem to be fairly decent at picking-up or green-lighting "long-form" TV or weird episodic shows (Maniac).

But, then again - they are all worth the price... Let's see, Netflix costs me about $0.025/hour. So - their movies are certainly no worse than the "made-for-TV" dreck I grew up with in the 70's/80's - most are at least interesting and not "shame the hot topic of the month".
posted by jkaczor at 8:30 PM on January 25, 2019

I haven't watched this movie, but are they going to Io? Volcanic hell moon Io? Literally any other moon would be a better choice for people to live on.
posted by runcibleshaw at 10:55 PM on January 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

Most of the remaining humans have already gone off to Io, the story is set on Earth and features two of the last humans remaining there. This is clearer in the film's other title 'Io: Last on Earth', but both titles show up depending on which bit of Netflix you are looking at.

I thought it was pretty dull. Honestly, I only watched it as there was a micro wind turbine in the trailer.
posted by biffa at 4:37 AM on January 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

Frankly, I haven't found many of their movies very good - but they do seem to be fairly decent at picking-up or green-lighting "long-form" TV or weird episodic shows (Maniac).

I'm a sucker for sci-fi movies, even bad ones, so I'll end up watching this. But I completely agree, they pick up a lot of great series but the Netflix-branded movies have not been nearly as good.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:19 AM on January 26, 2019

There should probably be a "Direct-to-Netflix Sci-Fi Movie Club".

I have seriously considered just using the tag #netflixcrapocalypse on my recent posts.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:46 PM on January 26, 2019 [4 favorites]

The ending was lame! I didn’t see any hints that that was going to happen to her, so it just came out of nowhere, and felt very unsatisfying.
posted by monotreme at 2:47 PM on January 26, 2019

I have seriously considered just using the tag #netflixcrapocalypse on my recent posts.

Added, but my cynical side thinks that’s kind of redundant with #netflixoriginal.

Back to the movie, one of the more disappointing aspects was that they clearly had sort of literary ambitions and just couldn’t muster the writing prowess.
posted by jimw at 9:33 PM on January 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

Jimw I'm with you about having a netflix should-i-watch-this-or-not club

There should be a category.... Currently attempting to watch "Polar", and while the premise is something I typically like, it just doesn't "work", it doesn't "gel together properly" and it seems to be trying sooo hard to be cool and stylish...

It *feels* like a movie put together by an AI, "if humans like this, then they will like that"...

But, I like the soundtrack (Deadmau5) - and well - Mads is Mads...
posted by jkaczor at 6:24 AM on January 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

I quite liked this as home in bed film. I enjoyed the characterization of Sam, atypical female lead stuff. Liked her flat “yeah, I know” every time Micah confirmedsomething she had already told him.

The ending was lame! I didn’t see any hints that that was going to happen to her, so it just came out of nowhere, and felt very unsatisfying
I thought it was telegraphed quite clearly by the newborn queen bee’s survival, her gently pressuring Micah for sex with “we have to” and with her priming her immune for years.
posted by Iteki at 4:29 AM on February 9, 2019 [1 favorite]