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Stowaway Review: Solid Premise, Ultimately Unfulfilling!

Stowaway is the 2021 science fiction thriller from Netflix that tells an unlikely story of launch engineer Michael who, after being knocked unconscious, accidentally stows away aboard an important two-year mission to Mars. Upon his discovery, the crew must navigate all the usual problems of having an unexpected extra crew member on board while Michael comes to terms with actually having to live in space with no training whatsoever.

Once the initial drama is unveiled in Stowaway, nothing happens for a while. The main story is that with a critical system damaged, the captain (Toni Colette) summarises only three of them can survive the journey. This is where things get a bit weird, and while questionable decisions are made, it ultimately comes down to them having to complete a dangerous task to ensure they all survive.

A task that the bosses on the ground explicitly advise against. However, it feels like when this dramatic finale happens, it seemed quite simple. This film is, however, gorgeous to look at. Despite the convenient artificial gravity keeping the budget down, the scenes in space were all beautifully done.

Stowaway Netflix Review

All four actors in Stowaway had good performances but not a lot to work with script-wise. The most frustrating thing was the ending. Michael is built up to be the audience’s hero, the one we can all relate to, and the one that you hope will have his moment and make a real contribution to the crew and perhaps even save the day.

Well, you can keep hoping… the ending was very abrupt and did not fit with the rest of the story. It needed an extra 10-15 minutes to show what happens after that moment, and what effect it has on the crew. Instead, the credits instantly roll. Very frustrating. Still worthy of a three out of five though I believe. Watch ‘Stowaway’ on Netflix here.