‘Space Cadet’ Review – Emma Roberts’ Prime Video NASA Flick Is Legally Bland

The big picture

• Space Cadet is an unrealistic and poorly executed story about a clueless 20-year-old who enters NASA without qualifications.
• The film sacrifices realism and meaningful character development for half-baked feminism and cliched humor.
• Despite its good intentions, Space Cadet fails to deliver a compelling message, leaving viewers with an unforgiving and tired experience.

Space exploration has given us some of the most enduring and impressive cinematic classics of all time, with stunning visuals, powerful narratives and thrilling action. unfortunately, the space movie genre has now also given us Liz W. Garcia's Space Cadet. Yes Apollo 13 i Legally Blonde had an insufferable love child without the respective excitement and charm of its prodigiously successful parents, it would be this NASA pseudo-feminist fiction. The film centers on a clueless twenty-something (played by an uninspired Emma Roberts) who becomes an astronaut without a degree and, even better, without consequences. Filled with bad jokes, one-note characters, and weird and baffling visual effects, Prime Video's Space Cadet shoots for the moon, but falls alarmingly short, probably hanging up a shiny jean jacket and laughing incessantly until the end.

What is 'Space Cadet' about?

Space Cadet begins with the introduction of Emma Roberts' Tiffany “Rex” Simpson, a waitress who sees herself as the creator of rudimentary inventions, including an inexplicable manatee doorway in a river and a tanning tray made of mirrors that , to its credit, also has a cup holder. After a high school reunion that makes Rex feel embarrassed about her professional status, she decides that her childhood ambitions and passion for the moon make her qualified to be an astronaut. When he's surprised to learn that working at NASA requires more than a high school diploma and a can-do attitude, he writes a letter detailing his passion for all things celestial and also marine life for some reason, hoping the federal government will love of all its charm

Her best friend Nadine (Poppy Liu), unbeknownst to Rex, forges some credentials in his letter, which, along with the success of his manatee door, gets Rex admittance to the NASA training program. This level of unbelievable stupidity pretty much sets the stage for the rest of the movie, in which Rex uses his bold demeanor and limited understanding of physics and simple machines to earn the respect of his peers and the heart of his mentor, Logan (Tom Hopper), who, to be fair, looks just as dumb as she does.

Emma Roberts plays an insufferable protagonist in 'Space Cadet'

Space CadetThe main protagonist of this is, to put it politely, a delusional and entitled young woman who I wouldn't trust to drive me to the airport, let alone fly the damn plane. However, Rex is, at first, portrayed as an intelligent person. She was accepted to Georgia Tech (but didn't go due to her late mother's illness), and as a waitress, she memorizes numerous complex drink orders and concocts her own inventions in her downtime. It also helps with the practical effects for his father (Sam Robards) ghost-hunting-hoax business, which basically involves throwing tennis balls at windows, but still shows a certain level of ingenuity.

How Space Cadet continues, Rex loses any semblance of a brain cell, rolls into NASA in a bedazzled crop top and fuzzy platform sandals, and literally jumps into his superior's arms to say hello. (You can be a free spirit and still wear some casual clothes and decorum in the workplace!) He struts around the institution laughing at inappropriate times and throws a peace sign at any sign of conflict, and somehow everyone his companions but one find this. adorable rather than annoying. Rex at least manages to be cloyingly sincere until a particularly thoughtless stunt takes the character from irritating to utterly unredeemable, and Emma Roberts' one-note, cheerful performance it's far from enough to make the character's sins forgivable (at least to the audience).

'Space Cadet' sacrifices realism for half-hearted feminism

Although I'm obviously trying to emulate a Legally Blonde– History of underdogs, Space Cadet she takes a completely unqualified main character and shows how she is hardly willing to work to achieve her dream. Apart from a totally uninspiring training montage in which Rex and his random new roommate, Violet (Kuhoo Verma), exchange their knowledge of physics and running, Rex seems unwilling to earn her place in this prestigious profession. In relation to this, Space Cadet it sends a misleading message that you deserve something simply because you want it, and that you don't have to work hard for things if you rig the system and then be lovable.

The film is even more disappointing in this, at first Space Cadet, Rex sees himself as special because all the other women around him are jerks. This is exemplified at her high school reunion, when the three old classmates she talks to are insensitive, one-dimensional party girls who do little beyond squealing and laughing. (Bonus points to whoever thinks a full-ride scholarship means college gives you a free car!) Similarly, Rex's best friend Nadine, who, to Poppy Liu's credit, she has the only laugh-out-loud moments in the entire film – exists only as Rex's sidekick, staring blankly at her best “genius” and gaining most of her screen time by pretending to be Rex's various made-up references.

When he arrives at NASA, Rex's fellow astronauts are clueless or framed as humorless shrews. Even Gabrielle Union, who plays one of the protagonists of the space program, is unserious and underused. The film also misses an opportunity to establish a strong mentor-mentee relationship between Union and Roberts' characters (which Rex could benefit from). Space Cadet it makes Rex remarkable at the expense of other womenand it defeats the “girl power” message that the film was clearly aiming to achieve.

“The inspirational message of Space Cadet is lost in space, well

At its core, Space Cadet it has a good message about following your dreams and staying true to yourself, even if that message is wrapped in layers of silly, lame jokes. There is no right way to be a genius and no right way to be a woman in STEM; people have different abilities and strengths, and Rex's passion and inventiveness could surely be beneficial on some level. Similarly, the film shows that bartending requires intelligence, social skills and a great attention to detail, so if anything, Space Cadet it's really a half-baked manifesto about underestimating the intelligence of service workers.

However, despite his best efforts, Space Cadet it never reaches its potential as a comedy or aspirational tale. Instead, the film gets lost in the realm of tepid and forgettable rom-coms, with lofty aspirations but, unlike its main character, firmly grounded.

Space Cadet is available to stream on Prime Video starting July 4 in the US

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