Sputnik – Visually Amazing Creature Creation
Director: Egor Abramenko
Writer: Oleg Malovichko, Andrey Zolotarev (Screenplay)
Starring: Oksana Akinshina, Fedor Bondarchuk, Pyotr Fyodorov, Anton Vasilev, Aleksey Demidov
Plot: The lone survivor of an enigmatic spaceship incident hasn’t returned back home alone-hiding inside his body is a dangerous creature.
Tagline – The only survivor did not come back alone.
Runtime: 1 Hour 53 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Sputnik starts when a two man space mission in the Soviet Union returns to Earth, with only one survivor Konstantin Veshnyakov (Fyodorov), Colonel Semiradov (Bondarchuk) turns to neurologist Tatyana Klimova (Akinshina) for answers to what is happening to Konstantin, who at night has a massive secret that nobody can explain happen to him.
As Tatyana looks to investigate, she brings a fresh approach to trying to help, while dealing with the military ideas for what they could do with the secret bought back.
Thoughts on Sputnik
Characters & Performances – Tatyana Klimova is a disgraced neurologist that is facing a board committee for her action which crossed a line, despite saving a life, facing a bleak future in her field, she gets recruited by Colonel Semiradov, who needs her skills to solve the mystery behind a returning astronaut with a huge secret, which seems like an easy assignment, until we learn the problem, one that she is willing to dive deeper into, to try and solve, risking her own life to save the man. Oksana Akinshina is wonderful in this leading role, showing the strength to standout in a male dominated world, never letting her character back down, always looking like the strongest person in the room. Colonel Semiradov is running the operation which is trying to figure out what might have happened, as well as putting the military agenda front and center for what has happened, for their own gain, a strict by the books military character. Fedor Bondarchuk makes this character the cold figure you would expect running a military operation. Konstantin Veshnyakov is the lone survivor of the space mission, he seems fine on the outside, but he has bought something back that only appears at night, he does want to know the truth about his partner but isn’t always telling the truth about what he knows about the connection. Pyotr Fyodorov brings this character to life showing the heroic nature behind who he believes he needs to be.
Story – The story here follows a neurologist that is recruited to help discover the truth about a space mission gone wrong as one of the surviving astronauts has returned with a new life form, with a hunger for blood, she must figure out the truth before it gets turned into the latest military weapon. This is a story that will dive into the mystery about the military secrets in Russia, showing how they would look to cover up and turn things into weapons. Away from the military side, we do have the good in people through Tatyana who is looking to make sure everybody is cured from their pain, no matter what it takes, which will show the two different sides of everything going on. We will be kept guessing along the way as to what is behind the creatures appearance.
Themes – Sputnik is a movie that needs excellent special effects to work, the effects in this film are flawless, with the unique creature creation, which could fill nightmares, from the very first time we see it appears. It works to elevate the horror, with the root of the situation adding a more horror to everything, which also plays into the sci-fi elements in the film. The military base show how much isolation is required to first contain the situation and secondary to show how Russia would look to keep secrets.
Final Thoughts – Sputnik is the best alien feature of the year, with stunning special effects we elevate the film to even higher levels.