ANIARA: A Beautiful Sci-Fi Epic That Veers Slightly Off Course

When you approach me with a fantastic movie poster for a space sci-fi epic about a spaceship to Mars that goes off course, you can stop selling – I’m in. That’s exactly what happened with Aniara, the first feature length film from Swedish directors Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja.

The premise is simple and compelling enough. With earth seemingly covered by massive storms, we follow a group of people taking the three month journey to Mars. It’s made to seem very common and the ship feels more like a cruise ship than a spaceship. Early in the journey, however, the crew has to evade some space trash and loses power while floating helplessly off course.

We experience the journey through the eyes of MR (a perfectly cast Emelie Jonsson). She’s a ship employee who runs a room with a sentient computer. The computer accesses passengers memories to provide a joyful, spiritual and calming experience. As it becomes clear there’s no turning back, the passengers need MR and the computer’s experiences more and more.

The first half of the film kept me on the edge of my seat. The worldbuilding is epic, the stakes are high, and the moments are tense. It’s compelling and feels fresh to see all expectations of the passengers and crew collapse. But as the film heads into the second half, it goes off the rails and loses what made it so compelling.

While it’s a visually stunning feature debut for Kågerman and Lilja, the ship’s lost course becomes symbolic of the lost potential of Aniara. As a whole, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. It features absolutely gripping moments and is gorgeous and wildly ambitious in scope, but a bit short on focus.

Vivid worldbuilding brings the film to life

The universe Aniara lives in feels rich and real. Offhand comments from passengers like, “I told my son I’d be there for his fourth birthday” add to that feeling. From the fact that space travel feels commonplace, to the flashbacks to earth, it feels like there’s so much more than meets the eye.

In fact, much of what we don’t see is what adds to the worldbuilding. It’s impressive that we never see what the Mars colony looks like, other spaceships as part of the program or really learn what’s happened to Earth. It’s all information we’d love to have, but it doesn’t detract or feel like they were overlooked – they just feel unnecessary.

Absolutely mesmerizing to look at

It’s not just the world they create, but how it looks. I was continuously astonished just how gorgeous Aniara looked. Everything from the set pieces to the special effects, like the sentient computer and exterior space shots, feel like the real future of space travel.

Having no idea what the budget for the film was, the crew stretched it really well to perfect every frame. It feels more like a grounded sci-fi in the vein of Prospect rather than a film relying too much on CGI. I would watch another film from Kågerman and Lilja thanks to their visual artistry alone.

The second half loses its touch

While the first half of the film feels like a thrilling ride and delivers on the movie’s premise, the second half goes a bit off the rails. The second half is plagued by pacing issues, which slow it significantly, making the second hour feel like it’s own 90 minute film.

The second half also turns into a bit of a romance story between MR and one of the ship’s pilots, Isagel (Bianca Cruzeiro). It’s not that it comes out of nowhere, but it deters the focus from the high stakes situation to one small aspect of the larger story at play.

The second half of the film also features a full on space orgy (because why not?) that does come out of absolutely nowhere and some bad acid trips if that’s your thing. We see different moments of the course of several years, some of which follow a plot and some which feel disjointed. It does manage to reign itself back in a bit and finishes strong – it’s just a bit too late.

Aniara: A perfect premise, slightly unfulfilled

While Aniara does come back around and resolves the compelling premise it opens, it feels like the course it takes there is packed with detours.  The worldbuilding is a masterclass in balancing details and broader concepts while leaving just enough to the imagination. It’s a wildly ambitious film that punches above its weight visually, but could use one more edit to trim some of the fat.

What’s your favorite sci-fi epic? Have you seen Aniara? Let us know in the comments. 

Aniara hits US theaters and iTunes May 17th.