10 Recent Movies With One AWFUL Subplot

The first half of George Clooney's epic sci-fi drama The Midnight Sky is focused mostly on scientist Augustine Lofthouse (George Clooney), as he ekes out a lonesome existence on an Arctic base in the wake of an apocalyptic disaster which wiped out most of the Earth's population.

He eventually discovers a young girl, Iris (Caoilinn Springall), on the base, and at this point the film shifts into a chillier version of The Road - a harsh survival romp in which Augustine tries to keep himself and Iris safe.

But eventually Augustine is forced into wider action when he learns that the crew of a spaceship, the Aether, are returning home unaware how dire the situation is on Earth.

For the first half of the movie our interactions with the astronauts, led by characters Sully (Felicity Jones) and Adewole (David Oyelowo), are infrequent, but in the film's second half their involvement becomes much more pronounced.

Ultimately their subplot, which really just becomes the plot by the third act, is a dull encumbrance upon the far more interesting, straightforward tale of Augustine and Iris surviving in the remote, chilly Arctic.

Obviously the script was duty-bound to faithfully adapt Lily Brooks-Dalton's source novel, but constantly cutting away to the forgettable scientists just rips the audience away from the real compelling dramatic meat of the movie - a bearded husk of a man living out his final days with a young girl.