The Midnight Sky Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

3. There Are Major Tonal Issues

One gets the impression that Clooney didn't quite know how to seamlessly blend the source material's various elements into a coherent whole, because The Midnight Sky is a bit of a tonal mess.

At first it feels like Clooney is crafting a sci-fi version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road - a bleak survival tale as an ailing man tries to protect a young child.

Though levity is certainly welcome during the dramatic downtime, an early scene where Lofthouse and Iris flick peas at one another during dinner feels a little too cutesy for its own good, like it belongs in another film altogether.

Then there's the spaceship plot, which fleets between being a breezy Lost in Space-style adventure jaunt and a periodically horrifying survival thriller when accidents happen and the crew's numbers inevitably begin to dwindle.

It'd be a challenge for any filmmaker to reconcile these jostling moods, and despite Clooney's ambitious effort, Mark L. Smith's script feels largely to blame for not bridging them sufficiently.