‘Space Cadet’ Review: An Implausible Comedy That Never Takes Off

They always say that you need to reach for the stars in life, no matter how impossible your goal seems. Rex Simpson (Emma Roberts), the lively and headstrong young woman in Space Cadet, takes this literally and figuratively. As a promise to her late mother and to fulfil her lifelong childhood dream, she wants to become a space cadet at NASA. Whether or not she will take off needs to be seen, but this silly, implausible comedy certainly doesn’t.

It’s not because of the lack of solid female performances in this latest Liz W. Garcia (The Lifeguard, Purple Hearts) movie. No, both behind and in front of the camera, the female power is the strong engine of this feature. During our interview with Garcia, she mentioned that the movie is based on a news article in which NASA announced that, for the first time, they had an astronaut candidate class that was 50% female. In this movie, Roberts has the honour to portray one of those strong females, and she certainly sinks her teeth into that role.

Her character might initially be a flirty and fun-loving party animal/bartender, but the longer this movie continues, the more we see her determination, cleverness, brilliance, and resilience. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Rex serving customers at Cocoa Beach, Florida, fighting off an alligator or taking on much more significant challenges at the Johnson Space Centre, Roberts shines during every scene with her fierce, charming and free-spirited performance. While it’s clear that she’s still much more suitable for the horror genre – given her tremendous performances in Scream 4 and American Horror Story – Roberts proves again that she can lead a light-hearted comedy beautifully.

Space Cadet might evolve around Rex and her mission to achieve the near impossible, but that doesn’t mean Roberts has to carry this feature all by herself. No, she gets great support from Poppy Liu as her on-screen best friend and housemate, Nadine Cai. Nadine would do anything for her bestie (even if that means altering her friend’s application documents, unbeknown to Rex herself), which results in a brilliant and ridiculously silly performance. Liu (Dead Ringers, Better Call Saul) fully embraces Nadine’s quirkiness and unique personality. While Nadine’s goofiness is over-the-top and too distracting at times, she is the perfect wingwoman for Rex.

The only downside to Nadine’s storyline is that falsifying a resume to get a dream job is a cheesy premise. It might not be the freshest idea as it was already used in films such as The Internship and Second Act, but thanks to Liu’s compelling acting, you’ll partly forgive Garcia for including such a heavily used storyline.

Why is it that despite those playful and vibrant performances, the fluffy movie doesn’t land at all? It’s because it faces way too many meteorites throughout its 110-minute flight time. The biggest one is, without a doubt, the overabundance of predictable storylines. Can’t the female top candidate of the training program and the program’s deputy director Logan O’Leary (Tom Hopper) work together without a romance blossoming between the two? Apparently not, as Hopper and Roberts’s characters find their way to each other’s hearts as soon as Rex starts her training program. While this relationship is put on the backburner equally as fast, it still casts a predictable spell over the movie as Garcia returns to that love storyline multiple times.

The predictability doesn’t do anything for this work itself and neither for Hopper’s character. While the Merlin and The Umbrella Academy actor has much screen time, we barely get to know Logan. It’s clear that Logan is highly clever with a lot of accolades. Still, his achievements are just being diminished because he becomes an eye-candy scientist who behaves awkwardly when being around Rex. While Hopper’s chemistry with Roberts works very well, the lack of an in-depth exploration of his character is the greatest weakness of the film.

The underdevelopment of the supporting characters—especially Gabrielle Union as the Director of Operations—isn’t the only aspect that leaves much to be desired. The lacklustre CGI also deceased the rigorousness of the training program and the importance of the mission.

While Space Cadet tries to deliver a fresh, hilarious and energetic viewing experience, the predictable third act and the formulaic writing prevent Garcia’s passionate endeavour to succeed. Luckily, there are Roberts and Liu and their performances are great, which ensures that this feature will still find its audience.

Space Cadet is out on Prime Video on the 4th of July