Spaceship Earth: Film Review

Spaceship Earth: Film Review

Director: Matt Wolf

Granted, there's a timely nature to this documentary release about how 8 men and women lock themselves into a biosphere for a two year "scientific" experiment.

In the 1990s, Biosphere 2, along with its self-sustaining ecosystem, was supposed to be the answer to a question that would become more urgent in the 21st century. However, Matt Wolf's documentary spends more than half of its time building background up than getting to the real meat of the inevitable conflict that would always show up in such an experiment.

Genial to a point of failing to really pick its subjects apart, the film begins with something reminiscent of a Galaxy Quest photoshoot as the group readies themselves to enter the Arizona-based dome and their rose-tinted perfect future.

While early elements hint at a sort of cult developing by a group of people who come together via theatre, the idea to build a ship and sail on leads to the development of the dome and the dreams of their apparently benevolent leader, John Allen.

And while Spaceship Earth uses a great deal of archive footage to demonstrate the bond between the initial players, the doco spends too long prevaricating with the background of its subjects, and not enough time examining some of the reasons for the cracks and their fall out.

It lacks a eureka moment that truly grips, and Wolf uses more candid moments to hint at the problems ahead - tensions over trying to even close the door to start the experiment show more than a contrived narrative could.

It may be "trendy ecological entertainment", but the hints of public deception charges, claims of help from outside, the negativity starts to showcase the fact there is a cracking story somewhere in the Spaceship Earth story - and the arrival of Steve Bannon late in the piece only seems to ramp up the more insane elements of the story that would have made a truly compelling and jaw-dropping story.

Instead, Spaceship Earth provides an intriguing peek inside what was going on, but it assumes a degree of familiarity with the subject and goes along with the idealism. Should there have been a little more of an intrusive interviewer edge, the film could have had a bite and veneer that's impossible to shake.

Spaceship Earth is streaming now on Docplay.