"Rex, a Florida party girl, turns out to be the only hope for the NASA space program after a fluke puts her in training with other candidates who may have better resumés, but don't have her smarts, heart, and moxie." 

OUR MOVIE REVIEW:

Space Cadet has a lousy trailer, it fails to incite any excitement towards the concept and the humor just doesn’t bleed through in the format. Safe to say my hesitancy was incredibly high and the start of this feature surely didn’t inspire much optimism. Luckily while the film does have its many detractors and strong gravitational pull weighing it down, Space Cadet manages to lift ever so slightly off the ground.

Emma Roberts has never stood at the forefront of a film and shined as the “it” girl. She’s always been a supporting actor and even then she’s struggled to find her path. Scream 4 and Nerve easily take the cake for her best work creatively. Now with her fully taking the lead here, she must wade off this critic’s opinion of her performance as Rex Simpson and she doesn’t quite make the leap. I don’t think she’s the drowning factor of Space Cadet however, that comes down to a few other factors in regards to predictability and one obnoxious partner in crime. 

The film is about a woman that sneaks her way into a NASA training for future astronauts and this element of competition, as well as comradery should have been sharper. The number of fellow applicants is barely focused on and when several get dismissed, it’s difficult to mind their absence. Without a doubt the best part of the film is the “Captain America” type, played by Andrew Call - he certainly holds the most number of laughs. 

Spread further and into the leadership of this NASA program, it would have been better to have a more fleshed out staff. Tom Hopper’s Logan plays the awkward, reluctant to embrace Rex’s acceptance, while Gabrielle Union plays the woman who sticks her neck out for her until welcoming. Hopper gets a lot of screen time and yet we still know very little about him personally, Union is forced in the back, only coming out to be the witty sidekick to Logan’s occasionally dumb antics. 

The cast works well together and their chemistry for the most part really flows, but it’s the lack of characterization that hinders the experience. The largest example of a waste of greatness is the misuse of Dave Foley, the Sky High icon deserved better. 

Space Cadet plays it primarily safe with most of the film utilizing training courses as it should and saving the “CGI” for the space mission. The “CGI,” which is in quotations only because it’s so lackluster it should barely qualify for effort - leave a lot to be desired. A long walk in front of the rocket showcases just how poor the visuals can get. 

Liz W. Garcia’s Space Cadet manages a cackle here and there, but its humor never fully takes hold. A story about someone lying to fit in certainly isn’t anything new and feels almost like a project Amanda Byrnes would have taken on in the early 00s. There’s a slim margin of charm to the overall experience and the majority of the third act rescues the film - before ruining it with an inflated ending. A little long, a little too easy to follow, but no one ever said it was trying to be Apollo 13… its failure to launch causes it to settle for a DCOM comparison.