• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

"The Titan"... avoid like the plague

Gary7

Vice Admiral
Admiral
I don't know why I didn't bother to check on-line to read reviews...

2018 "The Titan" movie popped up on recommended by Netflix. It had 4.5 stars noted. Really? Well, I just impulsively loaded it and started to watch. Premise is pretty interesting, although not very original. The overall story takes place in the future (2048, if I remember right), where Earth has been devastated by environmental disasters (thanks to Scott Pruitt and the Trump Administration). So, there's this far flung idea on exploiting the only celestial body that might have a chance to house human life -- Saturn's moon called Titan. But... a human would die there. A crack bio science team conceives of a means to modify human DNA and essentially "convert" a human to actually survive there. Breathe mostly nitrogen, be impervious to methane, and thrive in the extreme cold.

Sam Worthington of Avatar fame seemed to be a good choice for the protagonist... after all, he's well acquainted with behaving beyond human and wearing CGI skin. But if I were him, I would keep this movie off the resume.

Basically 95% of the movie is spent focusing on the volunteers who undergo the transformation. And as you can well expect, it all goes terribly wrong.

After getting through 50% of it, I was through. So I skipped forward in blocks of 10 minutes and let it run for the last 10 minutes. Absolutely terrible. Voted 1 star.

Trust me, there's nothing redeeming about this movie. :thumbdown:
 
I don't know why I didn't bother to check on-line to read reviews...

2018 "The Titan" movie popped up on recommended by Netflix. It had 4.5 stars noted. Really? Well, I just impulsively loaded it and started to watch. Premise is pretty interesting, although not very original. The overall story takes place in the future (2048, if I remember right), where Earth has been devastated by environmental disasters (thanks to Scott Pruitt and the Trump Administration). So, there's this far flung idea on exploiting the only celestial body that might have a chance to house human life -- Saturn's moon called Titan. But... a human would die there. A crack bio science team conceives of a means to modify human DNA and essentially "convert" a human to actually survive there. Breathe mostly nitrogen, be impervious to methane, and thrive in the extreme cold.

Sam Worthington of Avatar fame seemed to be a good choice for the protagonist... after all, he's well acquainted with behaving beyond human and wearing CGI skin. But if I were him, I would keep this movie off the resume.

Basically 95% of the movie is spent focusing on the volunteers who undergo the transformation. And as you can well expect, it all goes terribly wrong.

After getting through 50% of it, I was through. So I skipped forward in blocks of 10 minutes and let it run for the last 10 minutes. Absolutely terrible. Voted 1 star.

Trust me, there's nothing redeeming about this movie. :thumbdown:
So...they essentially stole...er used a major plot point/element from the original Outer Limits episode: "The Architects of Fear" - and made a mediocre film. ;)
 
Saw the trailer for it the last time I was at the cinema. I didn't think it was the sort of thing I'd go and see there, but I thought I'd check it out on Netflix/tv when it appeared.

It's as bad as that? :(
 
Bar a very small number of exceptions, if it's a Netflix produced movie there's a big clue it will be terrible.
 
Saw the trailer for it the last time I was at the cinema. I didn't think it was the sort of thing I'd go and see there, but I thought I'd check it out on Netflix/tv when it appeared.

It's as bad as that? :(
There are some curious VFX in it, but I found the acting mostly flat... or difficult to believe. And the story is just so disappointing. Not to give the ending away, but the last act you'd expect to be a notable portion of the movie. It wasn't. A mere fraction. It created more questions than gave answers. And not in a thoughtful way, because there's nothing deliberately thought provoking about it. I don't know if this was based on a novel.
 
I don't know why I didn't bother to check on-line to read reviews...

2018 "The Titan" movie popped up on recommended by Netflix. It had 4.5 stars noted. Really? Well, I just impulsively loaded it and started to watch. Premise is pretty interesting, although not very original. The overall story takes place in the future (2048, if I remember right), where Earth has been devastated by environmental disasters (thanks to Scott Pruitt and the Trump Administration). So, there's this far flung idea on exploiting the only celestial body that might have a chance to house human life -- Saturn's moon called Titan. But... a human would die there. A crack bio science team conceives of a means to modify human DNA and essentially "convert" a human to actually survive there. Breathe mostly nitrogen, be impervious to methane, and thrive in the extreme cold.

Sam Worthington of Avatar fame seemed to be a good choice for the protagonist... after all, he's well acquainted with behaving beyond human and wearing CGI skin. But if I were him, I would keep this movie off the resume.

Basically 95% of the movie is spent focusing on the volunteers who undergo the transformation. And as you can well expect, it all goes terribly wrong.

After getting through 50% of it, I was through. So I skipped forward in blocks of 10 minutes and let it run for the last 10 minutes. Absolutely terrible. Voted 1 star.

Trust me, there's nothing redeeming about this movie. :thumbdown:
I already posted above but another issue I have with the idea that if the focus of the film's story (and it's the same issue I have with people who go - "If Earth is screwed, let's terraform and move to Mars...") :

- As bad as the Earth might now be - IF you could modify Humans to live on Titan, couldn't you also modify them to deal with the environmental changes of the Earth (you have the advantage of not having to transport people across the Solar system; and further - the people can make use of the already existing infrastructure (IE buildings, reads, etc.) that remain.

(And that's why I have the same issue with the 'We could terraform Mars one day..." <--- Because IF we ever achieve that level of technological ability, it MIGHT be better to - of I don't know, FIX (IE terraform) the planet we're on too. ;))
 
I was expecting the third act would reveal that the scientists had no way to actually get the test subjects to Titan and the plan was actually to adapt a new population of humans to what is left of Earth after they wipe out the remaining human population. Instead they fast forwarded to the most obvious possible ending. It is a shame, since there was a pretty decent core to work from here.
 
Bar a very small number of exceptions, if it's a Netflix produced movie there's a big clue it will be terrible.

Yeah, I haven't been too pleased with a lot of Netflix movies. I've only found very few of them to be worth sitting through.
 
I'd watch a movie where they are attempting to *move* Titan closer to the sun so we could live there... lol.
 
I already posted above but another issue I have with the idea that if the focus of the film's story (and it's the same issue I have with people who go - "If Earth is screwed, let's terraform and move to Mars...") :

- As bad as the Earth might now be - IF you could modify Humans to live on Titan, couldn't you also modify them to deal with the environmental changes of the Earth (you have the advantage of not having to transport people across the Solar system; and further - the people can make use of the already existing infrastructure (IE buildings, reads, etc.) that remain.

(And that's why I have the same issue with the 'We could terraform Mars one day..." <--- Because IF we ever achieve that level of technological ability, it MIGHT be better to - of I don't know, FIX (IE terraform) the planet we're on too. ;))

That's a great point. If they really have the ability to modify people for extreme environments, why not have them settle the ocean floor, Antarctica, or the Sahara? There's tons of real estate with no space travel required.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top