With a cool premise (genetic modification for the sake of possible life off-planet) and a pretty established cast (Sam Worthington, Taylor Schilling, Tom Wilkinson), you would think the Netflix original film The Titan (2018) could be a fair shot at Netflix cinema greatness. A dramatic thriller that is half sci-fi, half horror, the groundwork laid out for The Titan merited out-of-this-world possibilities. A society on the brink of cataclysm, and a last ditch effort for a eugenics program destined for the stars: you could really go anywhere with a story like that – I mean, this is the recipe for a good science fiction film, is it not? In the case of The Titan (2018) however, directed by newcomer Lennart Ruff and trumped up as another big Netflix film of 2018, is not a good science fiction film. In fact, it’s an epic dud no matter what genre it attempts to fit into and a definitive thumbs down – a distinction that Netflix appears to be getting all too comfortable with this year when it comes to their original film content.
TABLE SETTING / FIRST-ACT
It’s 2048 – and the world is (apparently) in dire straits. Resources are depleting, human population is reaching staggering numbers, war has ravaged the planet, and natural disasters have become commonplace. As described by character Professor Collingwood who is played by actor Tom Wilkinson (John Adams, RocknRolla, Valkyrie) humanity is “fighting over the scraps of what remains.” However, we wouldn’t know this while watching The Titan (2018) if it wasn’t for this professor doomsday and the brief shots of newscasts haphazardly thrown in at the beginning of the film. In fact, the entirety of The Titan (2018) is set on a secret island in the Atlantic Ocean – a NATO Operating base, conveniently far, far away from all of the nasty apocalyptic-style stuff that the viewers would probably prefer to see to get an idea of some of the stakes that are involved to merit this dramatic premise. Regardless, the film starts off with some interesting visuals (which were welcomed and somewhat encouraging) as we start to follow the new arrival of the Janssen family approaching via convoy and being introduced to their new home on the base.
The Janssen’s include Lieutenant Rick Janssen, played by Sam Worthington (Avatar, Terminator Salvation, Clash of the Titans), a soldier who has been through hell and back as a MIA service member stranded in the Syrian Desert alone for three days prior to rescue (also necessary information that was clunkily told rather than shown). Father to a young boy and married to his college sweetheart Dr. Abigail “Abi” Janssen, who is played by Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black), Rick has been chosen to join what has been coined the Titan Program: a top-secret, highly classified NASA project aimed at genetically modifying it’s subjects to survive life on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan (since humanity is doomed on Earth, and all). Led by Professor Collingwood, the Titan Program is based on a strict vetting process, in which only service men and women selected were chosen based off their proven propensity for survival and adaptability to harsh conditions. While Collingwood insists that this is not forced evolution, but survival of the species and “evolving humanity into the stars with (a few “minor”) enhancements,” it becomes clear fairly quickly in The Titan that this program will be dangerous and intensely invasive (physiologically).
The Janssen family begin to settle in while Rick starts the program, in which he is scheduled to receive three hundred shots within the next three weeks that will begin to drastically alter him through a medically-induced metamorphosis. Rick quickly shows exquisite results amid his fellow test-subjects as he begins to become exceedingly comfortable in extreme temperatures and is at one point shown under water in excess of 40 minutes without oxygen. He flexes his muscles throughout the beginning of the program, and even though his wife (Abi) is familiar with the lead scientist’s (Collingwood) work, she acts mostly naive for a good portion of the film, barely batting an eye at the process. However as The Titan continues and the procedures become more and more drastic, Rick in turn begins to change drastically, finally drawing Abi’s attention, spotlighting the absurdity of the project and allowing her to come to a more rational realization in regard to Rick’s increasingly disturbing road through transformation.
DIRECTION, DISSECTION, VERDICT
[SEMI-SPOILER] By the third act of The Titan and after “successfully” completing the Titan Program, Rick has fully transformed into a new species called Homo titanian – a mute, hairless, blue-tinted “super-human” more resemblant of a lame, undrafted species that didn’t make the cut for Star Trek: The Next Generation during it’s third season. Seriously though, Sam Worthington really lowered the bar for himself in The Titan – he was fairly convincing as a Na’vi (Avatar), barely scathed by as a Terminator (Salvation), and just absolutely reached bottom of the barrel as a Titan. The finished “transformation” in this film is so utterly (and unintentionally) comical that I’d go as far as to say it is some of the worst sci-fi special effects design in film that I’ve seen in at least a decade. I really don’t know what The Titan was working toward if this was the finished product laid out by the makeup design team and director Lennart Ruff. I mean, the entirety of The Titan’s plot was driven by this Frankenstein style trope guised as the Titan Program – you would think if your whole movie was about creating Frankenstein’s monster, you would make a convincing monster.
Even though Worthington was given little dialogue, what few lines sparsely provided to his character in The Titan were delivered in an emotionally-inept way and/or phoned-in. The majority of the (emotional) heavy lifting fell on actress Taylor Schilling as Dr. Abigail Janssen, who unfortunately was never really able to deliver a believable performance. Acting semi-blissfully ignorant and floating through la la land in what appeared to be a majority of the film, by the time it’s up to her to bring in the gusto, all hope, quality, and potential for The Titan had already seemingly careened off a cliff into extreme absurdity. Even during a horrendous Beauty and the Beast style sequence near the end of the film, it was near impossible not to help from rolling your eyes at the direction of the writing and the lack of plausibility by Schilling, who has been known to perform exceptionally well on the small screen (particularly as Piper from Orange is the New Black). The whole movie feels predetermined to become it’s own worst possible variation of itself, with a contrived climax involving a “genetic mutation on the loose that must be hunted down” style scenario. While their were tons of potential for a film involving this solid-sounding premise along with a cast (semi-)willing to perform, it seemed integral to provide a good screenplay; however, all good things were squandered in The Titan. Even the final moments of the film, (plot holes and all) are laugh out loud ridiculous.
While I may have stomped on The Titan enough, I will say that underneath this rubble of nonsense are a few decent thematic nuggets to juggle with. The film definitely lays out the ideology of honor in being a heroic servicemen and soldier for one’s country. However in turn, fleshes out the concept of how much someone is willing to give to those in power – and to what end. It also plays with the idea of what makes us human and what we are willing to do to ensure our longevity in the universe, even if it strips us of our identities and what we may identify with as being human. Ultimately though, The Titan is a tremendous flop, and I don’t see how Netflix has the ability (or financial aptitude) to keep churning out one original film dud after another. I hope for Netflix’s sake that they decide (or have decided)to include more quality-tested directors who have some experience under their belt. If these types of films (productions that involve a somewhat sizable budget and a fairly successful cast) are going to continually be given to more and more directorial newcomers, then Netflix has a long road ahead in recovering any cinematic credibility this year and potentially onward.
The Titan (2018) is currently streaming on Netflix.
Millennial Movie Man 