Space Sweepers: Koreans make Better Sci-Fi too?

Space Sweepers (2021), a Korean Sci-Fi film on Netflix, was a refreshing take on the genre. In film’s modern landscape of rehashes and remakes, originality is a precious commodity. Space Sweepers manages to be original and surprising while staying faithful to staples of the genre.

Space Sweepers uses this absurd, humorous sci-fi bent that you see in the Marvel movies (especially the ones with Robert Downy Junior). Yes, that kind of humor in films is trendy nowadays because of how jaded audiences are. But to be fair to Space Sweepers, absurdism in sci-fi is kind of a staple of the genre.

Two books come to mind: first of all, Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy is an obvious one — that’s a movie too, isn’t it? — and really kind of anything by Kurt Vonnegut.

More recently, another book-turned-movie in the absurd sci-fi genre is Ready Player One (2011) by Ernest Cline. I still haven’t read that one, but the movie was incredibly goofy while somehow still leaving a level of speculative depth.

Or I dunno. This Redditor read the book, and they seemed to think Ready Player One was just the most god-awful piece of writing ever: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/m2eqil/ready_player_one_is_a_terrible_horrible_no_good/

Anyway, you get the idea. I’m trying to explain the general Space Sweepers vibe. Humorous and unpredictable, suitable for a modern audience, full of bright lights and laser-y effects; yet possessed of a depth that maybe goes beyond MCU and Ready Player One.

Space Sweepers Review

So full disclosure, my Space Sweepers review is overwhelmingly positive.

My favorite character in Space Sweepers is Bubs, the android. What’s fun about Bubs is you can read his feelings by watching emoticons change on his face.

Which leads me to another thing I liked about Space Sweepers: Bubs is trans, but the fact that Bubs is trans doesn’t disrupt the story in any way. I really don’t like it when movies inject, for example, a strong female character, just for the sake of being different. It breaks down the fourth wall and takes me out of the movie. I don’t like preachiness. That’s why I can’t watch South Park, for example, despite the fact that I appreciate the humor.

Here’s an article celebrating Bubs as a trans character: https://www.outfrontmagazine.com/netflixs-space-sweepers-features-trans-android-character/

In fact, Space Sweepers features a dynamic cast of characters from across the world. They all speak different languages and have different customs and that fact also does absolutely nothing to impact the story.

You know what that reminds me of? Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek and TNG.

Star Trek’s utopian vision of the future — Russians and Americans roaming space on the same ship (filmed during the cold war), the questions of an android’s sentience, a female captain (okay, now I’m on to Star Trek Voyager), and heaps of other characters molded after the humanitarian/libertarian (in the classic sense of the word) traditions of the West are cornerstones of utopian sci-fi.

And I really like that Space Sweepers touches on that — without being too damn preachy about it.

Thank you for reading my Space Sweepers Review. If you liked my review of Space Sweepers, bookmark our page. Come back once in a while.