Crater Movie Review

Crater” is Streaming today, May 12, on Disney+. That’s a little worrisome because, generally, a movie that avoids advertising and hides out, only to be seen on the release date on its site, won’t be something you want to run to see. You may feel that way if you’re an adult, but you’ll see this as a fun adventure if you’re a lot younger. Mom. Dad. It’ll be okay to watch it with them. It isn’t all that bad.

It’s the year 2257. People live on the moon, mining for helium which gets them what they need to travel through space. If you mine for a certain amount of time, you and your whole family can be put in cryostasis, where you’ll remain until you wake up seventy-five years later, living on everything dream location, Omega. God only knows what we’ve done to our earth at this point, but it’s not somewhere you’re too keen on remaining for the rest of your days.

Caleb (Isaiah Russell-Bailey) is our lead. His father, played by American Rapper, Kid Cudi, was a miner who put in his time. They’re about to leave, but he dies before their trip to Omega, but Caleb still gets to go. They leave in three days. That’s all the time he has to do the one thing he promised to do if anything was to ever happen to his father. His dying wish is that Caleb goes to one of the lunar craters and see what’s there. He’ll go… even if he has to go on his own. 

That’s not happening. His friends insist they’re going, too. It’ll be an excellent way to spend what time they have left with him. They’re young and aren’t about to miss out on a little journey either. There’s little to do in a colony where they’re constantly being watched. Marcus (Thomas Boyce), Dylan (Billy Barratt) and Borney (Orson Hong), an intriguing character, are going no matter what Caleb wants. 

They have to steal a rover to get there and are doing that very thing when Addison (Mckenna Grace), an actual earthling, jumps in, insisting she gets to go, too. They’re not crazy about the idea because they’re not confident they trust someone from the planet the boys have only heard about, but maybe they’ll learn some things from her. They’re just curious enough to let her join them. Plus, they need her to get out of the dome. The stories she tells them have them in awe, such as the fact that they have books telling what happened there on earth for years. Okay.

A meteor shower is about to start, and the area is put on lockdown. They make it out in a massive rover just in time. I’ll never know how this isn’t stopped but just go with it. The kids find time to get out but decide to play for a while, not head straight to the crater. They burn up some oxygen floating up as high as possible and being yanked back down. Addison tells them about a game called baseball, so they play a little of that. Yeah. This won’t thrill you. 

Anyway, using up most of the oxygen being dummies, they go to an outpost where miners used to get supplies. Borney doesn’t want to go in it because he believes in space ghosts (Are they anything like the cartoon? He’s cool.) Anyway, after a fight, they end up going into what looks like a model home. It freaks them out. How it looks will make you a little uneasy, too.

The rest of what happens during this scene is just too ridiculous to even mention. I think the story writers (John Griffin and Rpin Suwannath) and director Kyle Patrick Alvarez missed a chance to make the film more fascinating by using this outpost more, but what is learned is that the company Caleb’s father had been working for has been lying to everyone the entire time.

When they reach the crater, Kyle Patrick Alvarez is going for a big emotional moment that doesn’t quite come. It was a big letdown.

Overall, the movie will be fun for pre-teens and young teens. It’s no Goonies, though. The film had potential but just didn’t hit the mark. 

Caleb does get his trip to Omega. 

Before the end, he listens to seventy-five-year-old messages from his old pals. They thank him for getting them out of the dome all those years ago and taking that delightful trip. This was a cute way to end the story. I wish more thought had been given to the rest of the film.