'Crater' by Kyle Patrick Alvarez Review: Don't waste your time on it

If you happen to be one to read through my frequent ramblings about films and television shows here, you may have noticed that I will watch and review just about anything. I go through periods of shifting through genres in search of something different, fully aware that I might be watching utter trash. Sometimes I stumble across good films, bad films, mediocre films, nostalgic films, old films, or just your typical blockbuster films. To say I have a solid preference would be a stretch, and I quite enjoy how each day I sort of just roll the dice with whatever comes across my way, regardless of the language, decade, or genre of the film. Well, recently I've been in more of a relaxed mood in regards to the things I want to watch. Films that are easy to sit down and watch, that aren't too long and still tell a bit of a story. Nothing major. A guilty pleasure of mine happens to be the live action family films that Disney world throw out in the late 90s and early 2000s.

But to be honest, I had no idea Creator was a film by Disney to begin with. I was browsing a list of new releases and figured the name of Crater was already enough for me to check it out. I assumed it would be a unique, modern science fiction film set around some sort of space related event. I usually love watching space related films, but I find that the majority of them these days seem a bit lost. Either sticking too much to the drama and following the direction of Star Trek, or bring a bit too preachy and lazy on the narratives by promoting the normal idea that humans destroyed Earth and now live in space; desperate to somehow return to Earth to revive the life that left it. Space films seem, generally, quite difficult to craft due to the seemingly limited options that can take place. Perhaps, to some degree, this creativity is more a result of budget constraints. But as much as I would like to enjoy the space genre, it ends up disappointing somehow.

From the start, Crater seemed already rather boring. But the limited story it had did seem quite similar to the usual Disney family flick that would have been released yesteryear. Holding a story in which somewhat mature teenagers take up the idea of some grand adventure together while breaking free from the norms placed upon them from society. Though this film doesn't really have much of a narrative, and the vast majority of it just isn't interesting or really make any sense. These teenagers are grouped together on a base on the Moon, forced into manual labour and with no real way out. One of them, however, does. He's expected to fly out and live in utopia relatively soon, leading to the fears and worries of change taking over and having the group steal equipment and a vehicle to leave the base and travel towards a crater they've been told to avoid. Curiosity of course bringing these youths to their breaking point and longing for adventure beyond their small moon base. This initial idea is fine, it serves as a pretty basic but effective introduction to what should be a broader narrative. Though, this isn't necessarily the foundation, but sort of it all.

You'd expect that this would be their call to action, following the established narrative structure of most stories, but everything just falls empty until the last moment, to which the film drops all of its characters in favour of just one, giving a totally unsatisfying, and actually rather fucked up conclusion to it all. I actually found myself in shock a bit due to this, being a family film that supposedly tells a science fiction story of loss, friendship, and growth. But instead it was painfully dark. Now, I know you're going to watch this, so let's talk about this insanity! Crater tells the story of a group of friends on their last adventure together. One aimed at getting a ticket to freedom, and the rest are destined to suffer on the moon base. In the end, this teenager is cryogenically frozen for 70 years to which he wakes up in this utopia. His friends leaving behind voice recordings of their lives one a year as they grow older. Still a teenager, this now elite just listens to these recordings like it's totally normal to hear your friends have lived and died of old age. What?! We just spent the entire film watching them grow together only for them all to just be cast aside off the screen with a time jump into the future to which they're dead. And left behind is just one of them that doesn't even seem to care; after all, he made it out.

This isn't even to forget that much of the film doesn't really have any real adventure to it. They escape the base briefly, make a few mistakes and then find a weird old model home from the past on the moon to just sit at and eat food in. That's their grand adventure and escape together. Essentially things they would have done back at the base. As expected with these cheaper Disney flicks, the actors and performances are nothing to shed a tear over. I found every character was just written poorly or highly unbelievable; some of this a result of the usual overly mature teenager character that Disney loves to throw out. Making them act, talk, and think like adults with plenty of life experience rather than stupid children. Perhaps if they had been painted more as children it would've made their boring adventure and mistakes seem more believable and fitting for the narrative as these youths pursue growth; but it just doesn't work here. And again in typical low budget fashion, the special effects aren't great. But they aren't also that bad in parts either. For a film of this genre, it's very special effects hungry, and much of it can easily be overlooked. Perhaps the least offensive aspect of the film.

Another thing I noticed, well, this is a modern Disney film, which means the casting is progressive to say the least. I'm not one to care about a person's nationality, religion, or whatever. But Crater is definitely a Disney film in which the casting is purposely just pushing an agenda. You have pretty much one of every race in this friendship group, and it's clear that it's casting just for the argument of being diverse. Do you know what could have been better here? Perhaps actually giving them some identity and making them stand out. If you're going to push this thing, make the characters actually interesting. Give them stories, backstories, culture, lifestyle; not just the same as every other character. I find a big problem with these sorts of films is that there's no identity when alleged representation is present. Diversity goes beyond just having one of every colour, it should be about actually representing those nationalities. Give them some depth!

When it came to writing this review, this diversity stuff was sometbing I was incredibly hesitant to mention. It's such a fragile area of filmmaking under this insane climate we now live in. But I can't help but notice the problem. As mentioned, diversify isn't really diversity if everyone is the same. There should be pride in having differences from each other, as that is what makes people individuals, each with their own ideas, ambitions, and ways of life. If you fail to implement this, you're clearly just patting yourself on the back and farming some ESG points for shareholders. For a film like Crater, in which its narrative is about child labour on the moon, there's a great opportunity to display the differences in class and faith and how different people react to such harsh environments. It would have really made the characters more interesting to see how each of them adapt and how they came together unddd such circumstances. Even for a Disney film, yes. But it's just not there, again.

I don't think Crater is worth your time. For a science fiction film, it has some fun ideas that are barely considered and entirely abandoned for stories that go nowhere and make no sense. And with that ending, it's more terrifying than wholesome and comforting.