The critics’ verdicts on the new film are in, and while it hasn’t exactly been unanimously panned, it hasn’t proven to be quite as impressive as many had expected. Anthony Mackie stars with Margaret Qualley in the intimate sci-fi thriller; set at a time when the Earth’s climate has changed to the point where humans have to flee to the titular moon of Jupiter.
At time of writing, it has a 57% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
The Hollywood Reporter complained of “tedium”, saying: “There’s barely a scene in IO that’s performed with pulse or verve.
“It’s Sad-Face Emoji Sci-Fi, with po-faced references to Greek mythology, Chopin, T.S. Eliot, among others, and empirical techno-jargon spoken at a Valley Girl level of credibility.”
The US site praised Mackie but slammed Qualley, and concluded: “It’s not a good sign… when a movie ostensibly meant to rekindle one’s faith in mankind makes you long instead for permanent apocalypse.”
The Guardian were less negative, giving a three-star verdict – though they too had only lukewarm praise for Qualley.
“Qualley, as Sam, is wide-eyed and watchable; she doesn’t quite have the indefinable presence of, say, Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games, but she gives depth to Sam’s determination, even as her logic can be unclear,” they said.
“Mackie, as Micah, brings deep-voiced gravitas to a sparsely written role, and effectively signals PLOT TWISTS when he RAISES HIS VOICE.”
RogerEbert.com have given two stars to the film, saying: “Qualley and Mackie struggle to find chemistry as two slightly less lonely people in the world, conversing with monotone line-readings while guarding their private denials.
“Broad themes like staunch hope, and vital human connection, become cheap sentiments, vanishing into air.
“IO isn’t science fiction storytelling distilled so much as it is vaporized.”
IGN gave a middling three-star verdict, saying: “Its pacing and lack of urgency betrays the drama…
“That’s not enough to be described as boring, but enough to give one pause before choosing it as their movie for the night.”
The film has quite a profound ending – see it explained here.
IO is out now on Netflix.