Ascension (2000) Death on Saturn’s Moon
IMDb meta-data is a runtime of 1 hour and 27 minutes, rated 4.5 by 98 cinematizens.
Genre: Sy Fy; Species: Noir.
DNA: Yankee.
Tagline: Here we go again.
Verdict: By the numbers.
A burned out police officer arrives at an isolated mining dome on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2057 to investigate the disappearance of the manager. Since no one can survive outside the dome, the missing man is presumed dead. Neither of the remaining two miners seems much bothered by or interested in the disappearance. They are as indifferent to the fate of the manager as managers usually are to the fate of underlings.
The pace is slow, the dialogue repetitive, but we all know the conventions. Officer has a backstory that emerges slowly and none too clearly. However muddled that is, it is more than we ever find out about the missing manager, or the two surviving miners.
Nothing is made of the locale. It could be in Alaska.
It is better than some I have seen— e.g., Music of the Spheres (1984) — but…, well, that is a left-handed compliment. However, it does not bristle with the ideas that Spheres had despite its amateurish execution.