Disney Plus’ refreshing space movie Crater mashes up The Goonies with Interstellar

polygon.com:

“They just don’t make ’em like they used to” is a common complaint about movies, TV, and everything in between. So many people harbor a specific fondness for what they watched growing up that chasing nostalgia with endless reboots, remakes, and legacy sequels has become a genre of its own. And new releases that aren’t directly tied to an old, beloved franchise are just as likely to be projects like Stranger Things, which echoes an entire subgenre of 1980s media and uses that setting as a selling point.

But Disney Plus’ Crater does something that’s fairly rare: It has all the hijinks, heart, and even the formula of an ’80s kids adventure like The Goonies or Stand By Me, where a big escapade fuels a coming-of-age story. But the added complexity of its sci-fi setting allows director Kyle Patrick Alvarez and writer John Griffin to dive into some more poignant overarching themes. It’s familiar, without being cliche or tied to any existing media. At the same time, it’s innovative, in a way that celebrates its familiar genre tropes, instead of snarking at them.

Polygon Recommends is our way of endorsing our favorite games, movies, TV shows, comics, tabletop books, and entertainment experiences. When we award the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the recipient is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive, or fun — and worth fitting into your schedule. If you want curated lists of our favorite media, check out What to Play and What to Watch .

Set in the distant future, Crater takes place on a lunar mining colony. Teenage protagonist Caleb (Isaiah Russell-Bailey) has just been orphaned after his father (Scott Mescudi, aka Kid Cudi) dies in a mining accident. With both parents dead