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Good Night Oppy Movie Review

Good Night Oppy is a 2022 documentary film directed by Ryan White. It is a manipulative, but still highly moving and entertaining documentary.

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“Good night, Opportunity. Well done“

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The movie follows the remarkable true story of Opportunity, a NASA exploration rover that was sent to Mars for a 90-day mission but ended up surviving for 15 years. I am a huge fan of science, astronomy being one of my chief interests. Space exploration is crucial for humanity and quite undervalued, so this movie is important in showcasing not only the importance of such exploration, but also the many possibilities that it offers and the magic of it all.

I can certainly understand why so many people disliked this documentary as it really is emotionally manipulative to an extreme. The third act is especially guilty of this is as the various interviewees compared these robots to their own family, which was ludicrous to say the least. They tried to anthropomorphize these robots way too much, and while I was still moved when they met their ends, I still felt like I was manipulated to feel that way.

Good Night Oppy is at its best when it’s emphasizing the magic of space exploration and just how beautiful it can be. The film is actually quite detailed in depicting everything important that happened during the journeys of these two robots. While not focusing enough on Mars itself, the film functioned wonderfully as an adventure story of these daring robots trekking across the harsh Martian landscapes and surviving throughout multiple seasons of imposing conditions.

The movie also benefits from such a joyous, infectiously optimistic outlook on science and life in general as we witness so many of these scientists speaking with great passion about Opportunity and Spirit. Still, there is an appreciative level of realism present here as they depict just how difficult it is to send a rover to Mars, let alone a human.

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There is a lot of CGI that the filmmakers included in bringing this Martian world to the viewers, which may be problematic to some, but I certainly appreciated that as otherwise looking at black-and-white images wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting or as cinematic. The robots were made to look and sound too cute, which was manipulative, but undoubtedly I fell for it and I found the movie to be very touching. Angela Bassett’s narration was also wonderful and the film flies by how riveting it is. It’s a journey of its own, and although immensely flawed, I loved every second of this optimistic, pro-science tale.