SPACE SWEEPERS is an ambitious, vibrant, zongo Korean space opera that runs a bit long and perhaps suffers from being overstuffed with too many ideas, but you go with it because you grow to love this dysfunctional crew/family of misfits (lead by Kim Tae-ri). The influence of the sci-fi of Luc Besson, Joss Whedon and James Gunn in addition to countless anime touchstones on director Jo Sung-hee is obvious, but the archetypal characters win you over with warm relationship stuff and committed energy throughout. No, I’ve no idea why the big bad (Richard Armitage) occasionally goes red and veiny and gains a reverb on his voice – it’s probably one of half a dozen more ideas would need a TV series to explain. Unwieldy it may be, but Space Sweepers gets more than enough right and does action and humour with gusto to hope for more Korean filmmakers to head into the realms of big-budget sci-fi. SSP