Good Night Oppy review – cutesy Spielberg-assisted Mars documentary

The fascinating story of two Nasa rovers that ended up spending 15 years on Mars verges into cloying territory

Dusty, colder than cold, 142m miles away from the sun, Mars isn't the most hospitable of environments. Nor is it the most universally compelling of film settings. Not everybody, after all, wants to go on a space odyssey, let alone one whose protagonists are robotic vehicles. Ryan White, the director of a feelgood documentary about a recent feat of American space exploration, came up with a solution: take a subject that is literally lifeless, and draw parallels - however improbable - to the human condition.

Co-produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and narrated by Angela Bassett's soothing voice, Good Night Oppy faithfully if somewhat cloyingly relays the story of a 1993 mission to Mars that was supposed to last for 90 days but ended up going for 15 years. Spirit and Opportunity, the marvelous machines at the heart of the movie, might look more like ostriches than people, with their long necks and camera eyes sitting on the sides of their boxy heads. But this is a film engineered to unleash swells of connection and emotion, and part of that involves presenting the rovers as adorable and quirky 5ft 2in humans.