It's 2049 and astrophysicist Augustine Lofthouse (GEORGE CLOONEY) is the only person left at the Barbeau Observatory in the Arctic Circle. With everyone having previously been evacuated, he's alone and living out what increasingly seems like his last days. That's not only due to having a terminal illness that requires daily hemodialysis treatment of his blood, but also due to an apocalyptic event that's left nearly all of Earth uninhabitable, with the effects of that now starting to reach his remote location.

At the same time, the crew of the spacecraft Aether is returning to Earth after a two-year mission to K-23, one of Jupiter's moons that might prove hospitable to humankind. While concerned that they can't reach anyone back home, they're blissfully unaware of what's happened. Instead, they're mostly focused on doing their daily duties as well as the fact that Sully (FELICITY JONES) and commander Adewole (DAVID OYELOWO) are expecting a baby together. All of which means that fellow crewmates Mitchell (KYLE CHANDLER), Sanchez (DAMIAN BICHIR), and space rookie Maya (TIFFANY BOONE) are trying to decide the best name for the child.

Speaking of which, Augustine is startled to discover a young girl, Iris (CAOILINN SPRINGALL), as a stowaway in the station, presumably left behind during the evacuation. He knows full well that he's the worst person to care for her -- after all, he never met a girl he fathered with his past lover from long ago, Jean (SOPHIE RUNDLE), another scientist who eventually left him due to his sole obsession being his work, including that involving K-23.

Nonetheless, he does what he can to care for Iris, although he eventually puts both of them in harm's way upon realizing they need to travel to another station with a more powerful antenna to reach the Aether. As they make that trek, and as that spacecraft crew must deal with their own issues and crises, it's unclear whether Augustine will be able to reach and warn them before they return to their now hostile planet.

As a thirteen-year-old when it first blasted onto screens, I adored "Star Wars" and still enjoy such action-filled films when they come along. The problem with it, though -- beyond (along with "Jaws" a few years before it) creating Hollywood's need for a swing-for-the-fences blockbuster hit -- is that it and its sequels and prequels and other such offerings have given most viewers short attention spans and a general lack of patience when it comes to sci-fi.

If there isn't a powerful villain, lasers being shot, spaceships and worlds being destroyed, and so on, and instead there's an examination of the human experience in the context of sci-fi, a lot of viewers -- including critics -- immediately view such offerings as boring, too intellectual, or even pretentious.

Such seems to be the case with "The Midnight Sky," director-star George Clooney's latest foray into space. Granted, he wasn't in "Gravity" a lot, but that was squarely an action and suspense-based flick that earned lots of accolades and box office bucks worldwide. "Tomorrowland" was space-related, but less successful on both of those fronts. And "Solaris" fared even worse, pretty much failing to connect to audiences (as a disclaimer, I gave positive reviews to all three).

And I'm giving one to this offering as well that's getting lukewarm responses from some critics. Yes, everyone's welcome to their own opinion, but the fact that this film is more introspective than action-filled (although it has undeniably effective moments of the latter) has me thinking that's the reason for the lack of love for this well-made effort.

The film -- adapted from Lily Brooks-Dalton's novel "Good Morning, Midnight" (that I have not read) by Mark L. Smith -- is split among two different but connected storylines with one occasionally flashing back for some additional details. In the first bit, we meet Clooney's grizzled looking Augustine, an astrophysicist who's seeing life ending all around him. Not just in the mirror due to his terminal illness that requires daily blood filtering, but also the effects of some never-specified apocalyptic event that's killed most life on Earth and is now spreading its lethal effects toward the poles.

He's stationed at an observatory in the Arctic circle and stayed behind because in his mind someone had to, and his future wouldn't change even if he had left with the other evacuees. He ponders his life including his past when he was a younger man (played by Ethan Peck, with Clooney providing the voice) so obsessed with work that he eventually drove away the love (or at least occasional lover) of his life (Sophie Rundle).

But all of that's interrupted when he finds a young stowaway, Iris (Caoilinn Springall), hiding in his station. While not exactly a suitable parent figure, he does what he can to help her. And the second interruption comes when he receives a communication attempt by the crew of the Aether, a sprawling, very artistically designed spacecraft that's spent the past two years traveling to one of Jupiter's moons to see if the place might be hospitable to human life.

That crew -- played by David Oyelowo, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir, Tiffany Boone, and Felicity Jones, with the latter currently pregnant -- is unaware of what's happened back home. Augustine then makes it his mission to alert them before they land, even if that means taking Iris and traveling through hostile environs to get to another station with a better antenna likely to get his warning to them.

While that back-and-forth storytelling might seem on the surface to be distracting, Clooney nicely handles the transitions so that neither part loses any forward momentum. It's not quite as tight as occurred in "The Martian" -- where both stories were laser-focused on the same goal, and a film that many viewers might think of while watching this two-hour offering -- but it works nonetheless.

The action scenes -- most notably those involving debris striking the spacecraft on its return trip -- are viscerally and emotionally effective -- while the performances (especially from Clooney and Jones) are strong across the board. And even if you predict a third-act revelation before it arrives, it's still effective and thought-provoking.

While it might not play as well to sci-fi film fans who want mostly non-stop whiz-bang action, those who like their sci-fi a bit more thoughtful and not hurried might just warm up to the ever-present chilliness on display here. "The Midnight Sky" rates as a 6.5 out of 10.