As you sit there, scrolling through your phone, checking to see how much many likes your most recent post of your pet yawning got, a feat of engineering is circling overhead.

Launched on the 20th November, 1998, the International Space Station, which circles the Earth roughly every 90 minutes, has seen its crew of US and Russian scientists perform a number of experiments concerning microgravity and space environment over the years.

This film takes place on board the I.S.S, where an event on Earth sparks panic for those in its orbit.

Just arriving on the Soyuz rocket to dock with the I.S.S are regular crew member Christian and newbie Dr. Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose). They join the rest of the crew, Gordon (Chris Messina), Weronika (Masha Mashkova), Nicholai (Costa Ronin) and Alexey (Pilou Asbӕk) continuing their long running research in space.

Kira doesn’t have much time to settle in, before noticing some curious lights coming from Earth, that can’t initially be explained. The American contingent, who count for half the crew, get telecommunications from Earth stating a war has broken out between the US and Russia, which makes things a tad awkward considering that the other half of the crew are Russian.

Their orders are to take control of the space station, by any means necessary, which is not something they’ve necessarily planned for. It doesn’t help either that there’s every chance the Russian crew have received exactly the same message from their government. So the next question is for all of them - what happens next?

There’s a reason that films set in space don’t come around all that often and that’s because they are both expensive and difficult to make. Admittedly this film’s budget (just over $13 million) is really quite impressive, especially as there is no gravity on board the space station, making for a lot of floaty crew members.

And you would think that a film that despite not relying on any alien involvement, and only on the orders by crew members divided by war, that a cat and mouse thriller in space could work. And it probably can, it’s just not this film.

Although US director Gabriela Cowperthwaite shows great skill with the technical issues with living and working in space, she struggles severely in creating any sense of tension on board. So yes, much like the space they find themselves floating in, the film is completely devoid of atmosphere.

It’s disappointing because there’s a blueprint of an idea on show that could have possibly worked, in the right hands, but alas that’s just not the case here, as a premise with potential gets butchered in space. Cowperthwaite simply can’t generate any palpable fear from her crew, as well as being let down by a script that doesn’t do any of those involved any favours.

At some point the director should have just admitted the film had gotten the better of her, and thrown an alien in the mix just to inject some much needed excitement, it worked for Ridley Scott.

So if the idea of being disappointed by an underwhelming drama on board the I.S.S leaves you cold, don’t watch this space.