Why is “Dreams of Mars” so successful, which tops the ranking of HBO Max?

The year is 2049 and Walt (Cole Sprouse) has spent his 20 years without knowing what he wants out of his life. He changed his university studies 16 times and his vocation continues to elude him; he works as a barista and (that hasn't changed in the future) is in charge of taking out large garbage containers that break and dirty everything. Sophie (Lana Condor), on the other hand, plans exactly every step she takes: she knows that she will be an astrophysicist and that she will marry her boyfriend Calvin (Mason Gooding), with whom she has a long-distance relationship: the millions of kilometers (59 or 102, depending on the time of their orbits) that separate Earth from Mars.

That is the proposal of this romantic comedy in space version that has reached first place in the ranking of HBO Max, Dreams of Mars (Moonshot). With the grace of a Doris Day implanted in Before Dawn and dressed by NASA, the actress and youtuber of the trilogy To All the Boys has seduced the public with a very celebrated work. Cody Martin's company from the hit series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and heartthrob from Riverdale, is his perfect complement.

Walt dreams of going to Mars, which in that future is habitable for humans. In addition, Ginny (Emily Rudd), a girl he is attracted to, has gone there. But 37 times it has been submitted to the Mars Program, created by the eccentric billionaire Leon Kovi (Zach Braff), and all 37 times it has been rejected.

In the cafeteria where she works, Sophie tells her about Calvin, who decided to prioritize his career as an expert on algae (a very important profession in the future, when the Earth suffers from an excess of garbage that could be solved with these organisms) rather than his relationship. The opposite personalities of the two young men (she is intelligent, witty, determined; he is mediocre, impulsive and sentimental) allow for a strange phenomenon: Walt asks her questions about their relationship and her feelings that she had never asked herself. This is how they begin a friendship that will be interrupted by her imminent journey (whom Kovi has approved) to Mars.

Or not, because the opportunity for them to continue in contact and deepen their complicity arises at the very moment of takeoff, when Walt stows into the spacecraft.

For 35 days the friends will live together, pretending to be a couple and trying to hide the fact that he cannot be on board, with a series of lies that they tell Captain Tarter (Michelle Buteau), who shows her suspicions with great mischief, and the other passengers.

With the focus on the rom-com genre, the film also addresses other topics such as the degradation of the Earth, the meaning of existence, the rich who compete for space travel and the importance of friendship.

Condor (X-Men: Apocalypse, Battle Angel: The Last Warrior) and Sprouse (Five Feet Apart) are individually charismatic actors, but together they go much further. His chemistry caught audiences in this film directed by Christopher Winterbauer, about a screenplay by Max Taxe. Dreams of Mars was executive produced by Mike McGrath, Richard Brener, Nikki Ramey and Paulina Sussmande.

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