Disappoints in the end

Rating: 7/10 (17 March 2020)

This film promises a lot in the beginning, but in the end one almost feels cheated. It is stylistically a very interesting film, with great visuals and a great sense of mood that it creates. But in the end it delivers a message that 'god' is so alien and seemingly disinterested in us, that we might as well be alone in the universe. There is no way to communicate with that thing, even when we follow its own invitation. I don't like that kind of message, and what I like even less is the gratuitous ending that spent an eternity making that point. It felt more like abuse. It was also self-indulgent, and that's something I find alienating. The film also suffers from a lack of narration. For the most part, the film is an experience, not a story being told. In the second of four acts, we follow a scientist on his journey from Earth to an orbital station, then to the Moon, then to an excavation site on the Moon. Yet nothing happens. He has a few utterly meaningless conversations and holds the least informative speech in history. Why this was done is beyond me. If the goal was to underpin the general feeling of alienation in the endless and utterly incomprehensible universe, then it may have worked to some degree, but it still came across as poor screenwriting. In the end, the film both impresses and disappoints.