Doesn't come close to living up to it's potential

Rating: 4/10 (15 December 2019)

The idea of this film seems like it's completely original... an otherworldly realm to be explored and survived on it's search for the truth behind it's existence... I'm assuming there are earlier films with similar plots (seems like there has to be), but I can't really recall any quite like this.
This film had a lot going for it, the director did the understatedly clever "Ex Machina" prior to this, a mega-budget this time around and a pretty decent cast with the always reliable Jennifer Jason Leigh as a co-star... but the ideas failed to be as riveting as they could have been, continuity errors and really, really stupid decision making (why did they only "blackout" at the beginning?... would've been much better if the memory loss was reoccurring, and "why would they post someone at guard at ground level when they could be guarding the stairwell to the ladder from above??... idiotic, and some of them are supposed to be smart)
The "action scenes" obviously had a lot of $$ put into them, and tremendous CGI quality for the special effects... but the plot was severely lacking with the aforementioned continuity errors... it doesn't make the most out of it's opportunities... it wasn't scary at all and the ending (although again, special effects are great) was just dumb and pretentious, doesn't seem to flow well and ideas just seem trite.
Too bad, it could have been great... it really goes to show that these Hollywood 'mega-productions' rarely seem to get it right.
4.5/10