Very good but didn't reach its full potential

Rating: 8/10 (13 March 2018)

Although not as good as Ex Machina this is a really good sci-fi and with the obvious influences from Stalker. I don't understand why the women ensemble is not a thing since a lot of films that aren't nearly politically important is celebrated on such basis. The complex characters are convincing enough for the themes of self-destruction and in a way, this works as the antithesis to 2001: A Space Odyssey but not nearly as great as it is. But in all of its great side, there is a lot that doesn't really works. This is the kind of film that could have taken a little more time to explore more of themes. The scope and ambition of the film are not completely justified with the end product, there could have been a lot more that feels untapped but exist in there. The visuals that are not CGI are great to look at but feels rather fragmented in a way that they are underutilised and the CGI looks quite outdated. But the outdated look may be due to the design they decided on which comes back to my point that the production design was confused with overused and fragmented visual ideas that really made the film a lot lesser than what it could have been. But even with all these problems the brilliant details used at each point of the film even though not fully visually realised are amazing. It feels like the brilliant script had to make some compromises in its transition and yet the Netflix involvement shows that even such compromises are not enough in Hollywood.