Interesting concept, but a failure in execution

Rating: 3/10 (24 February 2018)

I'm going to focus on one aspect in my review as I feel it's the worst aspect of the movie and really lets it down; the script. It's truly awful.
It also spoils the portrayal of the characters, as statements come out of their mouths that no-one with an IQ above 90 would utter, let alone a scientist.
The military characters are all lazy stereotypes, their stupidity and impatience only there for exposition and to move the plot along. Forrest Whitaker's character at one point can't understand the difference between translating a well known human language with an alien one (also why is he trying to do a bad Bostonian accent?)
My PhD was in a project related to astrophysics and I didn't recognise any qualities in the scientists on screen with real life. Maybe it's too boring to portray scientists as they are, but I think The Martian did an OK job of it (leaving aside other issues with that movie)
There is some antagonism between the social and hard sciences in real life, but some of the exchanges between Amy Adams' and Jeremy Renners' character were excruciating. She says language is the foundation of civilisation, he contradicts and says it's science. That's just wrong and anyone with an inkling of history wouldn't make the claim that it's science as the scientific method was quite a late innovation in humanity's history.
I wanted to like this movie, but I found it truly exasperating.