Simply put - Overrated

Rating: 3/10 (19 November 2016)

Movie critics are notorious when it comes to Science Fiction movies. They usually abhor it so, when any SF movie becomes a critic's darling as this one did - I get worried. And once again, my worry meter proved true. This is a glacially slow, at times, dull film that really wastes a good cast. The story really makes no sense, other than it shows how someone can deal with loss. The SF elements are really unnecessary. I don't want to give anything away so I won't give away the big reveal. Amy Adams is great, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker are good. The design of the aliens is really original (think a tree crossed with a squid and a starfish). But there just isn't enough to this film. We never really learn anything about the aliens, but plenty about human fear (which is something any SF fan already knows about). The story is just disjointed. And the ending was far from shocking in any way. In fact, I haven't seen an ending for a movie that dragged this much since A.I. It was a nice effort with some decent sfx, but other than that, there isn't much to this movie.