The Main Story is great - But the poor writing around it drags this all down to be more of a Tuesday lunch time film than a Friday nighter.

Rating: 4/10 (7 March 2017)

The main storyline for the film is extremely compelling, but the telling of it is marred by a thousand clichés that tell you from the start that you're too clever for this film.
As the story unfolds, you suddenly realise you've seen this story before a thousand times. It's a classic tale - Sciency character introduced. Military are arrogant military people who don't science. They need Sciency character to science for them as they don't science. Aside from the obvious insult to the extremely talented people who do make up these militaries, the audience also feel slightly insulted that they're being taken for the same ride again. It's like you left the TV on for too long and David from Independence Day has just cracked the Alien Code that the military men couldn't solve.
But the main storyline is enthralling. The sounds used in the film are masterfully done, and they almost, almost, get over the problems that the side stories have set up. A whole wonderful cast of misfired roles (Including a Forest Whitaker who has been given the direction prompt 'Be unreasonably unlikable') tar almost all of these main story scenes, in particular the ones which include the background military crew. You just can't get over the feeling that these people are stood in a green screen room, chatting amongst themselves about their weekends between takes. The gravity is just never there.
Then, the film goes off the rails. A clever idea - poorly executed. Like a toddler telling you how clever they are, the film shouts and shouts and runs in circles, dropping all-capital-letter SUBTLE hints for the last 10minutes to make sure you work it all out before the main characters do so you can feel smart.
All in all, it's worth watching. If this was the 90s it would be a great film. But it just isn't the 90s.