Good graphics, bad story, bad characters

Rating: 4/10 (18 February 2014)

I haven't read the book. I went to see this film on a whim.
Graphics were pretty good. I could see that they used every digital trick in the book. They probably did 95% of this film on a green screen or something. You'd have to enjoy space-related stuff to enjoy the graphics.
As for the storyline, this film was ridiculous. I can understand that the director didn't make this up, but as an example, the game they played on the ISS near earth had nothing to do with the tasks they had to perform during the alien attack. The whole development of skills is just rushed to hell and back. Same goes for character development; I could not connected to any of the characters and there's hardly any development shown. It's a bunch of kids doing stuff they weren't supposed to do.
The underlying message of "if you strike back against the bully as revenge, you will become the bully" is good, and provokes some thought.. Though this film just focuses way too much on fancy graphics and stupid hand-gestures, and way too little on getting its message across.
Would not recommend anyone to watch this, waste of time.