Are We There Yet?

Rating: 6/10 (12 November 2014)

OK, so I had the great good fortune to see Kubrick's "2001" when it first came out, and you didn't: so this is what 50 years of CGI has brought us. Everything is possible technically so nothing can astonish us anymore, and this derivative forced march tries to bludgeon us into submission with blatant theft from Ken Burns' Dust Bowl to maudlin appeals to the emotion of loss of children or parents to science gibberish that makes our heads hurt. At least 60s hippies had pot to explain their reaction to 2001, while you could spend an evening of Trivial Pursuit listing all the pop movies from which this one steals--circular space station on which we now live, check; secretive but benevolent NASA, check; suspiciously solicitous robots, check; crazed astronauts, check, trippy special effects, check. And if you want to see whom our hotshot Lincoln pitchman is trying to channel, check out Sam Sheppard as Chuck Yeager in "The Right Stuff." Just because you never saw or have forgotten the pioneers, doesn't mean the latest blockbuster is the last word in genius. Ask yourself: 50 years from now, will you remember seeing this the way people remember first seeing "2001" or even "Star Wars?" Thought so.