Quite a bad movie that makes wastes a good cast

Rating: 2/10 (13 December 2017)

From the opening scene where a spaceship makes a loud whoosh noise as it passes the camera I knew this wasn't going to be the most scientifically rigorous movie. That's OK though and doesn't necessarily detract from the quality of a movie.
What I hadn't anticipated however was one of the worst scripts I've ever heard in a relatively big budget movie. It was as if two college kids had watched Alien and thought hey we can write something like that.
The central premise of finding a life-form on Mars, and then through bad choices or plain ignorance antagonising the creature is quite a good one.
The problem is the 'scientists' on the spacecraft are only really there to get chewed up so nothing in the script would actually indicate these are intelligent people on an important mission.
A central aphorism of movie making is show don't tell. The characters in this movie are constantly describing what's happening on screen, or what motivation they have, the insinuation by the film-makers is that the audience are dumb.
As a viewer we are supposed to feel something for the crew as the horror falls upon them, but there are no characters in the movie. All the crew speak with the same voice, the voice of the scriptwriters. There are certain twee moments like a crew member video chatting with family members, but this is no 1 in the cliché list of humanising a scientist or astronaut. The crew's characters are all largely interchangeable and it would have virtually no difference.
Some things I liked were the creature design, at least at the start of the movie. The spaceship interiors and zero-g effects were well done and quite atmospheric.
I won't spoil the ending, but I thought it was one of the most hilarious endings I've seen for a long time.