Surprisingly Fantastic

Rating: 8/10 (30 July 2014)

I actually quite loved this movie. Before entering the theatre, a friend who had seen the movie the night before came up and proceeded to tell me that it was a horrible movie, just incredibly stupid, with a storyline that had so much potential but failed on all accounts. Needless to say, I had exceptionally low expectations when I sat down.
I don't know where all the criticism came from because I thought it was fantastic.
The storyline was well-developed and the science aspect was, in my opinion, well explained. There were a couple of scenes that I thought could have been left out (I didn't particularly need to see animal birth). There were a few things that could have been explained better, but not many. All-in-all, I found it to be a highly entertaining story. The symbolism with the first discovered female was unique, the imagery was beautiful and the directing was a nice change of scenery. There are a lot of movies coming out these days that show this rich storyline in the trailer that is quite lack-luster in reality. This is not to be included in that category. It lives up to the potential portrayed in the trailer.
If the criticism is of Johannson's acting, the dead-pan works with what they are trying to portray in the movie, which is a loss of humanity. She's not my favorite, but she didn't destroy the movie.
All this being said, its definitely not for everyone. My brother sitting next to me didn't like it at all and found it quite boring. The science fiction is not everyone's cup of tea. But I very much enjoyed it.