not a masterpiece but decent entertainment

Rating: 8/10 (23 February 2014)

I'm not a big Cruise fan, because his pallet is limited and there are only a handful of movies where his persona actually works. Luckily this was one of them and I didn't really spend a lot of time to figure out how many pedestals they had to use every time I saw him in a shot next to a female character.
Overall the movie is a bit too long and the first half could be condensed down. Not only to increase the pace but also to make the major twist a bit more surprising. As a viewer you got too much time on your hand to think about the movie and with some interest in sci-fi your first or second guess about the plot twist is probably the right one - however there are a few smaller surprises that keep you interested.
What I especially liked though is the broad range of various scifi themes and topics they covered - nothing groundbreaking or original - but a decent blend. Probably because they really tried to clean up the plot of the most obvious holes. And while there were some compromises for dramatic effect (AI can't shoot straight in this one either) it didn't have the painfully obvious holes like Prometheus or Sunshine. Additionally the plot is very well structured, besides the multiple twists mentioned before they also found quite a good way to wrap up all the loose ends close to the end, which kept me interested.
Overall impression: A fluffy FX loaded scifi movie which is good entertainment.