Did not live up to its potential...

Rating: 4/10 (1 May 2013)

Wellanother movie that did not live up to its potential. The premise of this movie was great. The story was not. It lacked serious development and really fell flat. The story seems more like a pitch developed for the producers. "This movie will be about this and that involving him and her and a few others with this and that action thrown in and this is how it all will turn out. And, hey, Tom Cruise wants to be in it!" About half way through the movie I started to feel terribly disappointed. OKto be honest, I felt disappointed after the prologue. Part of a great movie is letting the story unfold as it happens. What do they say about writing a good story?—show don't tell!
I want to care about the characters in a movie. I'm a very sensitive guy—I cry at the drop of a hat. Seriously, I didn't once feel for any of the characters in this film—nary had a tear well up in my eyes. The science fiction portion of the film was never seriously developed either. There was just too much bouncing back and forth between a love story and the science fiction story of which neither engaged. It seemed like the writers and director were trying to make a love story with a science fiction subplot. Unfortunately, they failed on both accounts.
How about the action? Some of the action stuff was a bit unbelievable. The scenes involving the drones seemed terribly unrealistic. However, with that said, there wasn't too much action—there just wasn't enough of anything else.
I love science fiction when done well. I like love stories when done well. The potential was great for both in this movie. I think all the actors did a good job—the writing and direction were just not up to snuff. This was just another one of those movies that you wish you could go back a do all over. I believe script writers, producers and directors should take the lead from authors who write great stuff—sometimes you have to do it over and over and over again to get it right. The first couple of drafts are rarely worthy of publication.
(OhSound effects were great; however, I didn't really see any advantage to this movie being done in IMAX. Most of the scenes just seemed flatmuch like the story. And, I have to disagree with those that loved the soundtrack...it didn't' do much for me either.)