Great story, amazing visuals, but not the polished article

Rating: 6/10 (27 August 2013)

I really wanted to like this. An intelligent story that despite the sic-fi setting would be welcomed by even non-fans of the genre. The production design and the visuals, particularly on the wide, landscape shots are just breath-taking and the future Earth is also well-depicted. Cinematography by Claudio Miranda was just gorgeous (had to look up afterwards who shot it, it was that good)! Alas, the final product felt a bit cold and empty for me and despite really wanting to like it, I wasn't as emotionally drawn to it as I would have liked. The issues for me stemmed from the choice of actors.
Tom Cruise was really good, but I felt I was watching Tom Cruise, the star, not the actor who has worked on projects before where you believed the character was doing all the stuff, not Tom Cruise, the star e.g.. Tropic Thunder, Magnolia, Jerry Maguire etc. As much as I wanted to believe his role and his character, it left me slightly cold. When you are not invested in your central character all the way, that becomes a huge problem.
Olga Kurylenko was an absolute waste for me. Not for a second did I believe that if that was me, I would be ready to give up my life for her! Her character was well-written, she was gorgeous and had that vulnerability about her, but her acting chops let her down big time.
Andrea Riseborough, take a bow. Probably the strongest performance for me. In her small screen time, you totally invested in her character and her motivations. An absolute revelation and I would love to see more of her in future projects.
Morgan Freeman and Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau could have been combined into the one single character and that would have been much better. Didn't really see the point of two separate characters for these two.
Overall, a great story. Could have been something special e.g.. Gattaca, Moon etc. but unfortunately not quite for me. Kudos to Kosinski and Tom Cruise for giving it a go. Great to see a refreshingly different take on the sic-fi genre. This, despite its flaws, is still worthy of 2 hours of your time.