Gorgeous but flawed - doesn't live up to its potential

Rating: 6/10 (13 August 2013)

This is most definitely a worthwhile use of your time if you are a fan of science fiction. The first 1/3 or maybe even 1/2 or so of the movie is utterly captivating, thematically, visually, and especially sonically, and the acting is quite compelling.
(I have to make a note here about the sound design, especially in the beginning... it is really spectacular and original, blending perfectly with the original music composed by M83, as well as the visual aesthetic.) Unfortunately the film comes apart at the seams in some regards...
I think it starts to lose steam about the time of the dramatic reveal, when the mystery and ambiguity of the situation goes up in smoke, and there are unfortunately no further plot twists left. (One more Shyamalan-esque turn would've earned this movie a lot of points in my book).
There are also a number of pretty extraneous-feeling action/chase sequences, with a lot of extremely worn out Hollywood tropes. Morgan Freeman is utterly underused as an actor, and Olga Kurylenko's performance was unimpressive. Actually that might not be her fault, because Julia's character was rather unimpressive.
This brings me to a final point: there are no really positive female characters in this movie. Julie is there only to further elaborate Jack's character, and to give him someone to save and protect, "Sally" is just a bitch, and Victoria, although she is wonderfully portrayed by Andrea Riseborough, is a deeply flawed character, ultimately a tool of the system, more interested in safety and security than knowing the truth (and saving our planet/species). As she says herself, "I don't want to know." This just strikes me as very unbalanced, if not worse (and I am a guy).
I must say that I did like how they tied everything together at the end by cutting between present day and the events on the Odyssey, as Jack listened to the flight recorder.
All in all, this is worth your time, definitely has its moments, but is too uneven to get my full endorsement. Points for tackling the themes of cloning, memory, identity, and AI (and bonus points for just being so gorgeous and visually/sonically convincing), but ultimately this was too Hollywood and not enough Moon (see Moon 2009, by Duncan Jones).