Amazing production design that captivates the imagination

Rating: 9/10 (2 March 2017)

Ill start out with the negative, because I can sort of understand why it didn't get great reviews. Critics tend to look more at story than anything else, followed by acting. I think this movie has a great story at it's core, but It's a simple story, and not terribly original. It also gets very cheesy cliché Hollywood toward the end. It's very predictable and there are really no surprises. That is a shame, because the movie really is amazing and it would be cool if it had a more creative story to match.
The pace starts slow, and stays slow throughout most of the movie. It feels very reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey in many ways. If the story ventured into more creative territory instead of going for the cliché Hollywood ending, it would be very comparable to Kubrick's masterpiece in many ways.
While I like a lot about this movie, the thing that stood out the most to me is the production design. The spaceship is SOOO COOL looking. There is a lot of attention to detail and it all feels very realistic. For a lover of Sci-Fi like me, it really captivates my imagination and stuck with me. The ship has a very cool design and seems well thought through. We get to really explore every part of the ship and get to know it like its a character of the film. This alone makes this movie great in my opinion.
Next thing to applaud is the CGI. Everything looks so good, so clean, and very real to me. Visually, this film really nailed it in my opinion. The anti-gravity scenes are very cool and the space-suit scenes are very cool also. It's a film that can appeal to a person of any age for this reason. It doesn't really need to rely on an amazing story to be great because the concept and design of the ship is so fun to watch and explore.
The cinematography was very beautiful also. There are some very iconic looking shots and the camera work and lighting is wonderful, reminding me again of Stanley Kubrick's films. I will have to watch it again to comment on the sound design, film score, and editing, but I would say that all the technical work on this film seemed really great.
Chris Pratt is always fun to watch and full of charisma. A good portion of the film it is just him alone on the ship, so with a boring actor, it could be very painfully at times, but he keeps it fun and entertaining. I didn't really think that Pratt and Lawrence had all that much chemistry, but it works okay. Her character didn't seem very well developed, and I wasn't really sure if I even liked her character.
Overall, I really loved this movie, despite it's flaws. It's the type of film that I will want to own on Blu-ray and put on frequently just to admire the cool shots and concept of the film. I have been day-dreaming about this movie since I saw it, as it provokes other thoughts of space travel and the future.
If you love Sci-Fi, I would think that you will really love this movie.