Good acting and special effects but lacks in story

Rating: 5/10 (23 February 2017)

The story is the main problem with this movie; the acting and effects are pretty good. Some points I'm bringing up (and are brought up by other reviews) consist of the realistic common-sense thinking when going on a 120-year hibernated space flight to another planet. It makes sense that there would be a rotating crew to be there when something unexpected occurs instead of relying solely on technology. There would also be a way to go back into hibernation hence the rotating crew system. Even if you assume there was none of those above, there should be more than one "auto doc" pod to service health emergencies for 5000+ passengers and crew members. So there should've been a way for Jim and Aurora to both go back to hibernation.
The story also feels like a story within a story. First, there's story of the ship malfunctioning and needing to be repaired and secondly, the Jim and Aurora relationship. It puts the ship repair story on pause early on in the movie after Jim gives up trying to fix his hibernation issue. Then, it goes to the Jim and Aurora story all the way until the crew member wakes up and finally the ship repair story starts up again. Once this happens, it does a good job interweaving both stories together.
The ending could've been a lot better. I felt like it was rushed. Ignoring the common sense thinking above, there could've been more time spent showing what Jim and Aurora left behind. Also, since there was one auto doc pod, they could have had a child and let him/her grow up a bit then go into the pod to pass on Jim and Aurora's legacy.
Overall, I think it was a little better than what critics made it out to be but there are definite problems with the movie. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt did the best they could given the script. The special effects were done very well. I was most disappointed in the ending as I felt it was rushed and things could have been done differently to give a more satisfying ending.