The roof is on fire

Rating: 6/10 (7 June 2012)

It is the nature of a small independent film that there will be occasional problems with lighting, sound quality, continuity and sometimes editing. If the film is strong, small issues will not derail it.
But this much anticipated film with a high budget is wholly upended by a poor script, odd plotting and some desperate clichés. What I don't understand with a film of this magnitude and inheritance is how so many basics go awry.
There is a basic feeling of chaos, as if Mike Leigh has refused to tell the characters what their motivations are. There is some unsettled acting, but the root cause is the script. The screenplay often looks like a bad school performance. Crew on a trillion dollar mission just mill about. The aliens would embarrass Men in Black.
The bits of plot nonsense are inescapable and kill the film a a spectacle:

A geologist, who has provided mapping tools gets lost in a one level cave. - Two characters run away from a massive rolling wheel in the same line that it is rolling - The ships captain, suddenly ignores protocol and open the door to a zombie. - Seconds after major abdominal surgery, our hero runs about like a spring lamb.

There are plenty of bits that go right, but they cannot keep the structure from tottering. Knowing that there are follow up films cannot be treated like a patch fix.