If only they were all robots

Rating: 2/10 (24 July 2013)

It shouldn't bother me that they are in space but they still have gravity. But then again, if they have all those costly special effects and hand-held cameras to make it look as real as possible for the viewer, why not spend some money and effort on making people float in space? After all, it's one of the first things that come to mind when thinking about space, floating free. And yet it still shouldn't bother me, but then even the plot is awful. For example, when we see the abdomen swelling and billowing with the alien foetus, it is understandable if we yawn or check the time. But it seems that the character in the movie is just as familiar with the 'Alien' series. She doesn't waste a second thinking about the reproductive mechanism of aliens, she is sure that she is pregnant with an alien and that it will soon burst out of her abdomen. That is why she rushes as fast as she can to have it surgically removed. Oh yes, and the surgical robot is programmed for men, even though it belongs to a woman. Then the characters. They have no psychological depth at all. The most striking example must be the captain of the ship. Here we are, discovering for the first time in history the remnants of an alien civilisation, and he isn't curious at all about the exploration taking place. Every single person on Earth would have their eyes glued to the TV, jumping with every speck of dust that moves, but this guy isn't that impressed with the first ever discovery of an alien civilisation. Maybe he's also seen the movie before. And it's not just that his lack of curiosity is highly implausible, but there's men from his crew that are stuck in the giant alien structure, and he is the captain. It may be that what their eyes are seeing for the first time in history is boring for our captain, but he doesn't even care if they are alive or dead. Which makes his gesture near the end of the film a bit odd. With no second thought at all, he chooses to sacrifice his life, so that his fellow human beings from Earth will be safe from the alien. Then Vickers: she is threatening from the start, rough-hewn, and domineering. Quite some time is spent with her first appearance, and thus we are led to predict some great role in the plot, but her role turns out to be a minor one, in the end. In fact, all the characters seem to be created in the shape of the hologram scene with the old patron: they are there just as a pretext to show off some futuristic technology. Like the patron, they don't really have much to say, but since we have holograms it would be a shame not to use them. Just like with most of our social media gizmos, come to think of it.
The overall experience of the film may be compared to eating one of those genetically-engineered fruit: they make you drool with their glistening freshness and full colour, but their taste turns out to be bland. At one point Vickers is asked if she is herself a robot, if I remember it right. They all seem like robots, actually. It would have been such a great movie if we found out in the end that they were all faking, and that they were all robots. Now there's a great ending. And it would have made sense too.