It tried to be two things at once, and failed

Rating: 4/10 (4 July 2015)

This film looks amazing. A real credit to the cinematographers and costume set designers, and it might be worth a watch just for the visuals, but that's all it really has going for it. A movie of this genre can go in either of two routes: 1) the way of "intellectual big-ideas" type films (like say 2001: A Space Odyssey or the more recent Interstellar) or 2) a sci-fi thriller that would have you at the edge of your seat (Alien). This movie was neither. It tried to be both and ended up failing because you can't have it both ways. It starts off being like the former, with steady progress, done by epic visuals and dialogue introducing certain ideas that the movie might explore (evolution vs creationalism, what it means to be human and can AI ever be human, etc.). None of that is explored at all. In fact, what is explored instead are the completely irrelevant flashbacks of the female lead and her relationship with her boyfriend... And are they interesting? No. They're annoying, especially the female lead towards the end. At times, I felt like screaming at the screen out of how stupid she acted sometimes. What about the other characters? Just as uninteresting and slightly less annoying. The pilot, played by Idris Elba, I felt was inconsistent at times (it seemed as if he was a careless jerk in the beginning and then he was a hero at the end?) and throughout the film, I kept questioning |why was he even there?" The movie attempts to answer this by him saying "I just fly the ship." That's lazy writing. The biologist who could've been a way of exploring the ideas of evolution vs creationalism and "what it means to be human?" was wasted. Charlize Theron's character was consistent, but not in any way that helped the film, and you were supposed to hate her, but really, it didn't mean anything, cuz that isn't utilized at all. The only redeeming and entertainingly interesting character was the android played by Michael Fosbender, and on many occasions, he was the voice of logic from the audience to the other characters, because so often they acted like idiots. This is, however, not to discredit the actors, because they did a good job with what they were given. What about the other route - the way of the thriller? *Sigh. The humanoid alien looked awesome, and I really wish they had made use of him, but alas. And on the director's side, why on Earth would have have the thrilling part of the movie all the way at the end, when most people would've fallen asleep? Ow yeah, because you also tried to be a philosophical sci-fi at the same time. There are about a total of 5-10 minutes of thrill in the entire film and that's it. and when it is there, for some reason, it is filmed badly. There was probably a completely different cinematographer and camera man for the action scenes, because they were no where near as good as the rest of the films look. All in all, by the end of the film, you end up questioning why did you watch this, because it feels like there was no point to it. It didn't stimulate your mind with exploration of ideas, and it leaves you very underwhelmed in action.