"Pretty" Hollywood Cliché Flick Without Depth

Rating: 6/10 (28 December 2015)

This is a "pretty" movie that's great for an afternoon at the movies, one of those that I call "children's birthday movies".
While the movie is very watchable with brilliantly and credible rendered CGI and some amazing scenes and visuals, it is lacking any kind of depth.
The movie is full with Hollywood clichés, with easily digestible, predictable plot and Hollywood cardboard-cut-out stereotypical characters akin dumb "entertainment blockbusters" like "Independence Day". Including the "nerd", the super-heroic heroic crew, the NASA boss and whatever stereotypes Hollywood is always using and re-using.
(It's like that Ridley Scott decided that for once, he wants to make an entertainment flick that will make some good cash at the box office, RATHER than a movie that would be memorable and intelligent in any way).
As someone called it, "American feel good movie". Heck, even "Aliens" back in the day had more depth or drama than this movie.
As for drama, I was amazed that this movie didn't convey any sense of drama whatsoever - something which is astonishing given the fact it's about some guy stranded on another planet for more than two years. You sit there and watch and simply accept how the counter on the screen tells you how long the guy is there already, and everything he does seems easy, without a sense of danger or urgency.
The (very few) moments in the movie where something bad happens, you immediately KNOW when it'll happen since the movie "thank god" (sarcasm) guides you Hollywood style, assuming that the average movie-goer has an IQ of 20 and needs help, explaining him in advance that a situation in the movie might possibly not turn out as expected, and low and behold, exactly THAT happens in the next 20 seconds.
"Well he's doing great, unless of course something bad will happen".
And of course, as predicted, it'll happen right away...
The entire movie I was amazed how great the guy was doing for being stranded for so long and how flawless everything went he was attempting to do...sometimes border-lining the credible, with the only excitement and drama in the movie that I was wondering how long his potatoes might last...
That being said, it is an entertaining and "watchable" movie when you can manage to turn off your brain for two and a half hours and just accept it as the Hollywood family blockbuster it actually is. Just don't expect a smart SciFi movie, interesting plot with twists, complex characters or anything the like.