It feels like a lot of flak about this movie comes with the misconceptions people walk in with. And surprisingly enough, that's actually a legitimate theme of the movie - flaws undermining what could have been a miraculous thing.
The skinny? A bait and switch from a philosophical movie to a homage movie to Alien. Unfortunately, Ridley Scott slipped by his old sci-fi tricks, such as not understanding modern uses of robots and radio and GPS. But if one let it slide and pretend it's the 1970's again, one can enjoy this.
What can go wrong?
It feels like a lot of flak about this movie comes with the misconceptions people walk in with. And surprisingly enough, that's actually a legitimate theme of the movie - flaws undermining what could have been a miraculous thing.
The skinny? A bait and switch from a philosophical movie to a homage movie to Alien. Unfortunately, Ridley Scott slipped by his old sci-fi tricks, such as not understanding modern uses of robots and radio and GPS. But if one let it slide and pretend it's the 1970's again, one can enjoy this.
Another thing is the characters are flawed - too flawed. From David, who can do the mental gymnastics to have ideas that have no substance or place, to a respected-but-untrained crew, to even the engineers falling from our Broken Pedestal...the characterization is there, just not explained in detail. One can hope that Ridley Scott slipped by a director's cut.
A scientifically acurate film being Wish Fulfillment on our relationship with our precursors? Nope.
An enjoyable film, after it's enhanced with trope knowledge? Yes. At least one can enjoy the special effects put into it, and decipher what kind of point Ridley Scott was trying to imply.