Okay. I wanted to see this movie so badly. Hubby and I both like science fiction, we loved the cast of Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, Brad Pitt, Liv Tyler. We saw clips of the moon scenes...Brad wants to rescue his Dad... knew nothing else about it but did read that a lot of people didn't like it. So... we bought it 4k blu-ray to watch at home and enjoyed it.
People said it was boring. They said the only action was one fight between buggies on the moon.... that was NOT the only action. They said it was all about him talking all the time, retrospective about his relationship with his Dad... they were wrong. That wouldn't actually have bothered me anyway, but thanks, because I was gripped by all the ACTION.
OKAY... some of the science is wrong. I am not a scientist, so I let them humour me through most of it, but I don't think there's that much water on Mars that makes that the only route to the launch pad... but I'm not a scientist and I don't live on Mars...so I was ok with that.... the getting on board after the launch sequence has begun and the engines are firing? I did have a problem with that. but...it's a movie! In Star Wars there are people with green skin who have ears that pivot.
What it was NOT was boring.... It was not boring. It was action scene after action scene as I saw it. Yes...he get to the moon and there are 3 buggies carrying " VP's" Pitt and Sutherland and they are beset on by pirates. How can you say this wouldn't be possible? It's the future. Then Sutherland has an attack which lands him in the hospital so he can't go any further. I love Donald Sutherland so I now care about him and hope he's ok. SO now though Brad has to go by himself with a top secret, tell no-one mission. It's imperative that he carries this out, first priority, so when a Norwegian science vessel with 26 people on board send out an SOS, he tries to tell the Captain they can't stop to help. The Captain asserts that they are obligated as a directive to assist and when Pitt objects, the Captain asserts his authority again and demands Pitt tell him why his mission is so important and demands to know the classified details. The Co-pilot looks like he's okay with skipping an encounter where 26 people aren't answering their hails, and I'll admit I am a coward. I think cowards are smart... it's gotta be bad... help me, but none of the 26 people are available to reply? WE don't know what happened but all probably best left alone... but Pitt... well trained as he is, can't reveal his own orders, allows for the delay and offers to assist our Captain in place the the intelligent but cowardly but smart co-pilot. They fly in suits to the Scandi craft which we learn is 26 scientist doing animal experiments... apparently bad ones... I won't say more...spoilers... but not boring? I jumped! And not ridiculous.... lord knows what we willl experiment on in the future.
Then to Neptune... okay... how is he not older, I guess? but maybe we've acquired a method of travel we don't know about yet... sheesh it's science FICTION! Are we going to toss out Orson Well's Time Machine? It's a movie... it's entertainment... I are up on a steady diet of Star Trek, Star Wars, Blade Runner, Space 1999, Soylent Green, 1984, 2001 a Space Odyssey... I don't expect science fiction to be explainable by today's science People who thought this was slow moving must think the best science fiction is Guardians of the Galaxy.... oh... but the ones looking for logic and critique the science aspect? go give "Them" a try, it's about giant ants.
Speaking about logic, it was one of Pitt's characthers' strengths and flaws. He was almost Vulcan in his approach to everything. It sure sounded like Tim Russ (Tuvok) was the computer voice speaking to him. "Your psychological analysis is complete."
I won't tell you what happens in the end, but I will tell you it was NOT boring. The visuals were great... it looked like the moon, it looked like Mars, the sound was great.... we have a home theatre with pretty powerful speakers and take-offs rocked the speakers so hard a stack of cd's fell off the top.
If you LOVE Liv Tyler and you're waiting for her... she's not in it much... Donals Sutherland's part is pretty small as well... and we don't see Tommy Lee Jones much either... I still thought it was really good.... if you are expecting long conversations with his Dad, it's not that deep...to me it's just a really good sci fi movie. up there with Gravity, Interstellar, 2001, Star Trek, So many haters in here... I say give it a go. I loved it. :-)
