Reviews

Well it starts out nice and exciting. A trip to Mars.... with great cast and solid acting and direction. The real problem here starts with it's logical inconsistencies, sub-par writing, and glaring plot holes that are not addressed.

If you've not seen the movie yet, I recommend you watch it first before reading this review as it will contain lots of spoilers. So here we go...

My first point of contention, which some have already pointed out, was that the moment the stowaway was discovered, they should have scrubbed the mission and went home. Of course this would give the movie a terrible ending as well as make it utterly useless. Writers should have talked more about why they couldn't just turn around and go back to earth. Although, a small point was made more than half way through the film, about not having enough fuel. But this was when talking about extending oxygen supply, not returning back to earth. I guess the writers realized that they needed to at least hint on the fact that this was impossible.

My second point of contention which is probably the most important one. No mission ever gets green-lit, going into space without having a back-up system. In most cases three back-ups are used to cover the original and the secondary back ups. In this film however, no backup unit exits of their PRIMARY CO2 scrubber. Which is quite unbelievable and hilarious. All sufficiently advanced engineering projects will have back-ups on back-ups. It is unthinkable to not have a back up unit of your main oxygen purifying system. I'm sorry but I cannot suspend my disbelief any longer.

Third point of contention, 'Artificial Gravity'. This, of course, is pure science fiction. There is nothing existing today or could exist in the near future that would support this tether based centripetal gravity bonanza they have set up in this film. It's just unproven highly theoretical wishful thinking. Even if it was possible to create artificial gravity like this, the power needed to sustain the rotation would exhaust all resources. In the film of course, it is seemingly self-sustaining and autonomous. Again very silly to believe.

The last point I would like to make is why is there such a little amount of algae? This stuff grows literally everywhere and anywhere. Nothing was mentioned as to why the colonies died so quickly... We're just expected to believe that anything that can go wrong, has and will go wrong. :shrug:

All those reasons is why I couldn't really get deeply engaged with this film. The acting was really really good. The actors really did their best. However poorly their lines and plot was slopped together. The visual effects were really cool, and tried to keep up a fresh level of realism. The film had loads of potential, but never really reached anywhere close to where it could have gone.

In the end our main protagonist seemingly... dies due to solar radiation while saving the rest of the crew. Of course, her death could have been avoided had she attached the first tank of oxygen to her suit. But I guess the writers thought it would be a good idea for her to take responsibility for her mistake and sacrifice her life for the others. Of course, the actual stowaway proved to be virtually useless, not unlike the film itself.

I guess ultimately, the movie is about taking responsibility for one's own actions. But done in a such an unbelievable and haphazard way, that I struggled hard to stay in the zone with this one. If I was asked to watch it again knowing what I know now, I wouldn't waste my time.

Thanks for reading. 😎👍