Michael's Movie Grade:C
Review: Good characters, great acting, some fantastic ideas and a absorbing atmosphere, but unfortunately a mostly bland predictable story.
What really works in this film is the characters and setting. Both the main characters are really well thought out. On top of this the chemistry between Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence is really great, and I want to see these two in more films together. This makes what is a rather predictable romance quite charming. The setting has a great look to it. It is obvious a lot of work went into making it. There is something fascinating to look at during every moment of the film. Besides this it is just fun to watch the characters react to this environment.
The story begins well as it is just the main character reacting to the well thought environment. This leads to a fascinating moral dilemma, which is actually quite thought provoking. Then it becomes much more predictable and less original, however it is still pretty well handled. However after that the story kind of goes through the motions. The story evolves into both a bland, predictable and forgettable disaster movie. During this section there is even a character who seems to simply exist to state exposition. The characters I like are no longer given the ability to be themselves, and kind of lose what was so great about them before, and go through the motions with the story. These scenes are really really boring. It is sad to see a film that was so good just fall apart, but during these scenes it kind of does. It becomes a movie we have seen too many times and are kind of bored with. Despite this though the movie ends on a high note that is actually kind of touching.
If you can't guess the film is very uneven. Watching this I both thought "This is a really good movie", and "This is pretty bad". There are things that are really good about this movie, but the bad stuff is equally as bad. For me though I enjoyed the good stuff enough that I am glad I saw it. So if you like me can enjoy a movie for it's virtues, despite it's faults see it. If big faults ruin a movie for you however, you probably won't enjoy it the way I did.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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