Teebs2

By far the best use of a fully immersive 3D environment since Avatar, this is certainly a film to experience on the biggest screen you can get to. 3D is perfect for space, the stark outlines of objects against the emptiness of space or a beautiful, distant earth working amazingly well, rather than being distracting or headache inducing.

That's not to say there aren't any frantic action scenes, in fact oddly enough this is my chief criticism of the film. Poor old Dr. Stone, played by Bullock, is certainly put through the wringer in this bad day at work, the ever increasing perils and sheer bad luck she experiences becomes predictable, and a final credibility shattering sequence involving a fire extinguisher made it clear that as unique beautifully made as it is, it still follows Hollywood action film logic (I also couldn't help but think of the far more beautiful fire extinguisher as propellant sequence in Pixar's Wall:E).

For a film set in the silence of space, there is a lot of dialogue which gets tiresome, but to be fair there are several touching, quiet scenes too. The use of special effects is simply astounding, and any fan of movies should go for the immersive experience, if not the credibility stretching plot.

Despite these sort of films being a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, I genuinely don't think this is as bad as the critics made out. Yes, I admit the script is simply a long list of clichés and lazy characterisation, but at least it's tightly paced and acted with conviction especially by Eckhart as the tortured, just about to retire Marine sergeant.

Liebesman's twist on the material is a good one, to portray an alien invasion from the POV of a small group of soldiers using mostly hand-held close up camera-work. Although having a similar kick-butt mentality, it is also more credible than similar blockbusters such as Independence Day, with patient and dedicated soldiering helping to turn the tide against a powerful enemy rather than outlandish science fiction, although it can't beat War of the Worlds for a logical deus ex machina.

The alien SFX are excellent if a little unimaginative, and whilst the loud action scenes got a little incomprehensible at times in general I found it entertaining and distracting enough to forgive its pretty large dramatic shortcomings.