John J. Barr

If you watch space movies, and follow the Mars industry, you will find this a story that somewhat grows on you. The premise — that someone could stow away on an early mars expedition — is absurd but creates some decent tension and good ethical issues. If you can suspend your disbelief. The rest of the plot is reasonably well thought out and relatively realistic viz. current knowledge — eg., Mars is a long trip and very risky, all systems must perform perfectly, there is very little margin of safety, and the psychological stresses are severe. If your environmental management system is damaged or destroyed, you are in big trouble. I hope NASA and SpaceX planners are watching this show carefully. Zoe is a believably heroic character and charming, although her Millenialist sensitivity puts everyone’s lives in danger

Brad Pitt is a fine actor and tries hard to breathe life into a storyline that is DOA. It’s “science” is laughable, it’s pace is glacial, the whole absent father/abandonment thing is clumsily addressed, and the plot resolution is absurd (Pitt’s ship rides a thermonuclear explosion back from Neptune, like Project Orion only without the shield). Some decent special effects can’t patch over the holes in the plot, to the extent that the film can be said to even have one. Why Neptune? What was Tommy Lee Jones DOING out there, how was it threatening the universe, and why was his son sent, like Martin Sheen, to kill Col. Kurtz/his father? Whaa? Why was this film made? What were the backers thinking of? What basic point were the writer and Director trying to make? Beats the heck out of me. I can’t remember a sci-fi film in forty years that left me so torn between going to sleep and throwing a brick at the screen.