Mark Ashford

I absolutely cannot believe that a film that was almost brilliant but then ruined by some terrible direction and editing, not to mention a dodgy screenplay managed not only to make £300M then also attract more A-listers for a sequel. What happened??? Call me a sentimental Brit if you like, but I can have no sympathy for someone who is able to prove their loyalty by shooting dead their own dog. The ultimate symbol of loyalty: if you could do this, you would have proved your disloyalty! Personally I would have shot Michael Caine already on the spot instead. And then the dreadful sexism, the young female lead, who we are led to believe did do the above, then has almost nothing to do for the rest of the film. She gets sent into space on a near abortive mission, I could not have cared less whether she lived or died. I am not even a dog lover, never had one as a family pet, I just like animals, I guess more than incomprehensibly rich film makers. Why was it necessary for the young male lead, not once but twice to reassure the quailing female that she could actually do what she was trying to do? Would she ever have managed to do anything without him? We should be told. Perhaps she would never haver survive the first parachute drop, who knows. After the dog incident, I thought he'd made a mistake and this would have been resolved, it never was. All of you should be ashamed at serving up this dross.