*POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW*

This is a movie that tries desperately to hide its fatal flaws behind the veneer of attractiveness. The spaceship setting is fascinating, the technology is sometimes mind-blowing. The special effects are what you’d expect for a major blockbuster. Christ Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence are two of the biggest stars in the world right now. They’re beautiful people that know how to flex both the dramatic and the comedic muscles in their arsenal. But much like the damaged ship on which they find themselves stranded, there’s something wrong with the movie’s core.

For one, their romantic relationship is founded on extremely creepy ground. One that, despite all the adventure and character development that’s supposed to convince us to forget about it, still doesn’t make much sense. Secondly, the story glosses over pretty glaring “what if’s.” Would the ship’s management seriously not have ANY sort of troubleshooting for malfunctioning hibernation chambers? On a flight that’s 120 years long, why on earth (or Homestead II) would they not have better protocol for critical failures aboard the ship? Why do they only have one life-saving automatic doctor contraption on a ship full of 5000 people? Why would there only be one humanoid (“android”) robotic crew member aboard the entire ship (and why would it be a bartender)?

I could go on with these types of questions. And for a movie like this, the accumulation of all these questions subverts what the filmmakers were trying to do. Is it an entertaining movie? Yes, it is. How could it not be? But in age where futuristic cautionary tales are bountiful, this one fails to fully succeed – at least beyond pure popcorn entertainment.

But hey. If you’re just wanting some popcorn and a decent flick, it’s still an enjoyable movie. As long as you’re able to get past a bit of (pretty extreme) creepiness at the beginning. And a bunch of nagging questions about the story’s foundational structure.