Gardner Elliot (Asa Butterfield) is a kid born on Mars who can't go back to earth. While on Mars, he befriends a girl on Earth named Tulsa (Britt Robertson). They finally take the risk to bring him back to Earth, but he's having medical issues and so they plan to bring him back to Mars. Sensing this, Gardner escapes, finds Tulsa, and the two search for Gardner's father.
First, the bad: An awful, cheesy first ten minutes or so. I was ready to turn this movie off after that. A pretty awful 20 minutes after that. Again, I wanted to turn the movie off but figured I invested 30 minutes so far, might as well see it through. And I'm glad I did. Sure, Mars is something like 3-20 light minutes from Earth. Can't have a conversation like Gardner and Tulsa did. And I'm sure there were other scientific inaccuracies. Cute girl Tulsa can't find any friends? Rather unlikely. The two evade all these people looking for them. Rather unlikely. Kids are going to applaud some bit of Tesla/Edison trivia which is pretty well known? Rather unlikely. Probably some other stuff.
If you can get over that, then this becomes a cute story of a boy seeing Earth for the first time and without all the emotional hardening and a girl who has been jaded by the world she's lived in but is really just looking for a reason to let that inner light shine. He gets her to let her guard down, and the two fall in love. I think if you focus on that, it becomes a charming and cute romance story. Yeah, perhaps it's simplistic. It's not some multi-layered, emotionally complex whatever, whatever. So what? Butterfield and Robertson have good chemistry, I thought, and there were some very touching scenes. It's an uplifting romance movie that may not register too high on the believability scale, but it's the kind of story that works if you let it.
My only gripe is that Tulsa didn't go with Gardner when he had to return. Yes, we see her training to go and the implication is that she'll eventually go there, but this is the type of movie where they should have been together at the end, and they could have suspended believability one last time by "smuggling" her onto the ship or hand-waving some solution. I figured that's where they were going given she was an orphan looking to leave once she turned 18. Figured she'd leave for Mars.
Anyway, 7/10 for what it is. A nice, charming romance story thinly veiled in a sci-fi movie.
First, the bad: An awful, cheesy first ten minutes or so. I was ready to turn this movie off after that. A pretty awful 20 minutes after that. Again, I wanted to turn the movie off but figured I invested 30 minutes so far, might as well see it through. And I'm glad I did. Sure, Mars is something like 3-20 light minutes from Earth. Can't have a conversation like Gardner and Tulsa did. And I'm sure there were other scientific inaccuracies. Cute girl Tulsa can't find any friends? Rather unlikely. The two evade all these people looking for them. Rather unlikely. Kids are going to applaud some bit of Tesla/Edison trivia which is pretty well known? Rather unlikely. Probably some other stuff.
If you can get over that, then this becomes a cute story of a boy seeing Earth for the first time and without all the emotional hardening and a girl who has been jaded by the world she's lived in but is really just looking for a reason to let that inner light shine. He gets her to let her guard down, and the two fall in love. I think if you focus on that, it becomes a charming and cute romance story. Yeah, perhaps it's simplistic. It's not some multi-layered, emotionally complex whatever, whatever. So what? Butterfield and Robertson have good chemistry, I thought, and there were some very touching scenes. It's an uplifting romance movie that may not register too high on the believability scale, but it's the kind of story that works if you let it.
My only gripe is that Tulsa didn't go with Gardner when he had to return. Yes, we see her training to go and the implication is that she'll eventually go there, but this is the type of movie where they should have been together at the end, and they could have suspended believability one last time by "smuggling" her onto the ship or hand-waving some solution. I figured that's where they were going given she was an orphan looking to leave once she turned 18. Figured she'd leave for Mars.
Anyway, 7/10 for what it is. A nice, charming romance story thinly veiled in a sci-fi movie.