The most important problem is the script. The story is one dimensional, characters are caricatures, and dialog is artificial. With such a shallow material, acting is average at best, apart from Matt Damon who delivers a quality performance.

More often than not, we see the puppeteer, as certain scenes are poorly directed and only serve the purpose of moving the story forward.

This film makes me wonder what Mr. Nolan thinks of his audience. His need to bang us on the head with loud music and simplistic dialog is not only insulting but painful. References to 2001: A Space Odyssey are overdone as well, so that anyone who has so much as heard about it, is bound to recognize it.

He manages to patronize and pamper the audience so much that in the end one cannot really say what was sweeter in the theater, the film or the candy.

As someone who admires Mr. Nolan's work and likes cinema, I found this failed SF by numbers profoundly disappointing.