I saw it tonight in Imax 3D. (Yeah, I'm stupid and/or brave.)
To be honest, I think most critics are shitheads and basically have just made the Wachowski's into the current whipping children.
no, it wasn't worth the $200 million pricetag. And no, it wasn't the kind of movie you want to buy and watch over and over and over again. But it was perfectly acceptable popcorn-night at the movies material. I know it's not saying much, but it was far better than that shit that Lucas shoveled on in the SW prequels, which had better actors but far worse lines.
I also thought a lot of the stuff people were bitching about in the reviews wasn't nearly as bad on-screen in real time, since the editing tended to not linger on it. (The "bees" thing, for example, sounds REALLY stupid based on our understanding of life on this planet -- but if you accepted that life on earth is genetically engineered for certain purposes, and the fact the edit doesn't linger on the line(s), then it's not really a big deal.) Or people bitching about the "registration" segment, that it was a diversion. Actually it was pretty amusing, and it was edited decently so that it clipped right along... and has a nice little cameo by Terry Gilliam at the end, if you recognize him. It really didn't drag out at all.
Same thing with him "saving her all the time" -- in the plot of the movie, it made sense and didn't seem overdone to me; and she actually does stand up when she needs to, to the limits of her ability. in fact the scenes with her and redmayne are kind of hilarious because she's supposedly a big galactic queen and he's a big bad-ass heir who has done some awful things and likes to channel Valdemort... but it's all just a ruse. Once they start going at each other, Redmayne's really a big wuss and Kunis is playing a woman who doesn't know how to fight... really kind of funny to watch.
My biggest gripe with the film is simply that it feels like it's only glossing the surface of something much bigger -- i.e., this should have been Chapter 1 in a book, and once you start to get a feel for things (along with Jupiter, who is completely naive and keeps getting taken in by the machinations of people far more skilled at the game than her. but then begins to catch on), the movie ends. The story itself isn't really much at all, in the end, when you take a step back... kind of anti-climactic for all the pomp and circumstance of the title and premise.
Anyway, my impression is that people came in expecting one kind of movie and got something else... or they did expect this kind of movie and just didn't like it and resented having to critique it. Yes, the Wachowskis are capable of making a better movie, and I wish they would, but if you accept this was a popcorn movie and don't expect more than that, it was fine.
.... and yeah, the visuals in 3D were pretty cool.
.... and yeah, now we know what happened to the dinos and where crop circles come from, and.... whatever else. I was kind of laughing at some of the stuff that got snuck in.