This is another one of those films where the art department thought they were working on something that was going to be great, not paying attention to the shoddiness in every other part of the production. The Martian were by far the best part of this film and it's too bad they didn't get a chance to shine. I kind of feel sorry for the actor playing David here, since even a very talented child actor could have done a good job with such a heavy share of the lines in this, maybe under pressure from real-life Mom (Karen Black), so it could be he overcompensated. Badly. The military types were just unconvincing as well. Louise Fletcher was in my opinion better than the part she got here. My rating is for the mechanical alien things.