The good: In terms of playing within the rules (i.e. the gimmick) it was very consistent as far as I can tell. The main character of the movie was the 'found footage', everybody else was secondary. Beautiful shots, intense sequences, and an extremely realistic depiction of a manned mission to Euoropa (stemming from their close collaboration with NASA).

***side note rant*** WTF NASA?!?! It's great and all that your helping out Hollywood, but how about you stop worrying so much about global warming and think about actually sending someone out past the moon? ***end side note rant***

More good stuff...it did a great job of generating a sense of awe and wonder. That right there makes it worth seeing.

The bad: The gimmick is quickly wearing thin. I get it, I even like it and respect it at times. But there were more than a few occasions where I wished that they could stop with the camera gimmick and focus on wider shots and a more fully developed plot. Which brings me to the plot. Take away the gimmick and it's pretty thin and nothing new. The acting was hit or miss. I liked District 9 guy, but it was a little choppy with some of the other characters. Showing the alien at the end felt really out of place. I get that they did this bc a lot of people would bitch if they didn't, but it felt cheap. Up until that point it's a very vague light, it left a lot to the imagination and quite frankly my imagination was more enjoyable than what they showed.

he's the first one to die and screen time only amounts to a few minutes.

I LOVED that they actually showed you an "alien" grounded in our reality. It's something plausible and not too far removed from what we have here on Earth.

Nice that it was not the typical alien menace that stalks the crew one by one.

deaths as just a matter of fact, no melodrama

copely's line, "I'm gone." was terrifyingly haunting in its delivery.