Charming feel-good fun (with perhaps a bit too much goofiness coming from Gosling's character), but also constantly felt overly reminded that I was watching a Hollywood product optimized for affective impact and mass appeal. Some small notes:
It is obviously pretty derivative in both visual language and contents, but really not as much of a 2026-era Interstellar/Arrival (or even 2001 ASO) as I had expected going in.
Not a big fan of the externalization of global climate catastrophes at the hands of an alien lifeform while not mentioning anything about the actual man-made climate crisis we are facing right now, nor really it's politization (unless maybe the brief moment in the beginning when Gosling's character is hesitant to talk about what is happening and asks a child what their parents thinks instead). I get that the film is meant to be family-friendly fun, but since it distinctly touches on climate change, its silence irks me, since it essentially enforced Hollywood-endorsed notions that everything is fine actually and quirky scientists will work together to solve things.
I really liked that the trope of the infantilized alien Other sacrificing itself for the human lead was completely subverted, however. Rocky's character was all-around great. Also liked that it avoided McCarthyist logic and had a likeable Russian and Chinese astronaut as part of the crew team; a bare minimum but still a pleasant surprise.