Watching the trailer for The Space Between Us, I was intrigued by the intertwining of both sci-fi and romance aspects the film seemed to effortlessly capture. Combined with my high expectations for Asa Butterfield’s newest film following Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, I anticipated seeing it. Yet, I left the theater disappointed from what seemed like a cliché teen romance with a splash of sci-fi scenes.

The Space Between Us follows the life of Gardner Elliot (Asa Butterfield) who is considered the first human born on Mars. Living on the planet his entire life, Gardner expresses his desire to visit Earth and to meet his friend he has made online, Tulsa (Britt Robertson). Given the opportunity to visit Earth, Gardner finds him inevitably attached to what the planet has to offer him, including rain and his first experience of a crush. At the same time, he faces the challenge of his condition preventing him from staying on Earth any longer.

Gardner is portrayed as a quirky and sentimental character in an awkward teenager phase. Combined with his lonely upbringing, in which he refers to being constantly surrounded by scientists, Gardner yearns for the sunlight and happiness he sees in Earth through his video calls with Tulsa. His eccentricity paired for his growing attachment to Tulsa translates into heartwarming scenes which contributed to the romantic atmosphere of the film. Butterfield manages to capture Gardner’s enduring personality and tug at the audience’s hearts through his performance. Similarly, Robertson’s portrayal of Tulsa, a disorientated and lonely teenager due to her negligent foster home, is well executed.

While both Butterfield and Robertson were the highlights of the film, their chemistry was its downfall. I found myself cringing at the awkwardly executed and forced romantic scenes that seemed to make up the entirety of the film. I felt more sincerity through the actors’ individual performances as opposed to their relationship. While the film is geared toward the teenage audience and is considered a sci-fi romance, I expected there to be a well balanced portion of both. On the contrary, the film followed Gardner’s developing relationship with Tulsa through the search of his father with a couple of scenes of his space crew on the look for him. Even at this point, the film was anticlimatic in which the plot twist shouldn’t even be considered one, because of how forced it was. The end was hurriedly put together, with Gardner returning to Mars, and had no resolution to his separating from Tulsa. In fact, it gives me no hope to think that Gardner and Tulsa’s relationship could have developed any more.

The Space Between Us is exactly as the title suggests; the clichés and the typical teen romance left much room for disappointment.