Uh....

Since the movie wasn't screened for reviewers prior to the release date, the only information I had about the movie was from the marketers. If the movie sucked, as I inferred from the marketing, why would I want to reward the creators (and waste 3 hours of my life) by paying to see it?

In addition, having no preview screenings is usually a big red flag that says the studio thinks the movie is terrible. Occasionally this isn't the case, but it is more often than it's not.

And I pretty much explicitly asked my question: is the marketing lying to me, as it often does? The only story elements included in the ads really are worn out plot devices, though. "Going native" themes date back at least to Kipling, and probably much further. And it doesn't look like it adds much of anything to the military sci-fi genre. Then again, there haven't really been many military sci-fi movies; the only ones that come to mind are Starship Troopers and Wing Commander, neither of which is, to be generous, very good.

I seem to have wandered off into tangents, so I'll shut up now.