Visionary leader Nathaniel Shepherd (Gary Oldman) organizes the first Martian settlement, East Texas. Sarah Elliot is one of the six astronauts to be the first settlers. Everybody is shock to find that she's pregnant. Fearing a PR nightmare, her pregnancy and her subsequent childbirth death is covered up. Sixteen years later, Gardner Elliot (Asa Butterfield) has been raised in secret by scientists like Kendra Wyndham (Carla Gugino). His only friends are a robot and an online friend, foster kid Tulsa (Britt Robertson), who doesn't know his true identity. His upbringing on Mars has left him incapable of living in Earth's gravity. He manages to escape and with Tulsa's help, goes in search for his unknown father.
Britt Robertson is getting a little old to play a teenager but it actually works well for this character. She's world-weary which matches well with the fish-out-of-water Asa Butterfield. The age difference brings out the experience difference in the two characters. They make for a cute couple.
The main problem is the set-up and the questions that arise. One must ignore a lot of these nagging questions. The kid has trouble with 1g but he has to endure multiple gs in his travels. It's also a pretty big secret to be kept by NASA. The distance between Earth and Mars is about 10 light minutes which would make online communications noticeably delayed. The questions keep pilling on and on. A few more rewrites are required.