The magic shuttle craft sort of moved the movie into space opera territory for me as well. I couldn't stop thinking about how advanced the shuttles must be as that one waterlogged landing craft took off from a 1.3G world orbiting a massive black hole and entered orbit without breaking a sweat.
Unfortunately, realistic Apollo LM ascent stage-style SSTO (as opposed to easy magical SSTO) doesn't seem to be compatible with landing on and exploring the sorts of uninhabited planets which would be of interest for human colonization.
It would have been really neat to see ISRU for the subsequent lift offs. In-situ resource utilization. Basically you land a solar powered robotic rocket fuel factory that converts water ice and CO2 into methane and oxygen using electrolysis and the Sabatier process. Then, when your rocket lands, you refuel for takeoff.
Still plenty of opportunity for drama, and not a whole lot higher CG budget.
Of course, that only fixes the first bit of magic. It doesn't fix the other issues or the many other problems with the movie, like all of Matt Damon's dialog.
Unfortunately, realistic Apollo LM ascent stage-style SSTO (as opposed to easy magical SSTO) doesn't seem to be compatible with landing on and exploring the sorts of uninhabited planets which would be of interest for human colonization.