***Warning Movie Spoiler***
After a ten-minute stroll around the Blu-ray shelf at Blockbuster, I finally picked out a new release called Knowing. I knew nothing about it other than a TV preview I had seen earlier that day. I enjoyed Nicolas Cage's National Treasure performances and the synapses on the back of the DVD case gave me the impression that this movie might be something that shared similarities. Roger Ebert even proclaimed it as "A superbly Crafted Thriller" which was printed on the case right under the title. How could I go wrong with that?
Cage plays John Koestler, a professor who decodes a hand printed cipher, which contains hyper accurate predictions for all major disasters in the past five decades by date and location. He also finds out to his amazement that three of the predictions are yet to occur and are all scheduled to unfold within the next several days.
Wrapped up in this package are some deeper personal issues. John who is a widower and lives with his 10-year-old son is evidently a heavy booze drinker who's undergoing some kind of spiritual battle. One day he's in the classroom debating with him self, as it turns out whether the world exists out of pure random chance or out a predetermination of sorts. I say "of sorts", because the writer can only infer to how man may have arrived on earth and nothing more, such as, how was the universe formed? How did life come from non-life? Why is it that the planet is positioned ideally for liquid water to exist or why we have ideal positioning in the galaxy for discovering what we now know about the universe? Additionally, John is suffering from some kind of family feud, which seems to be rooted in his relationship with his father, who's also a pastor.
Shortly after the discovery of the cipher, strange figures that turn out to be alien life forms, which look like the "master race" of course, appear in the woods near his home. At one point they pull up in a car on the street and through the mechanism of placing voices in the son's head coax him over to the car and place something in his hand. John, who sees this from the kitchen window, runs out to protect his son at which point the car speeds off. The object appears to be some black obsidian rock of some type that turns out to be completely unnecessary for the story. The movie is full of cases like this, which seem to frighten the audience but in the end serve no logical, essential building block for what eventually unfolds. The writer wants to give the impression that everything happening is linked in some deep, mysterious meaning but in fact the connections are shallow. If I was twelve years old I might think the connections were nifty but at the same time this isn't a movie for children. Scenes of death and live burning people are portrayed.
The special effects are pretty believable for the most part. Two of the main effects scenes were that of a large airliner crashing across a grid-locked highway and the other was a subway train that derails to absolute destruction. Another scene is portrayed when one of the aliens somehow sneaks into the child's room and projects a vision of the end of the world from the perspective of outside the house. This was one of the ridiculous scenes in which a flaming moose comes running out of the burning woods in slow motion followed by other burning animals. I would have laughed had it not been for the stupidity of the scene and the director's lack of understanding about animal behavior. The aftermath of these events always results in a dazed and confused Cage, in which he stumbles around like a zombie while shutting out his son and visiting sister. I just couldn't relate to people acting that way but then I didn't grow up in a drunken, disassociated family, by God's grace, I might add.
The eventuality of this picture is that the earth is doomed, I'll reserve how that happens, and there's nothing that can be done about it. John's son and another girl of the same age, are eventually brought to what amounts to an alien LZ but on their way to the pick-up point the girl's mom needlessly dies in a car wreck which has nothing to do with the overall story. The purpose of getting to the alien-landing zone is so they can be whisked away from the impending apocalypse. John isn't allowed to go with and is forced to say goodbye to his son there. Shortly prior to this happening the world population is alerted by the science community of what's going to happen which prompts general stupidity by the public. The result is that the streets look like the LA riots, Katrina and the Gulf war oil fields all wrapped in one urban scene. I'm sorry to report to the "I am Legend" survivalist crowd, sitting on the couch with your AR-15s, that there's nothing of notable interest here. Just a few passing scenes, so you can strip back out of your tactical vest and stow your lights. I just put mine back in the safe myself.
About the only good that comes from all of this jumbled confusion is that John talks to and then goes to see his mom and dad, joined by his sister. There's a short hinted reconciliation and a group hug just as hell on earth arrives which left me as the viewer with an empty and incomplete thoughts.
Basically this movie borrows from a bit of many cultural stories and notions. It pulls the creation vs. evolution debate into the mix, has a touch of Noah and the flood, and even a bit of Adam and Eve. I couldn't figure out if the writer intended to suggest that the adults couldn't go to "Garden of Eden" because of their "sin" or simply because they weren't young. This of course doesn't line up with the Christian worldview that all of mankind has a fallen sin nature from the moment of conception. If the writer wanted to convey an Adam & Eve picture, you wouldn't of course plant a pair of ten year olds who are predisposed to self-centeredness. Indeed, the mother ship does in fact drop the two kids off on a new world somewhere with a large tree as the centerpiece of the garden. (rolleyes)
The only reason I kept watching it is because of my interest in different worldview and what Hollywood does with "spiritual issues." It was implied at one point by the aliens that the girl's mom, who died in the accident was "safe" therefore life after death existed and presumably it was good enough to be called safe. What I did like about the movie was that is was symbolic of the world's inability to save itself. Centuries of post-modernism and science, which can only serve to measure quantitative values, does nothing explain what is unseen or to preserve the world and everything it has been become. All the technological advancements, knowledge, and the pride of man are burned up in the fire that is to come. While the secular worldview is that man is basically "good" the Christian worldview is that man is "desperately wicked" and in need of a saving Christ to reconcile us with the Creator.
Overall, I give the movie a "C-" and would call it mildly interesting but mostly from a reflective standpoint. If I were to rate the movie right when it ended I would have given it a solid "D" due to the fact of how poorly the clues tied together and how unnecessary it was to have so many people involved in the unchangeable prophecy. In other words, the aliens could have just beamed the two kids to the mother ship and spared getting anyone else involved. No elaborate cipher needed to exist since any foreknowledge of the disasters could change nothing. I tend to like stories where someone with foreknowledge warns the people of impending doom and then offers a way of escape, if they choose to take it.
[FONT="]Maybe I look too deeply into these stories though. Let me know what you guys think.[/FONT]
After a ten-minute stroll around the Blu-ray shelf at Blockbuster, I finally picked out a new release called Knowing. I knew nothing about it other than a TV preview I had seen earlier that day. I enjoyed Nicolas Cage's National Treasure performances and the synapses on the back of the DVD case gave me the impression that this movie might be something that shared similarities. Roger Ebert even proclaimed it as "A superbly Crafted Thriller" which was printed on the case right under the title. How could I go wrong with that?
Cage plays John Koestler, a professor who decodes a hand printed cipher, which contains hyper accurate predictions for all major disasters in the past five decades by date and location. He also finds out to his amazement that three of the predictions are yet to occur and are all scheduled to unfold within the next several days.
Wrapped up in this package are some deeper personal issues. John who is a widower and lives with his 10-year-old son is evidently a heavy booze drinker who's undergoing some kind of spiritual battle. One day he's in the classroom debating with him self, as it turns out whether the world exists out of pure random chance or out a predetermination of sorts. I say "of sorts", because the writer can only infer to how man may have arrived on earth and nothing more, such as, how was the universe formed? How did life come from non-life? Why is it that the planet is positioned ideally for liquid water to exist or why we have ideal positioning in the galaxy for discovering what we now know about the universe? Additionally, John is suffering from some kind of family feud, which seems to be rooted in his relationship with his father, who's also a pastor.
Shortly after the discovery of the cipher, strange figures that turn out to be alien life forms, which look like the "master race" of course, appear in the woods near his home. At one point they pull up in a car on the street and through the mechanism of placing voices in the son's head coax him over to the car and place something in his hand. John, who sees this from the kitchen window, runs out to protect his son at which point the car speeds off. The object appears to be some black obsidian rock of some type that turns out to be completely unnecessary for the story. The movie is full of cases like this, which seem to frighten the audience but in the end serve no logical, essential building block for what eventually unfolds. The writer wants to give the impression that everything happening is linked in some deep, mysterious meaning but in fact the connections are shallow. If I was twelve years old I might think the connections were nifty but at the same time this isn't a movie for children. Scenes of death and live burning people are portrayed.
The special effects are pretty believable for the most part. Two of the main effects scenes were that of a large airliner crashing across a grid-locked highway and the other was a subway train that derails to absolute destruction. Another scene is portrayed when one of the aliens somehow sneaks into the child's room and projects a vision of the end of the world from the perspective of outside the house. This was one of the ridiculous scenes in which a flaming moose comes running out of the burning woods in slow motion followed by other burning animals. I would have laughed had it not been for the stupidity of the scene and the director's lack of understanding about animal behavior. The aftermath of these events always results in a dazed and confused Cage, in which he stumbles around like a zombie while shutting out his son and visiting sister. I just couldn't relate to people acting that way but then I didn't grow up in a drunken, disassociated family, by God's grace, I might add.
The eventuality of this picture is that the earth is doomed, I'll reserve how that happens, and there's nothing that can be done about it. John's son and another girl of the same age, are eventually brought to what amounts to an alien LZ but on their way to the pick-up point the girl's mom needlessly dies in a car wreck which has nothing to do with the overall story. The purpose of getting to the alien-landing zone is so they can be whisked away from the impending apocalypse. John isn't allowed to go with and is forced to say goodbye to his son there. Shortly prior to this happening the world population is alerted by the science community of what's going to happen which prompts general stupidity by the public. The result is that the streets look like the LA riots, Katrina and the Gulf war oil fields all wrapped in one urban scene. I'm sorry to report to the "I am Legend" survivalist crowd, sitting on the couch with your AR-15s, that there's nothing of notable interest here. Just a few passing scenes, so you can strip back out of your tactical vest and stow your lights. I just put mine back in the safe myself.
About the only good that comes from all of this jumbled confusion is that John talks to and then goes to see his mom and dad, joined by his sister. There's a short hinted reconciliation and a group hug just as hell on earth arrives which left me as the viewer with an empty and incomplete thoughts.
Basically this movie borrows from a bit of many cultural stories and notions. It pulls the creation vs. evolution debate into the mix, has a touch of Noah and the flood, and even a bit of Adam and Eve. I couldn't figure out if the writer intended to suggest that the adults couldn't go to "Garden of Eden" because of their "sin" or simply because they weren't young. This of course doesn't line up with the Christian worldview that all of mankind has a fallen sin nature from the moment of conception. If the writer wanted to convey an Adam & Eve picture, you wouldn't of course plant a pair of ten year olds who are predisposed to self-centeredness. Indeed, the mother ship does in fact drop the two kids off on a new world somewhere with a large tree as the centerpiece of the garden. (rolleyes)
The only reason I kept watching it is because of my interest in different worldview and what Hollywood does with "spiritual issues." It was implied at one point by the aliens that the girl's mom, who died in the accident was "safe" therefore life after death existed and presumably it was good enough to be called safe. What I did like about the movie was that is was symbolic of the world's inability to save itself. Centuries of post-modernism and science, which can only serve to measure quantitative values, does nothing explain what is unseen or to preserve the world and everything it has been become. All the technological advancements, knowledge, and the pride of man are burned up in the fire that is to come. While the secular worldview is that man is basically "good" the Christian worldview is that man is "desperately wicked" and in need of a saving Christ to reconcile us with the Creator.
Overall, I give the movie a "C-" and would call it mildly interesting but mostly from a reflective standpoint. If I were to rate the movie right when it ended I would have given it a solid "D" due to the fact of how poorly the clues tied together and how unnecessary it was to have so many people involved in the unchangeable prophecy. In other words, the aliens could have just beamed the two kids to the mother ship and spared getting anyone else involved. No elaborate cipher needed to exist since any foreknowledge of the disasters could change nothing. I tend to like stories where someone with foreknowledge warns the people of impending doom and then offers a way of escape, if they choose to take it.
[FONT="]Maybe I look too deeply into these stories though. Let me know what you guys think.[/FONT]
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