Knowing - DVD Review

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for disaster sequences, disturbing images and brief strong language.
Runtime: 121 mins.
Director: Alex Proyas
Writer: Ryne Douglas Pearson and Juliet Snowden
Cast: Nicolas Cage; Chandler Canterbury; Rose Byrne; D.G. Maloney
Tagline: Knowing is Everything...
Genre: Action Mystery | Sci-Fi
Memorable Quote: "What happens when the numbers run out? "
Release Date: March 20, 2009
DVD Release Date: July 7, 2009
Distributor: Summit Entertainment

Five years after his futuristic I, Robot, Alex Proyas brings out another prophetic film that puts his visionary skills to the test. On the positive side, sound and visual effects are enthralling, resulting in a breath-taking second half with some surreal cinematography. What weighs him down is an inconsistent plot with unanswered questions like loose shoe laces lazily tucked into the shoe. Above all, the script appears to be an amalgam of left overs found in the cutting room of The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Number 23, National Treasure and The Happening, ample proof that too many ingredients spoil the broth. The over-all feel of the film changes direction every now and then making it hard to place it in any one genre; as such, it starts with a freaky horror theme, then becomes a goose-chase thriller, and in the end gets stuck between disaster and sci-fi. If this film boldly asks questions about our very existence, then at least suggest a plausible conclusion. If all life on Earth is governed by a superior power, should we look up to the heavens for a divine answer or in our purpose built laboratories through advanced science? Because personally, I very much doubt science will takes us back to a beginning scripted in Genesis, Chapter- 1. Even if that does happen, is this film proof that history repeats itself? Yes, these are clever questions, but suggesting theological hypothesis through this film is not just rushed, at times it feels as if the script was written by more than one person with different beliefs.

Another let down may be Nicolas Cage as the protagonist trying to single handedly save the world from apocalypse. Not content with seeing just two minutes into the future in Next, he blatantly takes on a role that has him deciphering predictions of Armageddon. As an astrophysicist professor in MIT, all hell breaks loose the day his son's elementary school unearths a 50 year old time capsule. Contents of the capsule are sketches assuming life fifty years ahead, but Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury) opens his to find a sheet of random digits in no particular order. The project was initiated as a form of communicating with similar aged children fifty years into the future, but Lucinda Embry's mathematical predictions in Caleb's possession would foretell all major disasters during the time it was buried in the capsule. While still mourning the death of his wife and Caleb's mother, John Koestler discovers the true meaning of an apparent deranged child's scribbling. Starting with 110901 and its significance with the September 11th attacks on New York, his staggering discovery even reveals the events leading up to his wife's tragic death. Shortly after, John relates most of the numbers to dates and events of natural and man-made devastation during the last fifty years. His main concern now is the series of numbers predicting disasters that haven't occurred yet. Worse, is his knowledge of Lucinda's last few predictions foretelling what could be the end of all life as we know it.

I can't really blame Cage for trying too hard when the script doesn't. Moreover, running around with a magical box of numbers indicating dates, events and locations is becoming quite the clichÃ© for a veteran actor like himself, besides giving him an exhausted look. However, the benefit of the doubt belongs to Proyas in what is a rather decent and thought provoking film that would have become his masterpiece, had he not so vaguely overlooked pot holes in the plot.

For a real sci-fi extravaganza, watch Star Trek while it's still in cinemas.