It has been a while since I’ve seen a movie that has sparked this much thought. I’m not saying I liked it, I’m just saying it was interesting, Before you spend $11.50 at the movie theaters and sit through 2 hours you will never get back, keep reading this and save some time and cash. Or, if you’re into being highly disappointed ¾ of a way through an otherwise provocative and somewhat intriguing story, don’t let me discourage you with this.
Because of all the hype about this movie I really did have my doubts. Usually, the bigger the buzz, the more disappointing. The first part of the film, and really the entire screenplay as a whole (up until the last 15 minutes or so) I thought was very well done. There was intrigue, mystery, a main character you could sympathize with, a definite sense of urgency, creepy guys in black coats, a killer score, and even the token creepy little kid that everyone seems to be into these days.
It begins in 1959 when Lucinda (the creepy kid… the name kinda gave that one away, huh?) wins a school contest with her idea to bury a time capsule commemorating the first year of the school being open. Each child is told to draw a picture of what they think the world will look like in 50 years, all of which will be placed in the capsule to be opened in the year 2009. As the other children draw pictures of spaceships and robots and such, Lucinda covers her entire paper with numbers… did I forget to mention Lucinda happens to hear whispering voices and sees dead people?
So, fast-forward to present day, 2009. Nicolas Cage’s character, John, a preacher’s son, (that’s important to note, kids) is a recently widowed professor of astrophysics at M.I.T. John lives in an eerie, secluded house with his son Caleb. Caleb coincidentally attends the same school that buried the time capsule 50 years before. The day capsule is opened, each child is given an envelope containing one of the drawings of the alumni from the class 50 years before. As all the other kids are getting crayon drawings, Caleb is highly disappointed to find that his envelope contains a full page, front to back, list of numbers. Being the son of an astrophysicist he decides to take it home to show his dad. Because who knows, it could mean something… not to mention the minute he opened it he started hearing voices… and seeing dead people.
That night, John happens upon the list of numbers and discovers that all the major disasters in the world were predicted right down to the time, place, and number of people killed in each tragedy, with only 3 dates left (which happen to fall within days of each other AND the encryption being found).
This is where it gets interesting. Did he happen to find all this by chance, or was there some greater plan to him finding this? The preacher’s son background in him tells him yes. The scientist in him tells him no. Throughout the hi-tech, mostly computer-generated events that follow, we see John as he struggles with this notion and tries to stop the next two events that are predicted. Meanwhile, poor Caleb is left with voices in his head and visions and the creepy men in trench coats following him everywhere. After stalking Lucinda’s daughter and granddaughter (Lucinda O.D.’d in a trailer park in the middle of the forest years earlier) John convinces them to help him figure out the last event predicted, which is set to take place within the next 24 hours, leaving no survivors. Here’s where I ruin the ending. After running away from John, leaving him to figure out the location of the last catastorphic event, Lucinda’s daughter dies in a car crash, and both the children are kidnapped by the men in black trench coats. John tracks down the creepy trench coat wearing men who have stolen the children. and When he finally confronts them, they turn out to be aliens or some other sexless, voiceless being that travel in a spaceship. Caleb walks to John with Lucinda’s granddaughter, each holding a rabbit. Caleb tells John that it’s ok and they aren’t hurt and that they have come to take everyone to a safe place to start over. One catch. Only the kids get to go. They will take a ride on the spaceship to run in wheat fields with their new bunnies towards a scene that looks like something out Genesis chapter 2 on an acid trip, while the rest of earth gets blown to Kingdom come by a giant solar flare.
As I said before, I think the way this film was written, technically, was very good. And it had the potential to be something great, philosophically speaking. The main question brought up in the film was whether or not we are here by chance. Whether or not we are all part of some divine plan, or if everything can be explained away through science. And while throughout the first half we are led to believe that there is a divine plan, it is very disappointing to find that the answer lies in telepathic blonde aliens in long black coats. There were, of course, gentle nods towards the Biblical truth, but they were flippant and barely subliminal. For instance, while rummaging through Lucinda’s trailer, John found an old drawing of a passage in Ezekiel thumb tacked to the wall. At that point I thought they might actually lean towards something somewhat Biblical, a real prophecy perhaps? Would have made it interesting, but when the Bible on the nightstand barely got a second glance, I knew there was nothing but disappointment to come. My suspicions were confirmed when, after watching his son get sucked up into a space ship, John returns to his estranged fathers house, and spray painted on a burning van were the words “Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life”. And as the family hugged right before the incineration, John’s father consoles everyone telling them that this is not the end, and in his most innocent, almost reminiscent of his ‘City of Angels’ voice, Nicholas Cage replies, “I know”. As if seeing his son getting sucked up by aliens was enough to make him leave all of his scientific beliefs and Christian upbringing behind and hop on the right on the old L. Ron Hubbard band wagon. By the end of the film I realized that what I was made to sit through for over 2 hours was nothing more than a piece of Scientology propaganda. As a movie goer, I thought it was mildly entertaining but ultimately disappointing that they had to follow George Lucas’ last ‘Indiana Jones’ catastrophe and play the “aliens explain everything” card. Frankly I find it lazy and uncreative. In a nutshell, well-written screenplay, great special effects, entirely F&%*ed up message. If you do go see it, I suggest you go into it expecting nothing more than the sci-fi version of “Armageddon”… minus the good ending.
