The good, the bad, and the timid.

Rating: 7/10 (18 November 2009)

My rating of this film is divided into three parts.
THE GOOD - I gave this film a solid 10 for special effects alone. I've not seen better. Bravo.
THE BAD - I gave this film a rating of 6 for content and character. It was clearly an attempt to tell a good story. But, I took away 4 stars due to an over-abundance of scenes, characterization, and dialog that could be considered cliché - reminding me of some less than memorable disaster films of the past.
Between the two parts above, the average came to 8 stars. However, I took away 1 star for this:
THE TIMID - Roland Emmerich has said publicly that he decided not to destroy any Muslim holy sites in his film because he was worried that some cleric might issue a "Fatwa" against him. And before you begin to think that I wouldn't have done it myself, consider this.
Remember the British teacher who was jailed because she and her students (in Sudan) decided to name a teddy bear "Mohammed?" Shortly after the story broke, I sent this to the Sudanese embassy in Washington, DC:
http://www.cafepress.com/bobmccarty.194693988
I also sent a (ahem) comment which I'll not repeat here.
The bottom line is that I'm very crestfallen when I hear of producers, directors, and film studios with so little backbone that they won't risk ruffling someone's feathers in a film project.