Is it unique or horrible or both?

Rating: 5/10 (22 February 2007)

As a film, a piece of art, this film leaves so much to be desired that I have to hate it. I hate movies that are better than this. As a series of images that flicker at me faster than any other film or even music video I've ever seen, it is a unique experience. This may be the only film where any 2 minute sequence taken right out of the film could be used as a trailer for the film itself. I don't think any of the main characters are absent from the film for longer than a minute. The acting is b-movie standard. The special effects are pretty good for 1998. Whenever I see this movie on TV, I watch it to the end, bitter and disgusted, but fascinated. A car wreck fails as an analogy because they are not quite as entertaining and nowhere near as fascinating. As an example of the Bay and Bruckheimer excess style of film-making, it might be the best, because it is science fiction and action combined in a manipulatively effective way. When all is said and done, there were a few lines that made me chuckle, so I had to give it a higher score because I was technically entertained.