A Truly Dreadful Experience: Sophomoric and Predictable

Rating: 5/10 (18 April 2008)

Ohhhhh, I feel so very disappointed. I thought it was going to be GOOD, but this whole film was just excruciatingly BAD. Simplistic, sophomoric, completely predictable and full of shallow platitudes. Sure, it's a great concept- music uniting the world.I'm all for it, but I am all against how it played out in this film. Such weak and lazy writing. ("Hmmm, let's see, I'll pull that plot device from Oliver, and this plot device from An Affair to Remember, and, oh yeah, I always wanted to fit in that cool musical coda from the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind,"....and...) It is very rare that I can actually predict the exact ending AND the major plot points along the way, but with this movie I accomplished that in spades.And I am not bragging about that. I always want a movie to be good; they can be the best of enriching experiences.
I am a big fan of Freddy Highmore, Jonathan R M , Robin Williams when he chooses the right project, and certainly Terrence Howard. And I bet they all joined the project because they believed it would be worthwhile. I would guess that now, it will just be for them a lesson in how not to be fooled by a director or producer or whomever. I haven't been this disappointed by a movie in a loooong time. Good thing I didn't pay to see it in a theater.