post-apocalyptic mess

Rating: 3/10 (30 December 2006)

Am I the only one who found this movie pretentious, annoying and unnecessarily violent? Granted, being more familiar with the previous string of post-apocalyptic stuff from the 70's and early 80's, I might be biased (Soylent Green, Logan's Run, Omega Man, ZPG, Blade Runner, etc...). Whenever the political climate is negative and depressing, filmmakers feel the need to comment on the culture, usually with unsatisfying results. Generally, these films fail to withstand the test of time as the culture shifts to something a little sunnier and less humorless. This film seemed dark for the sake of being dark, with the frequent use of heavy-handed allegory (the Human Project ship is called "Tomorrow"). I prefer my social commentary with a little more subtlety.