Pretty good mind-bending movie

Rating: 7/10 (24 March 2013)

I recently watched Cube a second time, and was not as blown away as I was the first time I saw it.
First off, I couldn't help but notice the TV movie style of the film. The lower quality, mediocre acting, and forgettable dialogue all kind of brought it down for me. However, it does kind of work, because it's about as thought-provoking a made-for-TV movie could possibly get.
In terms of characters, none are too memorable. They are at least passable, but the mostly non-memorable dialogue makes them forgettable. And in the end, none are too likable. Although, that is the point.
The story was a lot cooler when I first saw it, but on second inspection, it could easily be a Twilight Zone episode. Pretty much, it's about strangers that wake up in a cube. They find other cubes next to it, and they figure out ways of going from cube to cube by reading numbers and going past traps. And it turns out, it's all apart of some big cube that was built by a bunch of people who didn't know what the hell they were doing.
And the concept of having strangers wake up in a room? I don't know, but it seems like it's been done before, and therefore making the message a little more obvious. The message, of course, is "humans will turn into savages in morbid situations," which has been a somewhat common message ever since Heart Of Darkness and Lord Of The Flies, and probably even before then.
Another message, which is slightly less obvious, is "only the innocent are good." In this case, it's someone with the mind of a child. (AKA a retard.) As he is the only person to walk into the white light, and get out alive. What could the white light symbolize? Why, heaven, of course! Seems familiar? Same here. That's probably because it's been done before.
Although it may seem like I don't like it, I do. It's still an interesting tale, with a message that at least slightly gets me to think. However, it is good when judged by the standards of a TV movie. If you are gonna compare it to some of the great mind-bending movies like The Matrix or 2001: A Space Odyssey, you're gonna get left cold.
Overall, a good watch.