Gripping Suspense all the way.

Rating: 8/10 (11 December 2001)

Having read a review article of this movie on IMDB two months ago, I decided to rent the video. It turned out to be a gripping suspense all the way through. The movie was written based on a clever concept that mixes psychology, math and socio-politics criticism. Furthermore, the Cube was filmed as a multi-layered narration. On one level it tells the story of six people imprisoned within a labyrinth of compartments in the shape of cubes. Each compartment had been designed and assembled according to mathematical formula based on a 3-D cube. All six 'prisoners' have to work together using each of his/her skills/knowledge in order to find the exit, before they die trapped within.
It is interesting to see how each person contribute their 'knowledge' to decipher the planted 'map' and trying to survive some booby-trapped compartments and threats from themselves. Just like stated by one of the 'prisoners', Rennes:"You've gotta save yourselves from yourselves". That line itself is a direct message of the second level of the movie: social criticism.
I felt that the movie's pacing and characters' dialogues truly built up the tension, as the audience and the characters are progressively swallowed by a claustrophobic sense. But the real kick of the movie is the message of the story. Basically what the writers are saying is that, so long as the people of our 'modern' society is segregated into myriad 'professional working fields' (for example) and each section doesn't want to know how they are connected or need each other, we all will always live like prisoners inside the 'system'. A system that is getting out of control, as each individual is too busy with his/her own life. That kind of ignorance will eventually breaks down all social orders and kill the people who the system suppose to protect, as it did in the movie. The 'system' has become the prison, represented as the cube inside the movie.
The acting may seem rather flat and the characters are eventually two dimensional, since 90 minutes is not a lot of time to build a strong background for each character or the nature of the cube itself. But you can still enjoy the suspense, good interaction, disturbing settings and ponder upon the message.