Ridiculous Characters in an Interesting Dilemma

Rating: Null/10 (15 August 2003)

The Cube was a conflicted experience for me. On one hand, I enjoyed the premise. The sparse, eerie atmosphere generated by the film's weird setting was interesting and generally very consistent. I was especially pleased that the filmmakers avoided exploiting the more gruesome realities of life inside The Cube, playing up its aspects as a mathematical puzzle rather than throwing twenty buckets of blood at the screen.
Unfortunately, all of this began to seem trivial when the unspeakably annoying characters began to open their mouths. Each one, to the last man and woman, is a cardboard cutout with a couple of traits slapped on for good measure. This wouldn't be such an obviously bad thing if only they didn't have to talk so much... but talk they do. So for an hour and a half I was bombarded with simplistic social commentary, half-baked philosophical yammering, and enough ham to fill any number of good New York delis. It was like reading a stack of term papers from Remedial Ethics 101; or rather, having them yelled at me by some actors. And every word of this goofy stuff is delivered with such sincerity... by the halfway mark I'd gone from rolling my eyes and giggling to full on laughter.
So I really wanted to like this movie, and I still kind of do, but in the same way that I enjoy Ed Wood films. The combination of genuinely interesting ideas, good technical execution, and unintentionally hilarious dialogue is just so very strange. Perhaps I'm intellectually stunted and have missed out on the treasure trove of marvelous insights this film has offered me, but I doubt it. In any case, I'd have to recommend checking out The Cube with an open mind and drawing your own conclusions.