Seriously flawed, but still some fun

Rating: Null/10 (29 June 2003)

When I first heard about this film, I was intrigued by the original premise. 6 people are trapped in a gigantic maze of cubical rooms which themselves are arranged in a giant cube. Each person has a skill needed to escape from the mysterious cube, which is filled with booby-trapped rooms. So I give the film some credit for simply attempting to create such a neat idea.
And I thought that the filmmakers created the cube itself quite nicely, especially as they were on a low budget. Even though the film is almost entirely confined inside rather smallish, cube-like rooms, I really didn't get tired of looking at the same set again and again. Another commendation I can give to the film is that I truely did feel the suspense, the sense of paranoia, etc. At least I was entertained.
But the movie is deeply flawed. First off, the acting is poor. Considering that the only thing to look at for 95% of this movie is the acting, I'd say this is a serious problem. Not to say the actors had tons to work with, since the script itself wasn't so good. The whole mathematical premise that the cube is based upon is rather shaky -- if it actually DOES make sense, then it is explained very poorly and clunkily. And the ending was a big let-down. Terribly disappointing, and it really didn't make so much sense.
Also, I went into watching "Cube" thinking there would be some kind of dawning and horrible realization as to what the cube's really was. This is never adequately explained in the movie. Rather than focusing on the nature of the cube itself, the film centers almost entirely on the breakdown of the characters inside the cube, with some nifty traps going off and killing or hurting people in neat ways every so ofter. This isn't necessarily a bad thing -- it's just not what I expected. And it's also kind of tough to pull off without really bang-up acting, which I reiterate, this film did NOT have.
"Cube" is some fun, but a let-down. If the plot really intrigues you and you think you can get past all these flaws that I've mentioned, knock yourself out and rent the movie. Otherwise, you'd probably best just stay away. It leaves a bitter taste, but you wont hate yourself for watching it.
5/10