A heck of an achievement

Rating: Null/10 (23 August 2003)

After reading pages and pages of commentary over this movie, here's my contribution. Contains minor spoilers.
First, I'd like to point out that whether the movie is a cult classic as some claim, or torturous drivel as others claim, it was nonetheless stimulating enough that 434 people have felt compelled to comment on it, despite it being a no-budget, independent Canadian film made in 20 days some 6 years ago. That should count for something on the "worth seeing" scales, whether you ultimately wind up loving or hating it.
I really liked it. Those who say it's flawed have some justification. However, it's not as flawed as "Toys", for example. I also don't feel that the flaws are as critical to the coherency of the film as some did. I found this movie quite tense, and I'm still thinking about the issues it raised a day later, which I haven't done too often since "Se7en".
The plot summary is readily available, so I'll move on.

The "non-ending" was not a flaw in my opinion. "Cube" reminds me of "The Quiet Earth" (a favorite) in that way. I loved that the light beyond the last door clearly implies "somewhere else", because it's *different*, which is an extraordinary relief by that time. But there's no indication if it's normal daylight or simply the illumination of the outer shell, which might contain only new puzzles/traps, and no exit.
Many complained about the 'stereotypical characters'. I felt that this was a logical extension of the basic idea.
The characters have been suddenly and inexplicably thrust into an environment so unfamiliar and featureless that the only element that provides any context at all is the other humans. Like Rennes, who can at least identify a prison and provide valuable advice about escaping one.
They're also in completely unexpected, urgent, mortal peril. They must instantly redirect their frame of reference to a guerilla mentality and move quickly and undetected through an uncharted, dangerous area, where a single mistake is fatal. Only Quentin and Rennes are used to such a swift and radical paradigm shift and might resist disorientation to some extent. But even they would normally know how they went from being safe to being unsafe, and would have some idea what the rules of engagement were. No one knows that, in the Cube.
"Disorienting and stressful" seems an inadequate description of this situation. Humans focus on the familiar to cope with disorientation. There's nothing familiar in the world, so each must rely on previously-developed strategies for making a chaotic world comprehensible. However, it's clear that these people were not particularly successful in comprehending the "real world", even before the Cube. No surprise, then, that their compensating strategies consist of trite, simplistic world-views, which ring even more hollow than usual under these conditions. This is likely the root of the "idiotic dialogue" complaint. I was so anxious during Cube that I took off my headphones a few times, and didn't hear every word of dialogue, but it definitely wasn't as bad as some of Danny DeVito's lines in "Batman Returns". I'd say that Cube's "hackneyed contrivance" meter averaged at about the "Star Wars: A New Hope" level, but here I think the "idiocy" of the dialogue was perhaps somewhat intentional.
I noticed, when Holloway called Quentin a Nazi, that every cultural association that popped into my head to explain why that word is insulting either made me miss what the characters missed, or distracted me from the concept/goal of "escape". "War" (people!), "history" (irrelevant), "Europe" (Earth!), "fascism" (government? won't help, responsible?), "religion" (God??!!! definitely not helping)... Abstractions and metaphors are meaningless inside the Cube. Why does Holloway think she has brainpower to spare for them? How could Quentin take the "insult" to heart as if personal judgements mattered, as if *anything* mattered but getting out, and freely walking a single step without risking poor Alderson's fate? Then I realized-- this distracting pseudo-relevance was their only defense against overwhelming horror and despair in a nearly-hopeless and essentially meaningless situation.
The character Quentin displayed this fundamental desperation most clearly, even if Maurice Dean Wint's acting is sometimes a bit over the top.
As for "the math issue"-- hey, maybe Leaven's not a super-genius. Some people train for years, but still achieve only mediocrity in their chosen field. She's also hungry, thirsty, exhausted, terrified, and disoriented. Could even a super-genius quickly do complex, life-critical math under those circumstances (without being autistic)? Later developments with her abilities seemed fairly reasonable because she began by grouping the numbers into 3 sets of 3 digits, then appeared to need to solve the full 9-digit numbers, but I'm no math whiz. Maybe her brain gave out because she was hungry, thirsty, exhausted, terrified, and disoriented. That's possible, too. I found the "autistic math genius" too convenient, but felt the character ultimately served a worthwhile function in the setup.
It was easy to guess accurately when something was about to happen, but not so easy to be accurate about just what. And the last twist actually caught me off-guard despite being the oldest trick in the book, probably for the same reason it caught the characters off-guard. I was captivated by the light.
The characters weren't interesting or sympathetic, except Leaven (I just like Nicole de Boer, from her work on "Star Trek Deep Space 9"). I did want them to get out, though. Not even "Ally McBeal" deserves to die in the Cube, and I really dislike her. It was interesting that I still found this movie compelling despite being indifferent to the characters and expecting many of the "plot points".
If I had to guess the theme of this film, I'd say that "Cube" is a speculation as to what rats in a lab might be thinking when they are placed in some featureless maze for reasons unknown/meaningless to them, and attempt to achieve whatever uncertain reward the unseen controller has (or has not) placed somewhere within. And despite its flaws, Cube manages to convey that.
That's a heck of an achievement.