Intriguing sci-fi

Rating: 10/10 (3 June 2008)

This is one of my favourite movies of a spate of movies dealing with philosophical themes. This group would include The Matrix (reviewed here by me), The Thirteenth Floor and Gattaca.
I saw this movie many years ago and it has stuck with me all this time. Don't be put off by my description of these movies as 'philosophical'-they are entertainment first and foremost.
The philosophical theme of this movie is, I suppose, the old chestnut of nature versus nurture. Is there an 'essence' to human identity? To use a different example than that in the movie...if Hitler as a young child was reared in religious orphanage or some such, would he have ended up a jolly good chap? Or was he a bad seed who would still give forth rotten fruit? I suppose the flip-side of that would be how the Pope would have fared had he been placed in Hitler's circumstances.
The movie deals with these kinds of themes in its own, intriguing way. I don't want to get into much more detail than this.
I did read a review of this movie in the Halliwell film guide, I think, and was surprised how low it scored. Not sure, but perhaps the reviewer was misguided into thinking this film lightweight when it is so much more than that. Again, Halliwell seemed to give many poor reviews for movies that I would consider masterpieces, especially Australian movies like Mad Max 2 and Bad Boy Bubby. American snobbery perhaps?
This is a terrific genre movie that should not be missed...along with the other movies that I mentioned above.