Sorry... I'm not that artsy dartsy

Rating: 3/10 (13 February 2007)

I've always claimed nobody ever made a science fiction movie that was good (yes, including 2001.) And I like and read a lot of sci fi.I'm glad my premise remains unchallenged. This is yet another well done stinker. The movie has an intriguing premise, a Kafka like and gloomy false world where reality is all in our minds. The whole thing takes place in a sort of Gotham City on steroids. Mind you, the effects are superbly done. But it just doesn't come together. Much the same experience can be had by eating pickles with ice cream before going to bed. You wait for Batman and Robin to swoop in. Alas, they never do. It would provide a moment of comic relief to the unending Gothic dreariness. I'm still not sure why Keefer Sutherland speaks his lines as though reading them from a teleprompter with a broken gear. And as much as I admire the magisterial Ian Richardson, he is miscast here as the head bad guy. Not my cup of tea. But then, maybe in an alternate reality I would like it. Several times in the film Richardson says in that plummy, commanding voice of his "Shut it down." He's talking about the pseudo universe. Too bad the production crews didn't think he meant the movie.