Boring and uninteresting

Rating: 3/10 (17 June 2002)

I can not believe all of the positive reviews I have read on this board. I saw this film was on TV a couple nights ago, and seeing that it starred John Malkovich and was directed by Steven Spielberg, I decided to give it a go. The film has an interesting premise. From the start, it appears that this premise will grow throughout the picture. It doesn't. First of all, the child is the most annoying lead character I have ever seen. It is impossible to feel for this kid throughout the rest of the movie. The remainder of the film is spent building towards great emotional climaxes, but then the scene is uninteresting and really has no bearing upon anything. The depiction of internment camp life is something out of a post-apocolyptic movie. The title is misleading, the film really has nothing to do with the Empire of the Sun (Japan). Instead it is a aimlessly wandering film looking for a plot. Some scenes simply don't make any sense. Just when we think the movie is taking us somewhere, it drops us off in the middle of nowhere wondering where it went.