Trying too hard and it shows

Rating: 4/10 (20 July 2010)

This movie spends far, far too much time telling instead of showing. The actors have to deal with so much exposition, the strain and boredom is practically palpable. Dialogue this obviously for the audience's benefit and this inorganic is completely undeliverable. It's not nearly so complicated that this level of explication is necessary, either.
The biggest problem, however, is that this is not a sci-fi film or a thoughtful drama or the incredibly rare gem of a film that transcends any kind of genre that it wants to be. It's an action spectacle and that's all. It's not deep and the characters are issues with name-tags. The massive, driving climax full of supposed suspense left me unmoved and thinking about other things because I really didn't care about these thinly drawn stick figures. Additionally, the thinks-it's-very-clever ending was the cheapest trick in the book and it cheats at its own game.
People comparing this to The Matrix (a film that really does rise above its genre and its spectacle, where even the minor characters feel fleshed out) aren't doing it any favours.