Started off great but ended so predictably

Rating: 4/10 (21 March 2009)

This movie appeared promising. Alex Proyas is a great director. "The Crow" and "Dark City" are nothing short of masterpieces, and even "I,Robot" was decent for a Will Smith action flick. Proyas has been known to mix genres well too (see "Dark City"). "Knowing" looked like a good mix of sci-fi, horror and disaster-movie action, but it ultimately came off as forced, stale and ham-handed. The plot was utterly pointless (the numbers never really served a purpose because there was no way for Cage's character to save anyone with the information he was given). By the time men in black were coming for the children, and Cage and Byrne find the Biblical imagery in the trailer, the ending became very predictable. There were many unintentionally hilarious moments when it was supposed to be serious. The acting was mediocre. Unless the presence of other spaceships suggested that the aliens had chosen children from different parts of the world as well, the fact that two Caucasian children were the only ones chosen restart the human race was mildly disturbing. I give this film a 4 because it did have an intriguing beginning and kept the audience on edge until around the middle of the film. The music and the effects were all right too (though the usage of the main theme from the Allegretto of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 was overdoing it a bit).