Knowing not to know.

Rating: 5/10 (23 March 2009)

All five stars go to the special effects crew. Everything else? Well...
POSSIBLE MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW
Nicolas Cage plays an M.I.T. astrophysics professor. Initially, we see him giving a lecture on the difference between determinism and randomness ... with him confessing to his students he believes in the latter theory. I was enjoying the film up until the last part where Cage all but admits to his father (a pastor) that he's now a determinist - a couched reference to him "finding God." The problem? Well, there are several. But I'll just stick to the biggest bugaboos. Assuming one believes the alien premise laid out in the film, we see neither the determinist nor the randomizer position proved. Rather, we see the situation described by Tom Hanks in the film, Forrest Gump - that they're really both happening at the same time.
People who believe in the theory that life on our planet was "transplanted" by superior aliens will love this film. But the aliens, by their very actions, appear less godlike and more like high-tech experimenters. And the test subjects of these experimenters (namely, all plant and animal life on Earth) are nothing more than guinea pigs - to be sacrificed ALTOGETHER (with certain pre-selected exceptions) at the end of the film for the dubious purpose of "starting over again" on another Earth-like planet. Had I been Cage's character during the spacecraft departure scene, I'd have asked my son to mentally convey two important questions to his alien saviors. I'd have asked, "If your grand experiment on Earth failed, what assurances can you give me that your next experiment involving my son will succeed?" And... "Do you REALLY respect life or are you just content to shoot craps with it until such time that you perceive yourselves *winners*?"
That final scene with Cage reuniting with his pastor dad - blubbering in religio-euphoric "I know this _really_ isn't the end..." psychobabble? Had I been Cage, that scene would never have happened. Rather, I'd have just burned to death in the solar firestorm, knowing (ugh, that word) that I was merely a guinea pig in a cosmic experiment that failed - and I'd not have been a happy camper at all.
So, overall, there are great special effects for this otherwise depressing movie - championing the idea that the entire history of the human race "didn't matter" (outside of procreating guinea pigs for future experimentation).