Good movie... One to see.

Rating: 8/10 (19 April 2009)

MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS -- nothing specific This may not be the greatest science fiction movie since "2001," but it is good nonetheless. It is better science fiction than all of Spielberg's films put together.
Seems to me that a lot of Europeans commenting on this movie resent that it has a (relatively) upbeat ending. My suggestion is, go plow $100M into a movie that is a complete downer, and see if you have profits from it to do another one. Audiences (and especially American ones) are not willing to pay $10 to see a movie and come out of the theater feeling they need to go see a shrink in the morning. That's just a simple, hard economic realty.
Nick Cage is far from being my favorite actor but he has been in a number of good movies with interesting stories. This is one. I thought he did a workmanlike job of playing the grieving widower, and the nightly drinking to ease his pain was especially believable, without it (thankfully) being a major plot-point. The young, troubled, and ultimately hysterical young female lead was also very believable.
The disaster scenes were grisly and disturbing. Cage did a great job of post-traumatic shock that was played just right.
I was surprised by the ending and thought it was an interesting mix of both hope and loss.
I had a few moments of disbelief at certain plot points, but they are quibbles.