boe_dye sez: Zecharia Sitchin much?

Rating: 8/10 (4 April 2009)

Or perhaps Erik Von Daniken? It took me a while to really catch on to where this story was going, and once I realized that it certainly wasn't a new tale, but instead a retelling of a story that is quite old.
It is also interesting to note that this story is coming at a time that has been building up for years now as more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon that 2012, at least according to the Mayan Short Calender is when some great cataclysmic solar event is to happen.
Never the less, it is refreshing to note that someone intelligent was able to point out that the earth is indeed warming not because of man-made carbon emissions, but instead because of that ginormous ball of fire in the sky.
But onto to the movie...
Let's just start out by saying that if anything, this movie was just downright creepy. Everything about it was simply un-nerving. The decor, the scenery, the "Men in Black" if you will.
It doesn't do it justice to call it horror, as most horror films are more about loud shocking scares, but it does excel in what most horror films fail to do, and that is make you squirm in your seat.
And really that was just the imagery aspect of it...
Nicholas Cage plays his normal character that we have come to expect, and as a rule if you are not a Nicholas Cage fan, then you probably wont like this movie.
Around the end of the film, the pace started to get somewhat disjointed and almost felt as if it wanted to end in about 10 different places. This, however, was do to poor editing and scene splicing.
The story line was solid enough and left little to the imagination. Of course the nature of the ending would make it hard to say that there were any loose ends...
Some people will probably be put off when they realize that this story is actually a fringe interpretation of the Bible, and while it is not technically a Biblical story it's basis is heavily laden with scriptural interpretation.
Pseudo-Intellectuals will probably scoff and dismiss the story as nonsense leaving the theatre grumbling that this is simple another one of those "Christian Propaganda Films". However the truly enlightened will see it as a caricature of factual events and possible interpretations.
Ancient cultures were not as "quaint" and "simple" as many have come to believe that they are today. In fact ancient cultures were highly intelligent and very much aware of the world around them is very much evident in the writings and works that they left behind.
The fact that they didn't have shiny blinking gadgets is not a testament to their advancement in mathematics or astronomy.
Of course many people today forget that 90% our knowledge in mathematics and astronomy is hundreds and sometimes thousands of years old.
In the end, this movie was enjoyable. Not too heady, not too quirky, and not too religious. You wont be seeing a film that crams dogma or doctrine down your throat.