Wow. (HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD... also, potentially offensive)

Rating: 5/10 (21 March 2009)

This movie surprised me. How? Well, first, it was an EXCELLENT movie. Well... for the first hour or so, maybe 80 minutes. Then horrible, horrible things happened.
First, the good. The effects in this movie were AMAZING- save for one scene involving a moose, which was very obviously CGI'd. Of course such a scene HAS to be, but technology exists to not make it so obvious. The scene with the plane seen in all the trailers was by far the most amazing disaster sequence I've ever seen- the power of it, the effects, the people running around on fire- it was amazing. The movie, for the first half at least, was by far the best thriller I've seen in a long, long time.
Unfortunately, before too long, the religious subtext set in (note: it's not a subtext at all. it's bright flashy neon sign). At first, you may find them passable- oh, he's a physicist who has grown cynical, a pastor's son- all seemingly irrelevant. Then, as the story goes on, it grows. There are mysterious men following them throughout the entire movie, for one. At first, it just seems a bit The Ring-esquire, but then, when Nick finally catches one, the guy opens his mouth and attacks him with... light. Oh no. Where could this possibly be going? Yes, indeed, to my horror, what I suspected turned out to be true. This movie, which so deceivingly lured me in and put me at awe with its awesome effects and edge-of-the-seat thrillerness, just raped me in the brain. The movie can be summed up in one word: rapture. And, with that, this movie becomes lumped with every other unoriginal movie that tries to lure people in, just to poke them in the face with the well-disguised crotch of Jesus. All of the suspense and everything builds up to a boring, meaningless, and offensive ending (which I won't actually spoil, unless 'rapture' already did that). It was an excellent movie with an unoriginal and uninspiring ending. I am, to say the least, horrified, and utterly disappointed.
I give the first half of this movie a 10/10, and the second half a 0/10. So, obviously, the average is an overall undeserving 5/10.