X-Files meets JW

Rating: 3/10 (21 November 2015)

As usual I didn't know much about this movie beforehand. This way I can really enjoy the experience and be free of prejudice. The beginning was quite OK although one gets the feeling straight away that it's a Hollywood-movie - instead of creating characters that feel real we are presented with characters that resemble well known stereotypes, so instead of a teacher we are presented with a mediocre actor who most resembles the stereotype of 1940's teacher, same with students, staff and so on. It gives kind of surreal feeling to everything and makes you wonder if it's intentional and somehow part of the story. It's kind of disappointing when you discover it's not. The acting was mediocre, at best. Nicolas C (Cage) is becoming the Kenny G of the movie world, steadily. Others weren't that much better. For kids it's somewhat understandable (but here again we see how kid actors were chosen because of their looks not how they act) and they probably acted as well as they could, whatever the movie or story. Adults looked like they really struggled with the characters (and staying in character), my guess is because of the silliness of the story. And the story is silly. No spoilers but the story is so silly it made me wonder if the film is either partially financed by some religious group or if the film is tailored to bring a lot of religious people (and their money) to cinemas. Or maybe it's just that the authors thought that the story as they presented it would cleverly tie together science and religion and nicely align with majority (in US) knowledge and view of the world. Characters remained shallow and discordant (eg Cage plays a sad and forgetful MIT professor in velvet jacket with drinking problem who drives big gas-guzzling flatbed truck, wears big macho watch and has a athletic tanned body - possible but not likely). In the end the film didn't clear anything up - some parts of it suggested that it aligned more with contemporary Christian views, some parts suggested that it supported more of the scientific view of the world, it just left viewer confused, maybe intentionally to allude to some deeper meaning or something like that. There were also quite a few fact and logic flaws in the story (eg determinism; new planet). Maybe less if the viewer assumes that there's an all-powerful god in the story who can do anything (which at the same time destroys the story altogether). I intended to watch the film at least partially again while writing this review but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm not sure who really would enjoy this movie, maybe a die-hard Nicolas C fan, a teenage Christian sci-fi fan?