Meh, It's OK, But Not Great

Rating: 6/10 (6 February 2018)

Knowing, in short, is about professor John (Nicolas Cage), an intelligent chap who cleverly decodes a message that was unearthed in a time capsule buried 50-years ago at his young son's school.
Still interested? Ok, read on. Inside of this time capsule are things like futuristic drawings and trinkets from 1959, left by school children of the day. In 2009, a new batch of children at the school open the capsule and, one by one, reach in and pull out a treasure. John's almost-as-clever son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), picks out a rather boring piece of paper filled only with numbers. It's almost befitting though. After all, the kid is very smart and has a future as an astrophysicist it seems. But he is a kid, man, and he notices that his classmates each got something cool, like hand drawn, colorful pictures imagining what life would be like in 2009 (think spaceships and jet packs). Like, where's the fun in a plain piece of paper full of stupid numbers?
Enter Dad, M.I.T. scholar John, who's a big fan of numbers. He finds Caleb's discovery rather fascinating, and, in fact, has uncovered something that no one else cares enough to believe. These numbers, when one looks close enough, each mean something significant. When properly sequenced, they foretell horrible disasters, past, present, and future. Life altering disasters!
Knowing, IMHO, isn't as great as some popular critics have called it. It's, meh, ok. I'm not a critic, I'm just a fan who opines. I like the idea behind Knowing, but I think Nick Cage sort of overacts a wee bit. He's been guilty of it a few times in other movies, too. Maybe that's what he's going for here with his character, but it doesn't really work for me. There's no need to scream at everyone (sure, I get it, people just don't believe him when he predicts disasters). Also, I found the script a little predictable, and believe me the irony is not lost on me.
One thing that is really cool in this film is the disasters we get to see. I must admit, even now, watching this film again 9-years later I find some of the CGI impressive. Sure, I did say "wow" a few times, and not like a "this is lame" kind of wow, either. It's good to watch once, then put it away for a few years and watch again. That's what I did, and now it's filed away - probably for another 9 years or so.