What more could you expect from this kind of movie?

Rating: 7/10 (1 July 2010)

After reading a number of reviews of this film I was somewhat surprised to discover that it's nowhere near as bad as a lot of people make out. In fact it's an enjoyable experience as this kind of film goes. Nicholas Cage is his usual self and the supporting cast do a very good job of keeping it all quite real. The CG is great and the photography is very good to look at. OK, the plot is a little thin, we've seen most of this before spread across several movies, but it's engaging and well directed. Other reviews have mentioned the 'stones' and the paper that Cage's character had written years before that suddenly enters the plot... but these are just devices to help us along the path to the fairly obvious climax (with the children) and denouement (with the adults). The stones are given to the chosen as a link to where they must travel (like the mental imprint of Devils Tower in Close Encounters), the paper is to tell us of what the disaster comprises, and perhaps explain why Cage's character has been given the clues. I would say that if you liked The Abyss you will like this film too, they're really quite similar. This movie is perhaps a little darker and the plot not so well drawn, but all in all it's probably worth a good, solid seven and a half... not great, but certainly not a bad film... nowhere near as bad as James Cameron's Titanic for instance.