Drama, drama, drama....and then some sci-fi

Rating: 6/10 (12 July 2010)

Be warned- SERIOUSLY CONTAINS SPOILERS.
I have known about the director ( Alex Proyas) before this film and have seen his “Dark city” and I sort of enjoyed it. Therefore I had expectations for this film beforehand. That might have been the biggest problem. I expected something new, fresh and truthfully entertaining. Well, I can't claim that “Knowing” isn't an entertaining film, but new?.. fresh?...
The beginning of the film wasn't entirely bad. It was even intriguing, it had some potential. But as the film carried on, everything just went straight to hell. When there were approximately 30 minutes left until the end, the film reached a completely new level- it became funny(not intentionally) and as far as I know, that's never good for a sci-fi film. It seems as if during the last 5 minutes of the film, the director remembered that he was making a sci-fi film and tried to fix everything, but even that turned out to be quite pathetic. The main idea, the concept- it's been used many times before and dare I say- with much more satisfying results.
First of all, I know that there are people who believe that this film is really and SERIOUSLY “deep”. Of course, you can see the whole film as one big allegory. But if you really want to, you can do that with every single movie. The truth is, I saw this film two days ago, and I still haven't decided which point of view I'm going to take to understand this film. I'm still not sure if it is a religious film? Or is it one more science fiction film, with a rather cheesy plot? One more option is that Alex Proyas has joined the Scientologists, and now is trying to promote his new found beliefs. Overall, I get the feeling that the director wanted everyone to be happy with his film. You know- Christians, regular viewers, sci-fi fans and Tom Cruise with his supporters. But apparently the result wasn't as successful as expected.
Another thing that caught my attention is that it seems as if both the writers and the director wanted “Knowing” to be a multi-genre film. At the beginning is looks as one of the Japanese horror film remakes, later on it fuses into mystery. Then we find out that Nicolas Cage plays a scientist, not only a scientist, but the ONLY scientist in the whole world ( 6,7 billion of bloody people) who realizes that world is coming to an end( like 24 ours before it is supposed to happen). Fine, I'm willing to let this one go, lets just say that the Sun isn't such a major object and nobody figured out to look at it. But what I really can't stand is the drama. I realize that diversity in film is necessary. There has to be certain amounts of various emotions in a movie in order to get to the viewers, but come on. As if Nicolas Cage's and his huge beaten-up-puppy eyes aren't enough, we get the single mother, whose screams are not only fake but also incredibly annoying. When the truck hit her car I just laughed out loud. That's also what I did after the ending titles started rolling.
Overall, it is a rather odd film. Even though I just expressed quite some criticism, I must be fair and admit that the special effects and the music in this film are spectacular. I'd also like to mention Nicolas Cage because his performance really wasn't bad. But in my opinion, it seems like he decided to put his serious career aside and just have some fun (doesn't really make him a bad actor… it's just sometimes his role choices seem as a waste of talent).
To sum up: I’d recommend this film for an evening with some friends, just to have some fun. But if you want a “serious sci-fi experience”- there are much better choices out there.