The Best SF film in a while, despite a lack of nerve at the end

Rating: Null/10 (29 July 2002)

I know some of you may not have seen it yet, so I'll try to be vague on some specifics. --Thought this film would have been TWICE as effective if you chop off the last 10 Minutes or so (i.e. When it appears as though Cruise's fate is "sealed"). A great film where it seemed like they lost their nerve at the end and felt they "had" to cross every 'T' & dot every "I" and put a big PERIOD on at the end. Too bad, could have been a classic. --Second Thought. Does anybody else think that if Tom Cruise & Max Von Sydow had switched which characters they were playing, that the final scene would have been re-written so that their character's fates would have been reversed? Again, Spielberg & Cruise seem to have let the box office dictate the plot mechanics.
Still think this overall the best SF film in quite a while. Very well done (Kaminski's photography & Williams' music were standouts). Only quibble I had was with the Production Design. While most of the SFX were superb (except for the Merlin the magician look of the operators of the video screens in the lab - all they needed was a wand and a pointy hat), I thought some of the Set Decoration got lazy. I.E. you have all these high tech advances like vertical magnetic field highways, yet the Train looks like the "T" and the Gap store is just a Gap store with a fancy electronic screen.