Not the Bourne Identity

Rating: 6/10 (11 August 2013)

This is not a thriller as billed, but a relatively slow paced sci fi story. Matt Damon as David Norris is a little older and a little heavier that he was, still pleasant looking but not suck your breath in handsome.
The villains are quite unlike movie villains. They are cosmic humanoids with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder who like to micro manage the fine details of human lives without them finding out about it who think of themselves as angels. Rather than evil, they are more like meddling aunts. The plot is reminiscent of Men In Black though not quite so silly. David Norris never figures anything out on his own. Everything is tediously explained to him by the aliens.
In the opening scenes David Norris runs for office. They use real-life political commentators like Jon Stewart, Wolf Blitzer and James Carville in a completely realistic way.
The movie can be interpreted in an religious way. Is there a religious hierarchy meddling with our lives, including deliberately creating death and massive heartache? The aliens have a set of wormhole doors that let them jump from one part of the city to another. The special effect is extremely easy to film, and the director used the technique over and over and over.
The movie feels as if it has a lot of padding, e.g. that skyline is pretty, but it does nothing to develop the plot or character. To work, it needs a massive rewrite of the book to tighten up the pace and to make the villains a bit more ominous.