Best film of the year (until the ending)

Rating: 10/10 (6 December 2003)

Beautifully made and epic in stature. I was blown away by the scenes and philosophies presented here (a lot of parallels to what's happening in the world right now), but then the film sold out with the ending. SPOILER ALERT - since this is a $100m+ Tom Cruise production, I don't think the investors in this film would want a dark ending. They probably felt they could make a higher profit with a feel-good Hollywood ending that caters to a different (and wider) segment of the audience. Unfortunate and ironic since the movie spends a majority of its time debunking a lot of Western archetypes and culture, but then shows the standard Western optimistic "hero always wins" ending. Nevertheless, this movie probably couldn't be made without Cruise, and the ideas presented in the first part of the film probably wouldn't have reached such a wide audience without Cruise attached. I give it a grudging but well-earned 10 stars.