Surprising yet annoying

Rating: Null/10 (23 August 2004)

I had started watching this movie some time ago and found it a bit too slow and boring in the first 15 minutes or so. I didn't have time to finish watching it back then, and several months later, I finally got around to watching it.. and I'm glad I did. I think the reason why I ended up appreciating it, is probably because I expected to really hate it.. when you expect the worst, the final outcome usually turns out to be not all that bad. But if you expect too much, the opposite tends to be true, (in my case anyway.)
I have only watched this movie once and didn't find it all that difficult to grasp. It seems there are a lot of people expect movies to only be entertaining/relaxing by allowing you to be near brain-dead without having difficult to follow the story line. American Beauty even seemed to be confusing for some, while crystal clear for me the first time around.
*** SPOILER ALERT *** Same with this one.. I didn't know he had been frozen and all (is it even possible to assume this until the very end when it's spelled out?).. and neither did I notice anything else weird like the logo on the mustang missing (I'll have to watch for it next time), but I did clearly notice that the clouds in the sky were oddly pink.. (not hard to miss was it? It looked too gay for this movie, like cotton candy) and he fell down drunk on a rained down street and woke up all dry. Puddles of rain water doesn't evaporate during a cold night like that.
So, the clue at the end made sense (putting the technical imperfections aside.. if I have to look at movies by judging the technical consistencies, I can't remember any sci-fi movie passing)... Up until the very last second where you hear "open your eyes" again.
I read the first 50 or so reviews on here trying to find someone who figured this out or gave their personal take on it. But nobody does.. in fact, only a very few even mention that ending at all.. when in fact, to me it seems like the real 'conclusion' of this movie... yes, this whole concept of waking up to find out it was all a dream (I wrote my first story this way too, for school, when I was 12 or so.. cheap suspense.. like a poor excuse for all your inconsistencies in your movie).
You know, I can come up with some theories of my own, and people here seem to think that makes a good movie.. crap.. This is the same excuse as some self-proclaimed artist splatters paint in a canvas and calls it art because you can "imagine" human faces in the blobs of colors and shapes.
I for one do not intend to give any artist any credit for what *I* imagine, and not for what they intended.. so my question is about what the artist/director really intended ... not what I make of it.. (the one who saw all the parallels with religion in this one blew my mind.. Sure, I can find a lot of parallels with a lot of things.. especially paranoid people are good at this, they can relate things in ways that makes perfect sense to them and they've found ways to make ends meet in their own head.. but I am certain this is not what the director intended.. though obviously we all grow up being influenced by such stories and concepts.. and as such it influences our imaginations.. symbolism sucks.. it least too much up for one's own imagination and it creates too much inconsistencies. No wonder so many can't make sense of real life anymore ;-)).
My theory right now is that it seems that Julie too got frozen and unfronzen or something, but that would just be silly.. Who decided to unfreeze her? If she unfroze too soon, how long would she have had to wait around for David (Cruise) to decide to be unfrozen too? So that's where that likelihood of that explanation ends for me.
Besides, my take on it was that he never cared much for Julie and I don't think regret and sympathy is a good basis for a relationship.. and he does wake up at the very end hearing Julie's voice saying "open your eyes" ... or is it Sofia's voice? I can't tell.
But I do know that the movie started out with Sofia's voice saying "Open your eyes" (after some other noise that sounded more like coming from the movie exorcist or something..)and slowly changing.
But we heard Sofia's voice saying "open your eyes" (before it morphs into Julie's voice) at the very beginning of the movie.. Must we conclude from this that the beginning of the movie is actually the end of the movie? I mean, the beginning suggest Sofia is already in the picture when in the story itself she isn't yet.. But at the end he is told by LE tech support that if he returns to normal life, he will forget all that happened during his frozen time, including that very discussion on that rooftop..
So does this boil down to this circular joke.. where we question how many times he's been through this very same thing? Sounds like a hindu thing where you keep reincarnating until you right all your wrongs.. before you can leave life forgood (for heaven).
I do not intend to watch this movie again.. because I doubt it will give me answers to all these questions I collected the first time around.
Anyway, whoever thinks they can explain the very ending to me where he hears "open your eyes" again, can e-mail me.
Fonz