not that great

Rating: 5/10 (29 June 2005)

Just saw it, did not love it...
1) Don't know if it's the fault of art direction or cinematography, but the Eerie blue light + washed-out skin + water is so dull. I probably liked it the first scene I saw it in, but it gets old very quickly. Just like Minority Report and AI - at least in those movies, I guess it was supposed to represent "the future" or some such, but here it shows up, among other places, in an 'old west theme' basement. Played out.
2) The 'old west theme' basement. Went on and on, and good old Tom had to try to act a little with another person, which pulled me right out of the movie. And three, count em, three Tom and Jerry cartoon style cat n' mouse segments. And what's the point? People can be bad too? Boring.
3) The pale quiet child with the big wide eyes (or child-like psychic with the big wide eyes) in this, AI, Minority Report - is Spielberg trying to recapture that ET magic? Definitely not working for me. Yeah, innocence in the world, whatever... the focus on a freaked-out kid is a little weird. Compare to the Aliens movie where at least the kid wasn't carrying the metaphorical weight of the world in a never ending series of washed-out, wide-eyed reaction shots.
So, bugged me for the same reason Minority report and AI bugged me. I didn't hate sitting through them, but I've got zero interest in seeing them again. In fact, caught a few minutes of Minority Report on hotel cable or something a while ago, watched a bit, thought 'oh yea, this movie' and changed the channel. I'm sure it will be the same with this.
Too bad, I like these type of movies - Aliens, Terminator, even a few of the big disaster movies.
What's the deal with Spielberg? It's like his attempt to add depth just makes the movies ponderous and visually dull. And that's a pretty big knock given this movie's great special effects.
Worth seeing once in the theater, if you love disaster movies.
Cheers