Horrible, inappropriate soap opera on par with Pearl Harbor

Rating: 4/10 (26 July 2007)

I'm not going to go off in a rant about how it is insensitive to make a World Trade Center movie a mere 5 years after the atrocity but I will say that it's largely pointless. The images and stories have been covered on TV so many times from so many angles and people that there's really nothing left to learn. When Oliver Stone announced this movie I assume that many of his fans predicted the conspiracy theories and finger pointing he is famous for as well as the highly stylistic and surrealist editing.
Well...NONE of that is present here. All we get is pedestrian direction that might as well for a TV movie and a very lame, mawkish soap opera plot that is really dragged-out far too damn long.
Nic Cage and Michael Peña play real life 'heroes' who were buried under the WTC rubble for a few days and managed to stay alive by shouting at each other. Each of them have flashbacks to their sweethearts sitting at home pouting and whimpering as their family pat them on the back saying "It's okay". Wow, you could cut that tension with a chainsaw, it's electric (the tension, not the chainsaw)! The only impressive thing that WTC really boasts is a brilliant sound design, asides from that there's not much reason to watch the film. Nicolas Cage is hardly given much to do apart from lie on his back, Maggie Gyllenhaal as 'the wife' is given almost nothing to do apart from the quivering lip thing and Maria Bello (didn't she used to have BROWN eyes?) is alarmingly frozen-faced as 'the other wife'. Stone's usually flamboyant and trip-like cinematography has been replaced with framing so bland you'd be forgiven for thinking you're looking at a series of still photographs.
I know anyone wishing to defend this film can easily say that sort of film-making technique is not suitable for a story like this. If so, then why the hell would Oliver Stone, of all people choose to make it? A completely pointless film that pussyfoots around tougher issues and makes a triumph out of a loss. And don't give me any of that 'triumph of the human spirit' crap either. There was no reason for this film to be made and everyone involved could have something more worthy with a little extra imagination or balls.