A big budget bum of a movie

Rating: 3/10 (10 March 2007)

Right away, this film is too soon after the event, too sensitive and politically straight-jacketed to be able to give a proper objective take on the subject matter.
The first few scenes/minutes of the film seemed incredibly stilted, with the actors not really knowing what they should be doing, let alone portraying characters who didn't know what they were supposed to be doing. Nicholas cage tells everyone to focus, whilst at the same time loading up a large trolley with about 300 kilos of equipment in a building where there are no lifts! There didn't seem to be the environment of emergency when the guys were wandering around the foot of the towers. You could see chaos but it seemed to be a long way away and they seemed detached from it. Maybe this was intentional but it did take away some of the drama of the first 15 minutes of the film. Just as soon as some action started, action that you knew was just around the corner and palpable, the film seemed to come to a standstill.
Of course trying to act your arse off whilst lying down, barely visible and covered in tons of material is tough. The acting though I don't think was in question except possibly for Cage's typically American gung ho statements whilst he rallied his half dead troops. It seemed to me that the whole film could have been 40 minutes shorter, a lot of the banter was just painting by numbers: the obvious longing for their partners, visions of times gone by etc. It was all very predictable and offered nothing new on that front.
Whilst not quite as saccharine as Pearl Harbour, there was that Americanisation of the subject that painted everyone in some kind of heroic light, from the main characters right down to the children, ready to drive into ground zero and start digging. It was over egged in my opinion.
They prayed to God yet did no one consider the possibility that it would have been easier for God to have flipped the terrorists wrist and cause the plane to crash into New York harbour than to see 3000 die and a handful live? Whilst they are constantly praying to the same God to save them. Was God having a huge joke with the Americans that day? Do Americans think they have a Monopoly on Gods actions for the good of their own patriotic humanity? A huge quandary ignored by the scriptwriters.
There was much about the event I felt should have been included that would have added more weight, yet avoided schmaltz. Not least a tip of the hat to the many that didn't get a positive outcome that day. The CGI was seamless, it could have been shot on the day it was that realistic. However, I couldn't help but think the whole thing was just missing something and as I said, felt like it was treading on eggshells regarding the real horrors of the events.
I couldn't say I enjoyed the movie. Let's let someone else have a proper go when the wounds have healed and the conspiracy theories have died down.