KNOWING - Movie Review

KNOWING - Movie Review

KNOWING
(Dir. Alex Proyas, 2009)



If the world were about to end, would you want to know? And if you did know, what would you do? Such are the questions of “Knowing,” an action/drama that is utterly captivating during its first hour. The second hour, in contrast, completely derails into science-fiction idiocy that will leave you in disbelief and wondering why Nicolas Cage can no longer make a decent movie.

Cage plays John Koestler, a single father and M.I.T. Professor of Astrophysics whose son Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) brings home a letter found in his school’s 50 year-old time capsule. It’s not really a letter, though. It’s a series of seemingly random numbers that do not appear to have meaning. That is, until John takes a closer look and notices combinations such as 911012996, and figures out that it refers to the 2,996 people who died on 9/11/01.

In fact, this letter contains the dates and death counts of every major global disaster of the last 50 years, except for the three that it predicts are still to come. Can John stop them from happening, or is it all pre-determined?

This movie starts in a very stunning way so that you think you're watching the best thriller ever. The visual effects is just astonishing. As the story goes on you become more and more disappointed. At the end you have this feeling that the whole plot is written by a child who's parents has told her some stories from the bible, something like stories of Adam and Eve and the Armageddon, and she mixed these stories with the stories of aliens and UFOs she heard at school... The first 2/3 of the movie is worth watching, but the rest is a huge disappointment. Honestly though, it is like giving this simple mindedly written plot to the best film making crew.