Cast: Nicholas Cage, Rose Byrne

Director: Alex Proyas

Screenplay: Ryne Douglas Pearson

Running time: 2 hrs 1 min

Genre: Action/Thriller



CRITIQUE:


Another year, another attempt to destroy the world. M. Night Shyamalan has failed with The Happening. It turned out that we, humans, could not be fooled into thinking about plants exterminating mankind. I, Robot helmer Alex Proyas lands a directing gig to sabotage Earth, falling into a list of the many Hollywood directors in the likes of Bay and Emmerich (both of whom have careers that sprung out from cinematic destruction), and once again barely emits a magnitude that can shake grounds. Knowing has a chilling premise, and it works best as a paranoid thriller: little Goth girl scribbles ominous arithmetic into paper whilst the rest of the class doodles futuristic cartoons, and fifty years later, incoherent numbers turned out to be Nostradamus-esque codified omens that predicts global disasters. There are scenes that could render one speechless; the airplane crash over a motorway, the derailment of a subway train – but so far, so Final Destination. These sequences rely heavily on CGI that at times, the visual effects look like they come out straight from a video game.


Then because it doesn’t know how to settle in one genre, it literally leaps into that ill-advised space between sci-fi and religious horror flick, crossing from Spielberg to Donner and the Shyamalan territory, with Nicholas Cage harbouring a monotonous expression all throughout. This uninspired character is dismally lifted off from many other contemporary protagonists – an alcoholic single parent, non-believer, child issues, and in the end, finds redemption whilst the rest of the world turns to ashes to the tune of Beethoven’s Allegretto. Sounds like Mel Gibson from Signs. And if a doomsday solar flare was to take place, what was the use of a mumbo-jumbo numerology compared to scientists trying to accurately predict the sun’s activity? What have they been doing, sitting on a beach?


VERDICT:

Overwrought, derivative, awfully clichéd and clumsily plotted. Knowing doesn’t make us think – it makes us scratch out heads with disbelief.



RATING: C