Beware of spoilers for Knowing, you've been warned!

I'm not a big fan of Nicolas Cage, but I can't say that I've hated his movies. Sure, Cage has made some horrible movies but for the most part his movies are usually good enough that I can enjoy. Examples; Gone in 60 Seconds, The Rock, National Treasure 1 & 2 and several others. Would this new film, Knowing, be added to the list of pretty alright Nic Cage movies?

When I first started seeing the trailer for Knowing, I thought "cool". The impression that I got from the trailers was this film was simply about being able to predict disasters in the future and although it is, it ended up being a lot more. Even though I thought the trailer looked cool, I never really anticipated see Knowing. Sure, I movie blog for a living (part-time hobby) but sometimes I don't really investigate certain films for the simple reason of not wanting to spoil myself. That's what I did here because - one, it's not a movie I really anticipate - two, I honestly wasn't all that interested, so I figured I'd just find out when it comes out. So here it is, out in theaters and now that I've seen it what are my thoughts? Not bad I say, but kind of falls apart in the end, in a cool way however.

"A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold" [IMDB]. Directed by Alex Proyas from a script by Ryne Douglas Pearson and Juliet Snowden, Knowing stars Nicolas Cage as John Koestler, Chandler Canterbury as Caleb Koestler, Rose Byrne as Diana Wayland and Lara Robinson as Abby/Lucinda Wayland.

Likes:

• Nicolas Cage - I thought he was pretty good in this movie, although he seems the same as in any movie.
• The visual effects are really frigging great! Honestly, some of the visual effect scenes completely blew me away. For example; the plane crash, train crash, and pretty much the whole ending with the Earths' destruction and the whole alien deal.
• Most of the story is told with a thrilling tenseness which I enjoyed. I like how the Whisper people were made out to be sort of scary but aren't supposed to be that way at all, as we saw in the ending when we found out that they were angelic aliens.
• I thought the story telling was well told and more than enough to keep me interested. The whole number aspect of telling the future was sort of clever.

Dislikes:

• Chandler Canterbury sucked, really, really bad. The ending was pathetic, lol. He tries to pull this ET emotional goodbye which turns out to be really unconvincing and laughable. Sorry kid, get acting lessons.
• Rose Byrne, wasn't all that impressive. She's not awful but not that great either.
• This is my biggest problem - Granted, as advanced these aliens are, with their telepathy, how can they tell the future. Sure, I'm sure for any advanced race they can see that our sun was going to pop off a huge flare. Mr. Spock could figure that out with his computers on The Enterprise, but the point is - it makes no sense to me how they knew where each disaster was going to take place. All the aliens wanted to do is give the human race a chance by seeding another world. None of that explains how they knew where and when each disaster was going to take place. If I missed something, please explain it to me.

I'm stuck in the middle:

• The whole alien concept is what has me kind of stuck in the middle with my feelings of the end. I'll start off by saying that the concept, visual effects and look of everything was really well done, but does it jump the shark? The movie starts off in an entirely different place and ends in an entirely different place. The one thing I give it - it felt sort of magical and makes Klaatu Reeves from The Day the Earth Stood Still jealous. Because it came from two different places in the film, it makes it also seem kind of ridiculous. It's so hard to explain, but because it's hard to explain is exactly why I'm stuck in the middle. As a science fiction nut, I'm able to lean on the cool side.

All in all, I like the Knowing and I'd like to see it again when it's released on DVD. It's a pretty good engaging story with amazing visual effects and great concept designs, but it might be too much science fiction for the general movie goer at the end of the film. I can't say I'd recommend it for the general movie goer, but if your a movie fan that likes eye candy, SF, and all those things it'll make a good rental.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I say knowing deserves a 6 out of 10 and see it if your a movie fan.

-Phil

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