Alright, so, when I first saw the trailer to this movie, I thought it looked pretty sweet, especially when I saw the special effects (and especially especially when I saw the plan crashing into the ground. I was like, "Whoa!"). I sometimes mainly go see a movie because of it's special effects because that kind of stuff interests me, so I didn't really go see it with much hope for a good storyline. I was wrong.

The Story: In 1959, a school class drew pictures and put it in a time capsule for future kids to see what the kids in the past had in mind for the future. Except there's one strange paper a girl named Lucinda makes, which includes not a picture, but a series of "random" numbers. Fast forward 50 years, and the time capsule is opened, and the strange paper gets into the hands of John's (Nicolas Cage) son, Caleb. Then John looks at the paper and notices a pattern in the numbers. But it's not the only pattern. After a whole night of researching and looking at the numbers written on the paper, John realizes that the numbers are dates in which major disasters and catastrophes (such as 9/11 and earthquakes and hurricanes) have happened. When he sees that there are still more numbers after the most recent disaster has happened, he must try to do everything he can to prevent future catastrophes, and must figure out why they are happening.

The Good:

- The story. Even though the first half reminded me of The Number 23 because Nicolas Cage's character starts to get paranoid with all these numbers, it soon turned out to actually be better than The Number 23 because there was actually some action in the movie. It was a cool concept and a lot of suspense, drama, and frightening situations.

- The special effects. They were so good it was actually a bit frightening. Especially the very end. I won't spoil it

- The atmosphere. It was very creepy, especially towards the very end because it gives you this huge sense of the end of the world. It actually made me a bit depressed once the movie was over. They did a very good job on depicting how the end would go down (with riots, people looting, armies coming in to hand supplies to people, families reuniting to be together for the End of the World). There's one part where a plane crashes and explodes, and it's raining and a bit dark, and it all seems so realistic with the way it crashes and the way people are reacting to it (except for one part that Nicolas Cage does where he just walks by a man burning alive and is like, "Hey...")


The Bad:

- I thought it needed just a few more disasters, ya know? I'm the kind of guy who likes watching all this stuff unfold, but they only had three disasters, when they could have fit in maybe a few more. I know the movie runs about two hours, but come on, more action please!

- Here's the big one. They added something in there that didn't even need to be added! It was actually a big disappointment because it was so random, and I really wish they used a different ending instead of the one they had for the final cut.

SPOILERS



It was pretty much like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Where did the Crystal Skull come from? Aliens. Where did these numbers come from? Aliens that don't talk physically, but instead whisper telepathically into little kid's minds and tell them to come with them so they can take them to another planet where they can continue life. Seriously? That's the best they can come up with? It just kind of ruined the mood of the movie and it was a bit of a letdown for the end of a movie. But it only lasted about twenty minutes of the movie, so not all hope is lost.




Overall: Good movie. I recommend it to anyone who wants to see an action-packed film filled with suspense and intense moments. I'm not a big fan of Nicolas Cage either, so I wasn't expecting much, but he did a surprisingly good job in this film, as did the rest of the cast. It's a great apocalyptic film that really gets you thinking--

--The main reason this movie freaked me out was because stuff like this can seriously happen. No, not random numbers that predict the future or aliens that kidnap children and take them to weird, faraway planets...But the disasters that happen (I'm talking about plane crashes, subway crashes, and, the worst, gigantic solar flares).

So see this movie. It's an awesome movie with awesome stuff that happens in it awesomely.

Sean

SPOILERS................................

I have to agree, this movie was an awesome experience.  The movie doesn't cheat, I was afraid there was gonna be some miracle to come along and stop the inevitable, but the movie goes all the way.  There were definite nudges to E.T here a giant space craft in the middle of the woods, the whole "i'll be right here" moment.

The special effects here are some of the best, there are really only three big effects scenes, but they are truly amazing.  The plane crash, the subway crash and the horrific finale, I don't think I will see better effects this year.

I also loved the look of who and what the whisper people really look like.

The movie doesn't go with a happy ending, but it's not depressing, the last shot is kinda beautiful in a way.  

I really liked this film, filled with ideas and effects, this is true science fiction at its recent best.