I first learned of this film after stumbling across its soundtrack. Upon learning that it's a piece of science fiction, I decided to give the film a try.
Bad news first: the film is long. It runs for a good two-and-a-half hours, but incredibly, it's only the short version; the rough cut was originally eight hours long, and the director's preferred version is 280 minutes. Even at 150 minutes, this film feels long and it drags at times.
That doesn't mean it's a total bore. The film is pretty evenly split in half (for the theatrical cut anyway; the director's cut is supposedly arranged as a three-part trilogy). The first half is easily the most interesting and thrilling, as it follows this woman all across Europe and Asia and everywhere else, investigating some shady people and mysterious devices and roaming around some strange post-modern futuristic settings. It comes off much like a sci-fi film noir, somewhat akin to Brazil, but nowhere near as goofy. In the film's last half, with a great catastrophe befalling the Earth, the characters wind up holing themselves up somewhere in Australia, where they bum around for the remainder of the picture. I found this part far less interesting, but it offers a few interesting ideas (including one key aspect that echoes Inception a lot). Altogether, I'd say that it's an interesting film with lots of interesting ideas and plot points, but it achieves the type of pacing that straddles the threshold of being fascinating and unfascinating.
If anything in the above paragraph indicates anything, it's that the story itself is pretty sound and full of neat ideas. It's populated by interesting characters. I really don't have many complaints about the story, other than it felt like it trailed off in the end.
This film looks neat, with quality photography and editing. Acting is swell: I did get a kick out of watching William Hurt, Sam Niell, and Solveig Dommartin in their roles (and Max Von Sydow makes an appearance toward the end). Writing is alright. This production does its best to use then-modern sets, props, and costumes for a futuristic look, but with mixed results. Frankly, parts of the film look cheap and cheesy, in a manner no different than Paul Verhoeven's films. Still, it gets the job done. Music is pretty cool.
It's an interesting film and I'm glad I saw it. It is a shame that this film was a commercial and critical failure on its release, because it's not that bad at all.
3.5/5 (Entertainment: Pretty Good | Story: Pretty Good | Film: Pretty Good)
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