The Sallie Gardner Effect: What does EE think about this movie?

Issue # 10
Knowing (2009) Review
by ManicallyDepressed

IMDB

Although I’m a sucker for mind challenges, I wouldn’t waste two hours of my life solving a piece of paper that appears to contain nothing except random numbers on it. Then again, I would rather solve this piece of paper than waste two hours on watching this movie again.

(Big spoilers ahead)

Upon seeing the trailer of the movie, I would categorize Knowing under the paranormal horror genre. That is my first problem. I didn’t expect it to be an apocalyptic science fiction film. Yes, it’s apocalyptic. Apparently, the film’s climax is about the end of the world. Though I appreciate the twist, I just thought that the whole end-of-the-world idea was over the top for the premise of the story. And though I appreciate the “Alien-intervention- as -solution- to -impossible-things” idea (Spielberg’s A.I., anyone?), the idea felt misused.

The first hour of the film still gave me the impression that I’m watching a paranormal horror film. The appearance of the mysterious men always sent chills down my spine. Other than that, the story felt very slow-paced. Upon knowing what “EE” stands for, the story shifts to its apocalyptic course. Do you remember the scene near at the end where Nicolas Cage was driving to see his parents and scenes of anarchy and chaos was being shown around? That is just pure apocalyptic goodness. Earth’s destruction was done simple and swiftly. This film actually has feats of what should have been done in another movie from the same year. This movie would have been great if it was purely apocalyptic.

Another huge problem about this film is the sheet of paper with a continuous stream of random numbers. This paper supposedly contains the date, number of deaths, and location coordinates of major incidents. How did Nicolas Cage knew which of those random numbers are the dates, especially when the number of deaths came in different number of digits per incident? What were the chances of Nicolas Cage picking up a sequence from the paper that corresponds to 9/11? What were chances that the paper was rediscovered days before the end of the world and by someone who will be saved? How convenient was it that the little girl was interrupted right after she wrote the reversed “EE”? Who the hell write letters in reverse? Isn’t “EE” in normal writing puzzling enough for the receiver of the numbers? Why did the last entry include the “saving” location, instead of the incident location? Doesn’t that destroy the entire consistency of the numbers? Why the HELL is this note, which supposedly is a warning and a set of instructions, so damn complicated? Couldn’t the aliens just tell them directly, so we can avoid this messed up movie?

*breathes*

Okay, the last paragraph was me nitpicking. Bottom line is Knowing is entirely dependent on a single trick which promises a lot but unfortunately, fails to deliver.