Review of Knowing (2009) by Matthew H — 19 Jun 2014

"Oh, for alien-Christ's sake.

Alex Proyas doesn't believe in God. He's stated so publicly. MANY TIMES.

I went into this film, hearing that it was promoting some kind of Christian agenda, with a lot of dread and apprehension--had my dear one-hit-wonder Alex gone over to the dark side? I sat through the whole film whispering to my bored boyfriend, "I REALLY hope this doesn't go where I fear it will!" It didnt. I expected angels, I got aliens that humanity had all along mistaken for angels. How ambitious for a Hollywood film in this retrogressive political/artistic climate! Too bad it was so badly done.

The premise of DARK CITY is very similar to this one--aliens watching over humanity and guiding them for a purpose, whereas in Dark City its sinister, and here its... ambivalent. They're like scientists preserving life, allowing it to run its natural course on the planet, then moving it to a new one to, I dunno, preserve galactic biodiversity. The aliens aren't "loving" "protective" beings in this film--just because the film imbues them with awe doesn't mean they are a substitute for God and meant to be worshiped by the protagonists. If anything, the film's climax comes across as simply "ALIENS! OMG! AMAZING!", which is so overblown and their ship so ridiculously over-designed that the whole finale just falls apart due to its own ludicrous misconception. The ideas are "interesting", in the sense that a film about "aliens inspiring Biblical myth, eventually preserving the human species on a planet they evidently prepared the entire race for via said Biblical myth" SHOULD BE. But the film shoehorns this neat-o silliness into a "ticking-clock-race-against-disaster-figure-out-the-clues-with-Nic-Cage-and-his-receding-hair-line" storyline that cripples the whole film before its even out of the gate. Oh, and there's the bad dialogue and iffy special effects.

What IS surprisingly well done about the film is its mean streak. There are some brilliant moments tucked away in the film and some great remnants of Proyas's seemingly-dead style--the menacing zoomdown shot of Earth in the main titles, with satellites moving over lit-up streets far below; the plane crash; the cruel/brilliant shot from inside the train car as it mows down commuters.

KNOWING is not an auteur movie, however. Its a film made so that Alex Proyas can make a modest effort at directing for cash, while being self-indulgent by ripping off John Keel and then segueing into preposterous Erik von Daniken silliness. It's not a BAD film, its just a disappointingly mediocre one.

And, as an atheist, I have to say that all this "controversy" over the film's supposed religious content is one of the biggest loads of bullshit I've seen in ages--what's more, its from people who should know better. The film is not trying to put across some "creationist" message. If anything, it says that Christianity is a huge misunderstanding on the part of our species.

But ah, this supposed "optimist" ending, which is clearly the work of Proyas trying to shove his "We're being watched over and everything's fiiiinnneee!" spiel... or maybe it is, as a HOLLYWOOD FILM, the work of a studio trying to make the apocalyptic ending "uplifting", so that the audience will go out feeling like they haven't seen something that challenged their beliefs or gave them a case of the bummers. Everyone wins!

There is NO religious pandering in this film, no creationist gobbledygook. In the end, its failures and poor execution of both ideas and tone are not due to any religious zealot's alterior motive, but due to lazy filmmaking and studio-imposed compromises.".