Review of Next (2007) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

While this was quite a diverting movie, it felt rather muddled. There were too many elements present, with the action element (which there is a bit of at the start and then dies down and it comes back after a fair while), a romantic element which felt to some extent rather unbelievable, that she went along with everything and forged the bond with him that she did and when she learnt 'the truth' that she believed him and so on and then there's the other sort of spiritual side, where he talks about his ability and starts to philosophise (if thats a word(?)) about those good ol' issues of life, destiny and fate.

There are some pretty cool action scenes in the movie and as I say, it is diverting enough, it should keep you somewhat entertained for the hour and a half or so but all the same, I felt that the way it was written wasn't great, ending up as being a fairly formulaic movie. While I did find the concept behind the story quite interesting (as im always interested in seeing movies that deal with the issues covered), its probably true to say that this is something thats been done better before, in other movies.

Its also true that Cage and Moore, as Chris Johnson and Callie Ferris, add an element of depth or quality to the movie, as I felt they both did well at portraying their characters, the others did ok but nothing special. If the script were tightened up and the story tweaked, so to speak, I think it could be better and I'd be rating it differently. I suppose nowadays when we go to watch whats marketed as an action movie, we expect that and the mish mashes present here just didn't entirely seem to 'gel'. I was quite sceptical to start with, like I say it is a bit confusing and throughout there are twists, I think it seems to have been made to confuse you in a way (you'd see what I mean if you see it), so you wonder has this really happened or not? and I suppose it sort of works in a 'ah thats clever' sense, when you realise the twists that are there but I just feel it wasn't done as well as it could have been, your left trying to decide if you understand it or not and the main reason I'm not sure if it really worked, for me anyway, was because of the ending. That was almost like the final straw for me, I wasn't too keen put it that way! in a movie like this, you like to have it end in a satisfying way, even if it is quite 'Hollywood', I wouldn't have minded too much I think but the way this ended, just left me with more questions and a sort of a bad taste in my mouth - that I'd followed it through to just be left at the end even more unsure of quite what happened and what I'm supposed to walk away from it thinking. It definately leaves you with more questions than anything else. The ending will definately annoy some, thats for sure, so don't see it if you want all to be clear cut and simple, this doesn't supply that! though if your somewhat intrigued by the themes present (fate, destiny, time travel) which are if only briefly touched upon, and also if you like movies with at least a bit of a science fiction based feel to them, then this may well be of some interest but, to me it didn't seem to quite 'gel properly together' and work all that well, especially as an action movie.

There are some pluses (some nice scenery shots, when Chris is with Liz at what looks like the Grand Canyon and there are some cool action and explosion shots present with the odd bit of CGI that works pretty well too) but its no means the best movie any of the main cast have worked on, put it that way. I do feel that it could have been made better but it felt as if it was written a bit too lazily, featuring too many predictable, even formulaic elements, with the main character developing a relationship with a previous stranger and what happens with that, eh, thats been done to death a bit and then there's the slower parts in the movie where Chris talks about fate and destiny and philosophises, that could be seen as being a bit too sort of cheesy and over done or predictable too. Its a bit too average and just doesn't work as well as I'd hoped.

The ending I felt was the biggest disappointment and will most likely exasperate your confusion with it, as far as the story is concerned, I feel. It is clever in one sense but I can't help but feel that it isn't properly explained well enough to really work, the way it seems they tried to make it work. If your like me then by the time the credits are rolling at the end, you'll likely be thinking 'what? thats it?!' so that didn't help at all... I would have liked it to go on a bit more, for it to continue and tie up the loose ends, I think it did possibly end a bit too soon and I couldn't help but feel that it was cheating the audience somewhat at the very end.