Review of The Adjustment Bureau (2011) by Pamela D — 21 Feb 2013

The entire fate of mankind!

The fate of mankind, man!

(anguished, tortured voice like Charleton Heston as Taylor at the end of Planet Of The Apes).

THE FATE OF ALL MANKIND!

(falling to knees and choking on own blood).

THE FATE OF MANKIND !!!!!!!!

(clutches heart, unintelligible gurgling and convulsing).

OK, the fate of all mankind aside, The Adjustment Bureau is kind of corny, emotionally manipulative, has an uber-predictable moral, and is more romance than sci-fi. But despite this I enjoyed letting myself be sucked into it anyway, and so will anyone who spends a lot of time caring about love and relationships, and who likes an imaginative albeit very basic story.

I still would have liked a much darker take on the concept. In real life, any entity with this kind of power would be conducting their manipulations strictly out of greed ala They Live (1985).

And here's why: I don't care how advanced a civilization is, it's just intuitive that what we call "human nature" is going to be sadly ubiquitous based on required evolutionary programing for survival run amok, and nature being unable to let people ever fully rise above it -i.e.the bad traits misguided lust, jealousy, self-defeating stupidity, belief in a higher power, war, looking out for number 1, avarice, and greed, etc. Man's idiocy goes hand in hand with his intellect and I bet high stakes this unfortunate phenomenon is universal throughout the cosmos.

So an actual "adjustment bureau" wouldn't be magnanimous. Nope. Sorry. They'd just be the stooges of intergalactic Republicans. Kind of like our CIA.

But I digress as usual.

To sum up: could have been deliciously dark, convoluted and cynical; still good entertainment, cute movie.