Review of World Trade Center (2006) by Jens S — 08 Apr 2009

A lot could be said about the decision to make a movie about these horrible events of 9/11 so soon, when everyone still has those images in front of their eyes. The problem of the film is not that, though.

It's the fact that it reduces the crime of the century to a simple rescue story, that could be told about random fictitious events as well. While the people who worked hard to safe lives that day deserve all the praise they get, it is a thin line to keep it at a decent level below cheesiness.

Some dialoges and certain characters of this film, even though based on real ones, are sadly above cheesy. The movie starts promising with images of regular people doing their thing on the morning of that day in New York.

It also ends in beautiful images of empty trains, smoke over the city and the "Missing" walls. In between there is very little to keep the audience awake, but a lot of stereotypes and scenes of dirty men in caught darkness.

That does not make for a movie worthy of the memory of that day, nor is it worthy of a director the likes of Oliver Stone. The gut-wrenching "United 93" does a much better job in that.