Movie Review: Knowing
![[Knowing]](http://mleiv.com/wp-content/files/daily/2009/knowing.jpg)
"The Theatre Exits Are That Way"
But here's the thing. This is a great idea for a movie. It's kinda like The Day The Earth Stood Still, but creepier, less judgmental, and ultimately far sadder. But then someone handed the idea to a goddamn psycho Christian with a huge chip on his shoulder and a need to soak the entire story in Bible piss. I mean, I could almost forgive the not-so-subtle jibes throughout the film that the only reason the protagonist is an atheist is because his wife died and he's just so broken up about it that he's decided there can be no meaning in the universe. It seems to be a common preconception among Christians who have never actually spoken to an atheist in their entire lives. And the whole pre-determinism is actually fine by me, since I have a thing for old greek plays and watching people try to escape inescapable fates.
The biggest thing that made me want to rip the DVD from the player and jump up and down on it was the constant OMG-It's-Aliens-But-Really-It's-Christian-Mythology!!!! There are 4 aliens. Yeah, 4. And they have little energy wings. And there are Signs and Prophecies, get it? And the Apocalypse - guess what, it's Scientific, sort of (the inaccuracies of the movie are a whole 'nother rant). But it's still the Apocalypse, except in this version, apparently the only ones righteous enough to be saved are cute little white kids. The rest of the human race (and the animal kingdom, barring fluffy white bunnies, it seemed) are Left Below To Burn. And if you weren't gagging on the symbolism yet, there's the epilogue, where the (adam and eve pairs of) little children are left on a new (Eden-esque) planet WITH A FUCKING BIG WHITE TREE. Oooh, that was subtle. I almost expected to see the aliens wearing Mormon aprons, but I guess whoever the Christian source was for this piece of shit didn't realize that his brilliant idea was thought up 150 years ago by an equally narcissistic fiction writer in New York.
Forget getting those two hours of my life back, I'm pissed that I can't erase that preachy, brow-beating, MarySue White Chosen People annoying shrill whine from my head entirely. There is not enough booze in the world.


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Really?! Did we need 4 horsemen-aliens to bring about the sci-fi apocalypse? There is so much wrong with this movie that I can't even describe it all. They blithely dismiss all Pythagorean numerology, until they find the little girl's prophecy buried in a time capsule in New England. Wait, wasn't that supposed to be golden plates? Anyway, suddenly *this* set of numbers is accurate, unlike all those other sets of magical numbers. I find it amusing that even the Christians have to admit that all the "Sacred Geometry" types are quacks. Show me an *actual* prophecy in *any* religious text and I'll agree to sit down and discuss the merits of said religious system.
But I digress.
Not only could they not weave a decent Christian plot into the movie, but they couldn't even make the characters sensible. Why did Nicholas Cage have to run around without talking to anyone? "I know I just told you the world is ending, but I need to go down to this old Elementary School basement and get a door. No time to explain, even while we are driving around New England."
And you were *surprised* they had left you in the toolshed?
The movie was like having my eyes gouged out with sandpaper and the sockets rinsed with acid.
God, I love the AV Club. They are my Unicorn Chaser for this disaster. :)
http://www.avclub.com/articles/knowing,25305/
http://www.avclub.com/articles/knowing,29842/