Sinais do Futuro

Eu, Robot era um puro filme de estúdio - mais caro, mais brilhante, mais bombástico, mas também mais plano e superficial. Sinais do Futuro é mais pequeno e mais modesto, mas também mais pessoal e sensível. O tema não tão original e o clímax mais fraco são superados pelo argumento e edição perfeitos, onde tudo - desde o espaço de personagens à dinâmica de ação até aos elementos de horror - é servido em doses precisas. Para não mencionar que os efeitos especiais aqui não funcionam como eye candy, mas são subordinados à história com alma. E Nick Cage não se funde tão facilmente com imagens cinematográficas há muito tempo. Sinais do Futuro é um filme pequeno e de qualidade que eu sinto a necessidade de avaliar melhor do que eu esperava. (02/09/2009)

Proyas is a wizard. For a ridiculously low amount of money (by the budgetary standards of modern Hollywood), he delivered an atmospheric visual treat that can send chills down the spine. Though script-wise is like a poor man’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the pathetic conversation with the father and the grain scene look like something out of the Jehovah Witnesses’ magazine Watchtower, I still give it thumbs up for the bold apocalyptic denouement. The film is not without flaws, but you can feel the craftsmanship and the author's passion for the cause, and that is appreciated. Proyas's favourite albinos had a suitably creepy effect, with Cage surprisingly tame and not overacting. (21/06/2009)

Not counting Star Trek, Knowing is the best sci-fi film in a very long time (The Day The Earth Stood Still and I Am Legend are not even close). Proyas is a master of atmosphere and his splendid direction and eye-candy visuals made me fully immerse in the film and enjoy it in a way I hadn’t expected. I didn’t even care that I had a vague idea of the twist due to some spoiling moron. Actually, it’s not even that hard to guess quite early on, but it doesn’t matter much because the most important thing here is the atmosphere. My only quibbles are addressed at the not very good CGI, some annoying father-son conversations and the overall predictability (which, actually, is quite nonsense for a film that works with fate and predestination). Cage is more than bearable, he’s finally made a good film after a long time. For me, very satisfied 4 stars (though they could have left out the final field escapade…) (28/06/2009)

Most of the time I thought that critics had hurt Knowing, because it is a thrilling and suggestive disaster film that surpasses its even more expensive colleagues thanks to Proyas' directing and great visuals. However, the biblical finale turns the tolerable ridiculousness into something very close to farce. One tends to forgive disaster films their plot holes and the strange (un)motivation of the characters, but the moment the creators hit you with heavy metaphysical calibers, you can now veto the tolerance. Knowing clearly suffers from ambitions that were too high. If it had stayed more grounded, it would be amongst the top films of the genre. Nicolas Cage saying a sentence like "how do I save the world?" would be a problem even in a much better-thought-out film. [65%] (15/07/2009)

Proyas has mastered the craft perfectly, but this skill is absolutely useless when he has to deal with a completely trivial script that drags the plot through the morass of the cheapest clichés. Then the director himself becomes a problem, as two pivotal scenes (by the way, letting them get on the internet was a major mistake) seem to have come out of a completely different film. Then there are the horror sequences, which perfectly battle with the cheap remainder of the film, overstuffed with warped family relationships and long-winded scientific theories. It’s a film that’s perfect in its individual parts, but as a whole, it’s... disappointing. PS: (26/06/2009)