Z/Web

Author: Nick Hornsby (book)

I was astonished at how much I liked this film. I’d never even heard of it until it showed up on DVD, so figured it probably wasn’t good. It’s great! It’s based on a book by Nick Hornsby, the British author who wrote the excellent

In preparation for the sequel coming out, I decided to watch the original film again. As you may remember, I hated the original — the depth of my hatred was proportional to the amount that most people loved it. While I still agree with my original assessment, I did like it much better on second viewing. For one, I knew I should ignore the silly spirituality hocus-pocus and just enjoy the movie as an action film. In that regard, it’s really pretty good. Note that my perspective is tattered a little because I saw it first on DVD and by that time I’d seen the “unique” special effects mimicked in TV commercials and other films, so they didn’t have the “wow” factor they must have for original movie-goers. I still think the film has too many logic flaws to make any sense at all (why in heck is a software agent harmed by virtual bullets???) — but then I’m a computer programmers so I probably think of this stuff at a lower level than most people, who just enjoy the action. The arbitrariness of what’s “real” and what’s not real makes me feel I’m just being manipulated by the authors, who can change whatever rules they want in control of their plot (whereas good writers allow the plot to come to them and don’t force scenarios). But if I ignore that and the meaningless “The One” psychobabble, I can enjoy this movie on a pure entertainment level. I am looking forward to the sequels, though I’m purposely keeping my expectations low. That way I won’t be disappointed.