It's two, two, two movies in one! The first half is a relatively understated and subtle SF thriller (wildly understated by the usual standards of director Michael Bay), and the second half is a thoughtless bore.
I enjoyed the first hour or so, which creates a nice sense of increasing paranoia and dread as it builds to the big revelation about the society in which our heroes live. (That revelation has been given away in all of the movie's publicity, a particularly dumb case of the "too much information" syndrome that's struck trailers in recent years; the movie would play much more effectively if it had actually been a surprise.) Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson are as good as the material requires, and both are pretty to look at in their form-fitting white jumpsuits. Sean Bean is suitably hissable as the evil doctor in charge, and Ethan Phillips is amusing in a small comic relief role.
To be sure, even in this part of the movie we're not in any real danger of surprise or originality, as Bay borrows from every SF dystopia since THX 1138 or Logan's Run. Those white jumpsuits? Long corridors to be chased down? Menacing doctors, threatening the citizens who don't want to take their happy shots any more? Check, check, and check.
But at least there's a story to tell, surprises to be revealed, and some visual creativity (watch for a desktop computer that spins off nicely from the floating screens of Minority Report), unlike the second half of the movie, which is a generic series of shootouts and chase scenes. There's almost nothing interesting here -- I did like one beautiful aerial shot of a large group of white-jumpsuited folks against a deep red desert background -- and the last half hour has nearly as many fakeout endings as the last Lord of the Rings movie. Wait for cable or DVD.
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