Why "Knowing" is an awful film.

Even the poster is rather awfully Photoshopped. 

I was reading through io9 today and came across this article: “In which our critic confesses to loving the end of Knowing” (http://io9.com/#!5797215/in-which-our-critic-confesses-to-loving-the-end-of-knowing). The review argues that the film isn’t great, but Nic Cage mostly makes up for it, and it attempts to make some kind of point about something but doesn’t quite get there.

Sure. I can agree with that. I’m sure there was a point buried in the nonsense that was never quite uncovered; still, I would never, ever come close to calling Knowing a good film in any way. I didn’t even like it, at all, and I’m a big sci-fi fan who is very accepting of even mediocre sci-fi, or spec-fic, or whatever. I love the genre so much I’m willing to forgive a lot and even if I recognise it’s bad, a film can still be enjoyably bad.

Not so with Knowing.

I am generally in agreement with most of the io9 commenters and so I assumed the responses to the article would likely follow along my own opinion of the film - that it is just bad, plain and simple. But alas, I should not have assumed! Comment after comment lauded Knowing for being underrated; people said “I love this film!” or “I actually thought it was a good movie all through” or, even, several commenters praised the film for being so different from other apocalyptic films for (spoiler alert) killing off the majority of the human population and not giving anyone any way of stopping it (unless you’re lucky enough to be picked up by the alien/angel/crazies and carried off to another planet). 

Excuse me?! Really?!

Sure, it is interesting that the entire film comes down to the utter and complete destruction of Earth (in a highly implausible way, I might add; my university professor who taught a class on the solar system in first year spent an entire lecture explaining just how incredibly unlikely and nearly impossible it would be for a massive solar flare to hit Earth). As well, the film does avoid the absurdities of other apocalyptic films by not having some kind of insane last-minute device (plot, mechanical, supernatural or otherwise) that saves the Earth and most (or all) of humanity, but what are we left with? A film that makes no sense, really.

Even the basic premise of the film makes no sense. That piece of paper that Nic Cage’s character finds with all the numbers - you know, the really important plot device? - it’s faulty, to an extreme. From what I remember, the numbers connect to major disasters, but it’s extraordinarily subjective. At one point I believe they mentioned that the disasters were sun-related (okay…. I’ll choke back a scientific retort and swallow that one) but then why would the September 11th attacks be on the list? Last I checked, that was most certainly not “sun-related”. 

A note to screenwriters: if you’re going to have a paper that is predicting the end of the world via a series of disasters, make some rules about it and STICK TO THEM. If the end of the world is happening due to an absurdly unlikely solar flare, and the preceding disasters are supposedly connected, then MAKE THEM CONNECTED. Either they’re sun-related or they’re not. Make up your minds!

I can see why, possibly, they decided to include 9/11 on the list - it is something that Nic Cage’s character would probably recognise and would lead him on the trail to figuring out the rest of it. This is, if I remember correctly, exactly what happens. Nevertheless, it still causes a huge problem for the plot. 

And don’t get me started on the creeper alien/angels, or the visions that the kid of the film starts having, or any of the other craziness that just contributes to the ludicrous absurdity of the film. 

The point of this rant is, how could this film possibly be considered in any way good, or even watchable? My friends saw it and their first response once the credits rolled were “well, there’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back.”

After reading the comments on io9, I’m almost - almost - tempted to watch the film again, just to try and figure out what exactly it is about this film that everyone seems to like so much. Well, correction: not everyone. I did eventually find some like-minded commenters who took the time to point out any of the many faults to this film, in response to the outpouring of love and admiration from the others. Thank you, fellow io9’ers, for throwing some sanity into the discussion.

***Disclaimer: These are my opinions (unless quoted as someone elses’) and I am entitled to my opinion. Your opinion may be different, and that’s totally cool with me. Then we can debate and see who wins. :)

Originally posted on Tumblr account myriadthoughts.