Friday 19 February 2010

The Cube



Watched this yesterday with my son. Hmmm.

What is it really about? Is it a clever and glorified escape story? Is about sudden-death and awakening in purgatory? Is it a version of hell? Did the script writer dream about what it must be like inside a giant Rubik's Cube when he was taking a trip? Was it about the characters and their personal struggles in the face of extreme adversity? Did it provide a glimpse of a utopian 'everyone working together for the common good' before it sank into predictable dystopia? Well - you tell me!

The conceptualisation is good, but the plot and storyline leave too many unanswered questions. Where did they come from? Why? Were there any more people trapped in the cube? Was escape possible? What happened to Kazan? Who built the cube and what purpose did it serve? Why the gruesome means of killing people? Did the colours of the rooms have any meaning? Why give the clues through numbers? You see what I mean?

Perhaps it is the sign of a good story that it leaves so many unanswered questions. Frankly, I don't really  mind not finding out. So much so, that I've filed the sequel straight into the library and will need to be laid up for a long period of convalescence before I watch it!

The characterisations are good and the suspense is well maintained for most of the story. The methods of elimating people are imaginative and the first murder is particularly neat. For me however, the film never really gets into its stride and it certainly doesn't take me anywhere - except back to where I first began.

I'll give this 5/10

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I just popped this into my DVD player this evening and am happily baffled by its possibilities, I am keen on the purgatory reading, but also see it as a consideration and contesting of a variety of philosophers musings on human existence. I don't know it could just be a film, but great little review and glad to see you found it as intriguing as I did.

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