• I’m not the world’s biggest admirer of Roland Emmerich (I think this is the only film in the archives) but I think this one is worthy of a fringe recommendation and entry to the archives  
  • Ebert famously killed it—and he has some points with the narrative
  • The James Spader and Kurt Russell characters are pretty flat architypes on the page—“what happened to him?—his kid died” (talking about Russell) but Russell especially transcends the broad strokes of his character with his stare and non-verbal performance
Russell especially transcends the broad strokes of his character with his stare and non-verbal performance
  • I think it’s a smart choice for the narrative to have the Spader character as our audience vehicle. He arrives in the middle of this project that has been going on for years and he’s in awe of it
  • Probably the main reason it’s in the archives is the desert set pieces – I’m a sucker for the clean lines in the architecture and the look as extras in the action sequences run in the sand reminding me of Lawrence of Arabia)
Probably the main reason it’s in the archives is the desert set pieces – I’m a sucker for the clean lines in the architecture
  • The hazy Ra-narrative and origin story is weird but not uninteresting—part 1950’s sci-fi with “the bomb” here, War of the Worlds, Prometheus (way before of course) Raiders of the Lost Ark archeology — part Tolkien or Willow– part Cameron’s Aliens or Avatar with the big government and overly muscular military. Part Dune or Ford’s Lost Patrol desert unit… there’s a lot of good pieces in there
extras in the sand during battle sequences- it’s not exactly Lawrence of Arabia but still– makes for a nice visual
  • The David Arnold score is great even if its derivative of John Williams—that’s a great place to be actually
  • Recommend