Knowing.

First of all I'd like to say that overall, I was pleasantly surprised with this film. I had heard a lot of bad things and it IS Nicholas Cage on his current run of awful films so, all things considered, it was pretty good. Don't get me wrong, Nicholas Cage is one of my favourite actors, he is capable of some outstanding performances; Bringing out the dead, Leaving Las Vegas, Matchstick Men and Face Off being just several to mention.

The film initially ponders the debate of Determinism vs Probabilistic theory with regards to the origin and fate of the Earth and its hosts, them being us. The factors are obviously hopelessly generic to support the storyline, Nicholas Cage is the son of a preacher who has lost his faith after his wife passed away. He finds comfort in the proceeding events as he learns there was nothing he could do to save her.

The catastrophe scenes with the plane crash and the subway are brutally hard-hitting and loud. Loud in noise, in rawness, they feel incredibly real and this is actually surprisingly scary. The angel people or whatever you want to call them are a freaky cross between James Masters and the "Hush" whisperers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The scene where one of them creeps into the boy's bedroom and points behind him out the window to a glimpse of the future is incredibly freaky, mainly because of the music which is rather unsettling.

The gift of death for Emily's daughter brings her the comfort that her mother was not crazy. She doesn't have to endure the pain of letting her daughter leave with the Spike looking Angel people sporting Matrix leather Jackets, unlike Cage's character. Also, It's always a brilliant idea when freaky shit is happening left, right and centre and the world may be ending, to drive to the middle of the forest and leave your children unattended to in the back of a car.

As many critics of Nostradamus have argued, by predicting something we can often make it happen. The ITLADian perspective that we create our own universe can be taken to the extreme view that these predictions become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Nicholas Cage comes into contact with these predictions yet by trying to stop them he merely allows them to follow their natural course. Such reflection is an inevitability, we think we are gaining control over our universe by learning physical laws and understanding it's past but it would seem we are only learning what we are spoon fed. As audience members we have the luxury of looking at the film from an outside perspective and being able to realise certain things that they can't. We are the people in the film and this realisation in itself, is actually rather paradoxical!

So what do we learn from this film? Well, we learn that Bunny Rabbits are regarded to be on a higher hierarchy than Nicholas Cage by Angels. As the kids are taken onto the spaceship they are told they can bring the Bunny Rabbits. The little boy tries to bring his father but soon learns that Nicholas Cage is not a desirable guest for where they're headed. So where are they headed? Well, it seems they are taken to a Weetabix advert to run through the fields. This modern day Adam and Eve run towards a tree which arguably has religious significance. The ending is a bit silly, it's almost as if it abandons its path towards the end and splits into about four different type of genre.

Bunnies yes, Nicholas Cage no.