The storyline of Knowing is kind of a reversed bottle neck, by the end the multitude of the story is as big as it gets but to begin with, we are in a kind of X Files territory where we get a spooky prologue with a mystery note being dug under the ground (I won't go into the details, because it's really not important for me to go over them) and post credits we pick it up 50 years later when the note ends up in the hands of MIT professor John Koestler (Nicholas Cage) who is one of those I-lost-my-wife-so-I-lost-my-faith kind of guys, believing that the universe as we know it is all random and coincidental. Easily cracked, the numbers on the note, written by a little girl and buried for five decades, declare the dates and places of all future disasters to come, including death tolls. Cage sees 9/11 predicted from this little girls hands in 1959, as well as the Katrina and several disasters that haven't taken place yet. Without saying too much, he doesn't like what he sees at the end of the list of numbers.

I have heard the movie be called predictable. Looking back, I must admit there's a lot of places where I could have seen a lot of things coming. Many quite blatant clues are placed right in the very first couple of scenes and if you know your plot and character mechanics, you would spot some obligatory scenes to come. However, I didn't. It seems I was in on the ride. The plot of the movie, I think, expands in such a methodical way that as long as you get sucked in to begin with, you don't ask any more questions. The mystery is intriguing enough to have you focus on the next shot, not the overall story. I was fairly annoyed by the story device that was seemingly on the side of the plot, dealing with Cage's kid being stalked by a couple of evil, albino trench-coat-guys looking like a bunch German electro-goths. I found that they distracted the viewer from the more interesting, down-to-earth kind of story going on with Cage. But come the ending of the movie, nothing is really earthbound and they seem kind of forgivable in retrospect. Just like in Close Encounters, Knowing is a movie that starts out cryptic but ends out in big scale cathartic satisfaction and harmony, as if it all (*all*) makes sense in the end.

As for the flaws, I didn't mind the story or any of the plot holes (which mostly are arguable anyway). What did bother me probably more than anything else about the movie, though, was it's unfortunate big-time flirt with the melodrama. Take the score for instance, by Marco Beltrami, not really king of the subtle, and it's unfortunate for a movie which deals with this unusual hypothesis to have such operatic and stereotypical acting. And why, WHY, do Hollywood-movies nowadays feel the need to use those HORRIBLE matte paintings? They look like a 50's parody! As for plot, Knowing certainly bites off a lot more than it can chew. I quickly noted in the credits, with fear, that while the story credit went to one person there were like three or four guys behind the actual script. That usually means what we also get in Knowing. Messy conflicts within the narrative and sudden "moronic behavior as plot device" from characters. Also, not every mystery thread thrown up on the floor ends up with a sensible conclusion. But despite a lot ends up as fairly arbitrary anyway, I think a lot of the questions are meant to be left unanswered. Knowing picks up a lot of ancient SF-ideas, that probably would seem tired if this genre had been over-represented in any way, and at the end of the day, you didn't ask the monkey in 2001 how he figured out how to use that piece of bone, right? In all fairness, the movie is partly a thriller so it needs certain plot devices in order for the it to have a good spook value which, I might add, it surely delivers. This is the kind of movie that creeps you out just by having a character flip a bed on to it's side. I'm not sure if these abandoned mysteries is a giant flaw or just one of those things you can roll with, but I know that it makes sure it doesn't reach the top. Knowing is a movie made I'd say for 80% entertainment, and I could say I was 80% entertained. The remaining 20% is sci-fi fodder and that made me happy too. No masterpiece then, but a good ride that I certainly will recommend.

"Knowing" is a riveting sci-fi thriller with an original take on the questions, are we alone? Are there others out there? and, is humanity in danger? Nicholas Cage plays an above average IQ-ed Everyman who reluctantly discovers a numerical series of disasters that were predicted 50 years prior, written to warn humanity of an ultimate end. But to truly understand what it all means you'll have to ask (who I like to call) the Whisper people.

This is an incredibly pretentious movie. The acting is beyond terrible. The director has concentrated on emotional blackmail in terms of relating to any character so when a disaster does come along, you're left feeling a bit cold inside when you have no concern when watching innocent people die horribly. And what do you do when you've no dialogue for a character? That's right, stick a strobing light in his blow hole. If you don't mind, i'm going to stick to ignorance rather than knowing.

Knowing is about faith; the belief that one day the mysteries of the universe will be explained to us, and the knowledge that anything is possible. Sometimes it's nice when movies do things you never saw coming. Knowing is an exception.Well done for 100 minutes.Cage done great job once again.

The good: Strong start to the movie, the plot hooks you in, excellent sound, confronting disaster scenes, haunting images, Rose Byrne, at times quite freaky, The Bad: Special effects looked like they were from a video game, ripped off basically every science fiction movie ever made, poor acting from Nic Cage, very predictable.

The Ugly: Last third of movie was shamefully ridiculous.

Summary: If you are a science fiction fan, you will probably not be able to resist seeing this movie. Be warned, you will think you are seeing the sci-fi great that you have been waiting for but mid way the film gets lost. You may very well groan out loud at the ending. This had the makings of a great movie but unfortunately it couldn't come up with the goods.

I love watching Nicholas Cage he is one of my favourite actors.

In Knowing Nicholas Cage plays a teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school and in it are some chilling predictions made by a student a few years prior that are currently occurring and others that are about to which lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.

this action packed syfy, explores two questions; firstly is the future predictable and secondly are we alone in this universe. The story-line consists of a father, son of a preacher man, who is devoted to his scientific work and bringing up his son (Caleb). Fifty years previous a 'time capsule' is planted as a school project, however one contribution to the capsule is more than just a picture. The son Caleb, who attends the same school, receives this piece and his father cracks a code, a code which predicts. Caleb, who wears a hearing aid, begins to hear voices but he is not the only one. The world as we know it is ending and only the chosen can leave. Caleb and his father (John) discover that the person who entered the code to the capsule has a daughter who may have the answers to his questions, however she herself has a daughter who seems to have the same problems as Caleb; they both hear voices.