This film should have been much better than it is. In fact, the premise is quite intriguing: A time capsule is opened and found to contain a page of seemingly meaningless numbers written by a strangely spooky girl 50 years ago. By chance, a professor discovers that the numbers are the dates, locations, and the number of the dead of disasters around the world since the time that the capsule was buried. And there are some major disasters just around the corner, including (as we find out about two-thirds of the way through the film) the end of the world.By the time your bum is well and truly sore (this film drags on for two hours), you eventually discover that the spooky girl was receiving the numbers from some Swedish-looking alien dudes, who know all about the end of the world. In fact, they've come back to earth to save the professor's son and his girlfriend from global Armageddon. Nice.Not only do the angelic aliens take the kids, but also two fluffy white bunny rabbits. (Seriously!) We eventually find that these two kids are apparently not the only ones being saved, since as the spaceship takes off, we see lots more Noah's Ark spaceships taking off from all over the planet. Presumably on those ships other kids are carrying pairs of elephants, giraffes and wildebeest.Meanwhile, the whole planet is engulfed in flame. But not to worry because the blond aliens drop the two kids off on an idyllic looking planet. It's a regular Garden of Eden, in fact, complete with its own Tree of Knowledge -- presumably an ever so biting and cynical suggestion that we humans will again fall from grace in this new world. With no groundwork established in the film to suggest that we ever did fall from grace in the first place, this "meaningful" bit at the end comes across as utter pretentiousness."Knowing" is essentially an extremely boring and silly film. The premise could have been developed intelligently. And things do go quite well until about the time that the second disaster foretold by the numbers comes to pass. But after this, the film soon grinds to a tedious halt, crushed under the unbearable weight of its own ridiculous self-importance, laughable script, and preposterously overblown score.

Ok, so Nic Cage may not be the actor of the century but he does do poe faced well, lol. However this movie is highly under-rated. Chandler Canterbury is fantastic and the special Fx are some of the best ive ever seen. The storyline is also thought provoking and new. My only gripe is the ending, which wouldnt have been my choice.

Knowing, in short, is about professor John (Nicolas Cage), an intelligent chap who cleverly decodes a message that was unearthed in a time capsule buried 50-years ago at his young son's school.Still interested? Ok, read on. Inside of this time capsule are things like futuristic drawings and trinkets from 1959, left by school children of the day. In 2009, a new batch of children at the school open the capsule and, one by one, reach in and pull out a treasure. John's almost-as-clever son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), picks out a rather boring piece of paper filled only with numbers. It's almost befitting though. After all, the kid is very smart and has a future as an astrophysicist it seems. But he is a kid, man, and he notices that his classmates each got something cool, like hand drawn, colorful pictures imagining what life would be like in 2009 (think spaceships and jet packs). Like, where's the fun in a plain piece of paper full of stupid numbers?Enter Dad, M.I.T. scholar John, who's a big fan of numbers. He finds Caleb's discovery rather fascinating, and, in fact, has uncovered something that no one else cares enough to believe. These numbers, when one looks close enough, each mean something significant. When properly sequenced, they foretell horrible disasters, past, present, and future. Life altering disasters!Knowing, IMHO, isn't as great as some popular critics have called it. It's, meh, ok. I'm not a critic, I'm just a fan who opines. I like the idea behind Knowing, but I think Nick Cage sort of overacts a wee bit. He's been guilty of it a few times in other movies, too. Maybe that's what he's going for here with his character, but it doesn't really work for me. There's no need to scream at everyone (sure, I get it, people just don't believe him when he predicts disasters). Also, I found the script a little predictable, and believe me the irony is not lost on me.One thing that is really cool in this film is the disasters we get to see. I must admit, even now, watching this film again 9-years later I find some of the CGI impressive. Sure, I did say "wow" a few times, and not like a "this is lame" kind of wow, either. It's good to watch once, then put it away for a few years and watch again. That's what I did, and now it's filed away - probably for another 9 years or so.

This movie was very disappointing. I like Nic Cage as an actor and expected more from the movie he played in. I watched the whole movie and felt like my time could have been better spent. I felt like different aspects of it didn't make sense. The aliens resembled zombies from a horror movie. Where they supposed to be friendly and care about our civilization? Then why were they so creepy. What is with the black rocks? What did they represent? Were the children supposed to fend for themselves after the aliens left them on a planet? Were they supposed to grow up and start a new colony? What's with the tree at the end? Is it supposed to represent something from the bible? This movie left more questions then answers. I like answers.