BR Rogers

Art. This is not a "movie." This is Cinema with a capital C. A multilayered cinefile's wet dream. Critics who would claim this movie is only a vehicle for action or cgi, or that it's vacuous, haven't begun to understand this move, and haven't the faintest idea what they just watched, neither in content nor artistic intention. This is about your psyche, your choices, about the things human beings do to themselves and others in an attempt to understand who they are and how physical reality works. This is a movie about oppression--no, not just about women being oppressed by misogyny, but by our own self-created oppression, how we make bad bargains in life with ourselves and others. And about how we can free ourselves. Freedom begins in our mind, and nowhere else. We cannot be free in our physical world until we first understand that we have the power of creation, we are, ourselves, the power of creation. The ability to remake the world around us...thoughts become things. And like a similarly themed film, The Lathe of Heaven, made in the 1970's, we have the power to change our world, but it starts with the desire to be free of false gods, base intentions, and traps that we allow ourselves to be caught in. We are lie to ourselves, put ourselves through trials, and cheer ourselves on, telling ourselves simultaneously that we are sensitive but fierce. We are both the gatekeeper and keymaster, the yin and yang, the alpha and the omega, as well as the fly in the ointment, the wrench in the works. We are our own creator, our own hero, our own villain, our own writer, our own critic, and our own projector. We write the script, we play all the parts... "all we see or seem is but a dream within a dream"... we are creator and critic. And that is what this film is about. Incidentally, it also has some of the most kickass action scenes and fun cgi among all its layers, frames, and symbolism. Watch it more than once and you'll see more in it each time. Enjoy it as Art is meant to be enjoyed. Grapple with the questions it raises, let it provoke your thoughts, let it percolate in your subconscious and throughout your limbic system before asking yourself, Who am I? What obstacles did I put in my own way? What does freedom mean to me really? Am I free internally even though externally things might not look that way yet? And perhaps most important, ask yourself "Why am I not running at full speed toward my most fervent of dreams as if my hair is on fire?" You won't be sorry you asked the question and you won't be sorry you watched this tres magnifique piece of cinema.