JJ Wright

This is a fairly weak and disappointing film considering the stellar cast and generally thoughtful premise. Most of the movie is ok -- a bit overwrought and at times difficult to buy into, but that's not uncommon when trying to make a point by portraying an absurd dystopia. But in this one the ending is a real belly-flop. Generally, there are two ways one might end this. In one version, Watson's character has a come-to-Jesus moment after her tragic wake-up-call and she sets out to destroy the monster she helped build; this is probably the ending most people wanted. In the other version, she doubles down and clearly becomes the bad guy. Apparently, the original book went with option two. But the filmmakers tried to shoehorn in something more like option one. And so what we got didn't really make a whole lot of sense -- she takes down the company bosses AND she doubles down on supporting the technology. Despite the fact that, nefarious though the bosses may be, it wasn't their nefariousness that caused the tragedy; it was the technology itself doing exactly what it promised.