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Nick Cage sets the world on fire with his intense gaze.

Director Alex Proyas might be best known for the Will Smith vehicle I, Robot, but it’s his fan-favorite Dark City that earns massive respect in my book. While Knowing is designed to appeal to wider audiences than Dark City, it takes several risks that make it stand out from similar pictures. And it looks really, really fantastic on Blu-ray.

Like a good episode of the Twilight Zone, the sci-fi “what if” premise of is Knowing is instantly intriguing. A time capsule is buried in 1959 containing drawing by elementary school students. Fifty years later the time capsule is exhumed and a very special document is found inside, a series of numbers written out by a student named Lucinda (young actress Lara Robinson). The numbers just happen to contain exact information about every major world disaster since 1959. The most intriguing part of all, several dates remain. Nicolas Cage does well as John, a professor whose son attends the elemntray school at the center of the story, and discovers Lucinda’s code. John becomes obsessed with the Lucinda’s document very quickly when he notices numbers surrounding the September 11th tragedy, and things escalate quickly from there.

Those concerned with spoilers should skip to the next paragraph. One of the things that really made Knowing work for me is that it succeeds in delivering on its larger concepts. Knowing doesn’t just talk about the end of the world, Knowing shows you the end of the world and lets you experience it with characters you care about. In the second act a whole new mystery builds that, I thought, could not be paid off in an interesting way. I’m pleased to have been wrong. The story pays off in a very big way that will be off-putting for anyone not willing to suspend their disbelief and just let themselves have a good time. I will touch on this in the ‘Light’ portion of this review as well, but the last several minutes of the film produce some of the most beautiful imagery I’ve ever seen on Blu-ray, or in a science fiction film.

The performances can seem a little forced at times, especially any scene involving John’s son being a little smart ass. Also troubling is how convenient many of the plot devices are. There was at least one scene that took me out of the movie for its duration while I pondered how ridiculous it was. Knowing is a very strong and confident sci-fi tale that could have been even stronger if the writers had worked a little harder to make the characters a tad more likable and believable. Regardless, you will find Knowing very watchable compared to similar Hollywood sci-fi attempts.

If we had a poll, it would ask "do you like slip covers?"