We Wanted NEXT to Be over Our Heads. It Wasn't

Next was stilted, stiff, stifled, and stifling. Next was a promise of telepathic symphony, one which in all its complexities and abstractions should have had us still querying, quizzical, and coo coo over the depth of the concept and delivery.

But the only time[s] we tilted our heads like Rover and went, "err?" were those times we didn't get it not because of the film's multi-dimensions but we didn't get it because it was too insubstantial, too limited in development, too weakly constructed to get.

In one set-up for what was obviously going to be an action scene, for instance, Cris has given Liz an exact time to trigger an avalanche of artifacts (which happen to be car- and train-sized antiques). The crashing and tumbling vehicles and parts are rushing down the mountain-side after the FBI agents who are after Johnson. At the bottom, at the road where a cruiser is parked, FBI agent Ferris [a usually stunning but here blah Julianne Moore] is inches from apprehending Johnson. The foreshadowing [for the characters] of rocks a tumble-crumbling lends itself to what one would think would be a "let's get the hell out of here/duck and cover" respnse from FBI agent Ferris. Instead, she stands stock still, as if she has had no crisis-intervention training whatsoever, and says, "Are you just going to let me die?" This prompts Johnson to grab her and protect her and etc., when she should have had the brawn, the balls, the busto gusto to save her own ass.

Just out of context were so many moments like these and so many concepts otherwise SF thriller, PK Dick, mental magic movie fan worthy elsewhere (in other films).

My point here is that with 1) a Philip K Dick piece; 2) the concept of telepathy, time travel, and parallel universes/multiple worlds; and 3) far-reaching performance skills of the likes of Nic Cage, Julianne Moore, and Peter Falk (!), this movie could have been deeper, denser, richer and more a water cooler movie than Blade Runner.

With number 2) alone, consider the possibilities--given the cinematic technology within reach, what we know and have yet to know, and what Philip K Dick has provided in the most brilliant of SF literature:

Cris Johnson has a psychic gift that is not triggered, per se, and is not an affliction (except when it is leeched upon by the FBI). The opening casino scene, with Johnson eluding by way of knowing--up to two minutes in advance--establishes a beautifully timed series of moves, ducks, dashes that set up the premise so engagingly. The diner scene, wherein Johnson revises his interested in Liz approach several times over, also offers some depth of psychic possibility. But then the overreaching (and redundant) plot--with the terrorists armed with a nuclear bomb planned for L.A., et. al.--clunks up the concept and we move further from the mechanisms of a telepathic psyche and into the action scenes that do little more than replicate screeching tire sounds, suddenly-appearing on the building horizon FBI copter images, and ho-hum foot-chase movements.

Johnson's psychic gifts in action could have been more developed--and hence, more interesting, even fascinating.

Lines like the one about changing the future every time you look at it could have contributed so nicely to a deeper template, ala the quantum theory premise that what is being observed changes by being observed.

And character affects such as Johnson's ability to split exponentially [to search for Liz] could have been used earlier, elsewhere, and in better, more suited contexts. (If Johnson had the ability, that is--assuming it didn't suddenly, conveniently develop--he would have been better served by it to, say, escape that Clockwork Orange contraption or elude the token bad guys earlier or later.

I have always adored Cage and will continue to do so--for several reasons. But Next didn't do him justice, didn't do anyone justice, especially not Philip K Dick, the best SF writer to date.

Thank the thinking gods, just get down on your movie-viewing-room carpet and praise the Hollywood heavens that the same filmmakers have not dared touch The Transmigration of Timothy Archer.

Now that's one Nic should consider doing with a genius team such as Ang Lee and David Lynch in collaboration. That would make for a great SF, Thriller, Action flick we would be scratching our heads over for decades to come.