Viewed in
2011
Formats
DVD
Premise
Matt Damon stars as a New York Senator who falls in love with a ballerina (Emily Blunt), but mysterious men in hats keep them apart for mysterious reasons with mysterious powers.
Liked
The acting.
Disliked
The similarities to Dark City.
Thoughts
From the moment I saw the trailer, I instantly thought of my favorite film of all time. The plot, premise, and archetypes all looked too familiar. Sadly, I was right.
Having said that, it was still a good film. It obviously had much better star power with Damon as the lead. He was excellent as a promising politician with a checkered past, carrying the film through its sci-fi and romantic moments with natural ease. Blunt was lovely and had good chemistry with our hero. Like most American films, you need a British accent to let the audience know "don't mess with this guy", and Terence Stamp was very strong as the antagonist. I also liked solid performances by John Slattery and Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker).
For me, everything else was predictable because I had seen this story before in Dark City. Hero fighting the system? Check. His history and love life possibly manufactured? Check. Horde of baddies with abilities to control time and space? Check. Free will versus fate? Check. Retro metropolis setting? Check. Heck, even both films' bad guys have weaknesses against water! At least the Strangers from the 1998 masterpiece didn't need hats to keep them in power.
Obviously not everything was identical, but you get the picture. There were some aspects of this film that were superior, such as star power, special effects, better developed love story, and overall production value.
Look, I know The Adjustment Bureau probably got an unfair shake because of I happened to love Dark City with a passion. I highly doubt most moviegoers love or remember an indie sci-fi flick released a dozen years ago (though a quick web search yielded a surprising number of hits), so their experience won't be as deja vu as mine. So without bashing it any further, I thought it was a decent, accessible science fiction thriller that didn't dumb things down for the audience.
What I would change
No idea. I never read Philip K. Dick's short story, so I don't know how close this was to the original source, which would give it some leeway in terms of coincidental similarities with you-know-what.
