“Knowing” is a fairly impressive film that combines the disaster, mystery and even science-fiction genres to create something interesting. There are parts of it that are genuinely riveting and others that are quite unsettling. It’s not a flawless film but I was very impressed with a lot of it.

A time capsule, which was buried five decades earlier by a school, is unearthed in Massachusetts. Inside is a piece of paper with a mysterious list of numbers. M.I.T.’s Professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage “Bangkok Dangerous”, “Next”) realises that the numbers give details of past and future disasters. Koestler tries to uncover the origins of the paper and also stop the catastrophes that are about to unfold.

Nicolas Cage is a great actor and he shows that as John Koestler. I like how the character goes from fearing that he might be paranoid to accepting that the numbers really do mean something. I was not happy with the performance from Chandler Canterbury, who played Caleb Koestler. Some of the lines the kid has just come across as a little weird. Throughout the movie, strange men appear. Exactly what purpose they serve is not made clear until the end of the movie and I think the big reveal is likely to divide audiences.

I like the mystery elements of the movie and the disaster parts are fantastic. We get to see some great scenes of large-scale destruction and the special effects are excellent. The performance from Nicolas Cage is also really a great addition to the movie. I was left unmoved by the film’s climax. I do not think that it is bad or anything like that but I would not have chosen the direction that “Knowing” goes in. Director Alex Proyas (“Dark City”, “I, Robot”) has made some great movies before and while this is not his best work, I really liked it.