I didn't know what to expect from "Knowing". It had a few things working against it from the start. First, I'm not much of a Nicolas Cage fan. Second, the movie also starred a kid. And while I really like kids, I don't like them in my Sci-Fi. There are other things I could mention too, but it's all rather pointless because I liked "Knowing" very much.

Cage actually was very good here though he played a character we've seen in many other movies. You know the husband who is disenfranchised with the world and with his faith in any and all things, brought on by the recent death of his wife. Plus, he's got a son that he's losing touch with. All of these things had me ready for a snoozer of a film until Cage's character uncovers the meaning behind a mysterious page covered in numbers.

The movie is best in its first 90 minutes when the unraveling of the mystery takes place. It fades in it's final 30, when it wants to become an action flick. I will say that this has a very realistic effects sequence involving a plane crash. It's riveting because it is so real. The erupting fireball and subsequent explosions were as true to life as any I've seen in a fictional film. Director Alex Proyas sends Cage into the horror to rescue some of the crash victims and does so in an extremely effective long take. There are other amazing effects as well, especially the "EE" disaster which I won't reveal other than to say that I can't remember seeing an extended disaster so frighteningly created in a movie.

The reason that I can't rate this any higher is because the ending was not as satisfying as the rest of the film.

"Knowing" starts small in its scope, but grows into something almost inconceivably large.