I've been wanting to see this film, because even though I had a pretty good idea how it was going to end just based on the trailer, I was in the mood for a suspenseful film.
The first twenty minutes in felt very Hitchcock-ish to me, which was just what I wanted. Nice buildup on the first act, lovely delivery on the you-just-knew-it-was-coming line that punctuated the end of the first act...
... and then the sci-fi acid kicked in.
WTF???? I had to double-check to make sure a cat hadn't accidentally hit a button on the remote and switched the channel to Cocoon or something. But now, we get a good hour of vague, complicated trippy alien eye candy followed by the main black hat literally having to spell out everything for you near the end of act two.
As for act three... well, then we plop right into that predictable ending in the same "feel" as the beginning.
I really wish the writer would have made a decision about which genre to write in. I mean, I have seen some very well done genre hybrids, but this one was pretty choppy to me and came off as awkwardly as if someone tried to do a Saw film in the style of a romantic comedy.
(Another viewer's two cents: "They bring up Arthur C. Clarke, and how any significantly advanced science will appear to be magic. But that doesn't make for a good movie.")
Info on IMDB: The Box
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