the-watcher

By now, everyone should know the plot, etc so I'll cut to the chase. This show is raw, visceral and almost painful to watch. Not because it is bad, rather it is good, too good. You can feel the pain and torment in the soldiers caught up in the fight. You can empathize with their loss because they are just your friend/buddy/mate next door, whom you trust your life with. This type of bond is rarely experienced outside the uniform services, and is specially strongly here and it shows. The cruel part is to see young, healthy people cut down in the prime of their lives for a cause that was good but so poorly and disappointedly, lost. BTW, I had bought the hardback version of this book back in May 1999 and had only the opportunity to read parts of it as it was painful for me to read it (for the above reason). This movie made me confront the entire issue again.

I can't say enough good things about this show, with a few exceptions. The characters are not developed enough. As such, the show is too short and too long at the same time. Too long, because the fire fight especially some parts could be condensed since parts have already been cut out. Too short as you don't know the various characters except for the first four of the billings: Eversman (Harnett), Grimes (McGregor), McKnight (Sizemore), and Hooten (played by the Aussie, Eric Bana) as well as MG Garrison (Shepard).

However, to the younger viewers, this movie will NOT strike a cord as most have already been in my view, desensitized by games like "Counterstrike" and various FPS where you can kill and be killed without suffering any loss, much less pain of injury. This is in my view, another tragedy in itself.

The plot of this story is interesting, coupled with the Millenium anxiety that was prevalent during the time of release. However, huge hole in plot, lack of background and poor scripting resulted in a mediocre "armageddon" movie.

The background is that an ancient, gigantic, floating rock-like object suddenly appeared out from underground after 4 billion years. Of course, scientists, together with the prerequite of military force have to investigate. David Keith, plays the main protegonist who is supposedly incredibly intelligent and works under a female diplomat.

The usual, predictable sparks appear, between male and female, scientists and the military, USA vs China (the location is supposedly close to the Chinese border in Asia).

The worst thing is that there is potential for this show to have much better ratings. However, horrible scripts that don't into details, just action, action, action, coupled with the director's inability to elicit any emotion from the wooden actors/actresses except for the extreme ones made this show a movie that only a geek would like.