not convinced
Like another viewer, this was a painful experience. Unlike that viewer, I was unable to make it to the 30-minute-mark. Fortunately, Kris Kristofferson was killed off in the first half hour. That, to me, is the climax of any film. I don't care what happened after that. Of course if you like clichés, bad acting, awful story-line, cheesy acting, grade school art project like special effects then this movie is for you. Kristofferson delivers his lines in such a distracting way, that you don't even hear what he is saying. He delivers his lines worse than Back to the Future's George McFly (George McFly: Lorraine. My density has popped me to you). Move on and find something better.
DrJules
Obviously creators of the movie couldn't follow the plot of the book exactly because of the way the book leaves you hanging on certain sub-plots, because they continue in the following books. However they changed it way too much! Relationships between characters change, character names change, and the thing that p*ssed me off the most was Alex Michaels' character. Don't get me wrong, Scott Bakula does an awesome job playing the role but the movie portrays Michaels and being a more experienced fearless soldier in the field than John Howard, which changes the entire personality of the character. But all in all it was an entertaining couple of hours with big names, good acting, and decent effects.
WesTurner
The story started off well enough, but after just a bit, the FBI's NetForce started looking like a bunch of nerds playing in cyber-space. Trying to bust someone in a VR environment just wouldn't work. They TOLD the guy, and he just logged off! <sighs> Oh, well... then they went on to imply that the Internet was actually controllable... and could be shut off by someone attacking hardlines, satellites, or fiber optic lines... as if the users could actually tell what medium was being used for the transmission of their signals. <shakes his head> It could have been better, but I couldn't rate it too low, after all, it DID have a very good twist at the end (no spoiler here!), but even that part wasn't played out very well.I hope to see more like it (but with better technical advice/support).
Lawson
At 2h40mins, this movie runs waaaay too long. The pace is kept at a moderate level most of the way with above-average-for-a-tv-movie sounds and visuals, intended to keep the average person watching. But I'm not Mr Average and I was zoning in and out throughout the movie. I was motivated to rent this movie because I just read Jeffery Deaver's 'The Blue Nowhere,' which is an excellent thriller abt hacking. This movie seems more like a slow-moving FBI show. How can Scott Bakula, the leader of 'Netforce,' look as clueless as he does when his system is hacked? And for Internet cops, there sure is a lot of physical chasing and shooting. Sure there's a lot of techno-babble thrown in, but it's all gratuitous. The coolest vision of futuristic technology - VR pubs and brothels - doesn't even involve any special effects. Hacking i s demonstrated as a flood of rotating green numbers. On the brighter side, the acting's pretty good and not exaggerated. Don't rent this, catch it on TV on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
AD
