Many thoughts pop into my head watching this...
...but only two I'll mention.
1) Edward Norton, Tim Roth--Really? It's come to this? Yeah, it's sad to see William Hurt playing Secondary Character in some big, dumb summer crapfest, but at least he had a nice run. Norton and Roth have certainly appeared in some fine films, but it always seemed like their best work was ahead of them, as if they were just this close to finding the breakthrough role that would define them as actors and stars. But really, once you've decided to take the role that involves you turning into a rampaging CGI monster, you might as well give it up.
2) Speaking of CGI--Please, everyone, can we just stop using it? Can we unlearn everything we know and go back to the old days of practical effects, miniatures and makeup? Because--and I know it's the swell new toy, and everyone loves to play--but most CGI effects look like crap.
I mean, seriously. Look at this trailer. It starts out looking like some knock-off of the Bourne films, then suddenly...Edward Norton turns into a cartoon. All the digital shading and hooha in the world can't make that look remotely realistic. It's cheesy, and in exactly the same way most CGI effects look vaguely cheesy. It's not distinctive, or interesting, or anything. When the visuals in a multi-million dollar extravaganza are virtually indistinguishable from a SciFi Channel original, something's wrong.
On the other hand, it doesn't have Ashton Kutcher or Cameron Diaz, so there's that...
