For the first thirty or so minutes it's amazing, but the psychological angle is discarded after the first hour and we're forced to watch our protagonist pursue a rather daft sci-fi macguffin with no meaningful pay-off and a woefully-underwritten love interest.
(Spoliers) All the slow-boiling tension, stark ambiance, existential dread, and mystery is immediately wasted on a romantic subplot that goes nowhere and culminates in blowing up a satellite dish. And, no, this isn't even played for laughs. All the other characters just go along with it. I think the film wants us to think he might be paranoid or crazy or hallucinating, but that's never explored and his mental state is largely glossed over after a single scene played for laughs. It goes from black comedy to pedestrian adventure schlock. Maybe they just didn't have the time or the money to set up the idea that this is his own private hell and detail his life's misdeeds. He doesn't seem to be wicked, irresponsible, or vindictive. On the contrary, he seems conscientious, studious, and easy-going. Dude was literally working on a clean-energy source. I don't understand the purgatory aspect. Did the edit of the film I watch on YouTube leave this footage out? Is this explained better in the book?
Or maybe it is literal. In which case, the climax is really stupid. Apparently bombing the time-space continuum with TNT can transport people to a moon orbiting Jupiter. Yeah, sure.
(Spoliers) All the slow-boiling tension, stark ambiance, existential dread, and mystery is immediately wasted on a romantic subplot that goes nowhere and culminates in blowing up a satellite dish. And, no, this isn't even played for laughs. All the other characters just go along with it. I think the film wants us to think he might be paranoid or crazy or hallucinating, but that's never explored and his mental state is largely glossed over after a single scene played for laughs. It goes from black comedy to pedestrian adventure schlock. Maybe they just didn't have the time or the money to set up the idea that this is his own private hell and detail his life's misdeeds. He doesn't seem to be wicked, irresponsible, or vindictive. On the contrary, he seems conscientious, studious, and easy-going. Dude was literally working on a clean-energy source. I don't understand the purgatory aspect. Did the edit of the film I watch on YouTube leave this footage out? Is this explained better in the book?
Or maybe it is literal. In which case, the climax is really stupid. Apparently bombing the time-space continuum with TNT can transport people to a moon orbiting Jupiter. Yeah, sure.