There is one very important fact about this movie: Don't watch it with the standard Hollywood concepts in your mind! If you do, you will only be disappointed and maybe give a bad vote to this movie which it doesn't deserve and which it should not get.
On the other side: If you really watch this movie with an open Mind and maybe with some interest in independent stuff or art, then the chance is high that you may like this movie - or should I say this little piece of art? The movie is full of mysteries and you could start to ask questions from the very beginning. Who is that girl? Why is she arrested? Why are there obviously two (or more) different sorts of people? Where did this pyramid come from? Why is it here now? Why has this trial have to place on Earth? Why have the gods to judge over Horus? What did he do? ... and the list goes on and on: Was it an accident that Nikopol was freed? Why did the guys from Eugenics appear and kill the police? What is the reason for the forbidden zone? And who or better what is John? In fact: Not all of the questions will be answered by the movie. A lot of them will still be open at the end of the movie and it will be your imagination to find an appropriate answer to them. This is one of the features that makes this movie so special: You only get a glimpse into a world which is obviously much more complex than our world now. There are social problems, technical chances and most important: metaphysical differences. Gods exists - and much more things that the human Mind cannot take easily.
Although this circumstances really could be annoying on the first glimpse, they actually do not. This is because of the consistent story of the movie, which is only a little part of a much bigger story happening only in your head. It's mainly a story about the last days of a God, and about his wish not to leave into punishment without saving his inheritance. His godly intuition leads him to a girl which is actually one of the very few capable to procreate with the Gods. And there is only one thing he wants to do with her: Procreate! But therefore he needs a human medium, which is hard to find in a world, where anyone seems to be biologically or cybernetically modified. Only when a prisoner gets free who was frozen for decades the God finds in him the compatible medium he searched for... You see: The main storyline is quite plain. Added to it are a lot of interesting characters and some side-stories, which can lead you on false tracks to the story but also give you some more information on the world. There is this political affair with Eugenics and the Senator who is involved in it. There are these beasts, which should have been extincted but are still alive - few but very dangerous, and there is this cop, who is straight on his path for justice, and for revenge...
All this happens in front of something one could call a "cyperpunk" atmosphere of a future New York: Nearly everything seems rotten and decayed, but in the middle of it, there are spots of high technology, if you are wealthy enough to participate in them...
And at the end, you will mainly have learned one lesson: That where powers like Gods are acting, no human action is worth anything. The humans in this movie are spectators, not actors. Humans are puppets, game inventory for a gamble of higher powers - and nothing more...
I here the critics saying that the CGIs could have been better, and I agree: For the high level of the plot and the great atmosphere of the movie (which is also perfectly supported by the music), it is a pity that on some little parts of the movie the effects seem a bit old or bad. But as a glimpse into the future of film art, this movie is an outstanding milestone. Sometimes the borders between real actors and CGI-crafted creatures are blurring... but only sometimes. The effects were the main reason to rate the movie not with a 10.
If you want a philosophical, dark-sci-fi movie you are right to choose this one. If you want space-crafts and explosions and less-brain stories try something else instead.
On the other side: If you really watch this movie with an open Mind and maybe with some interest in independent stuff or art, then the chance is high that you may like this movie - or should I say this little piece of art? The movie is full of mysteries and you could start to ask questions from the very beginning. Who is that girl? Why is she arrested? Why are there obviously two (or more) different sorts of people? Where did this pyramid come from? Why is it here now? Why has this trial have to place on Earth? Why have the gods to judge over Horus? What did he do? ... and the list goes on and on: Was it an accident that Nikopol was freed? Why did the guys from Eugenics appear and kill the police? What is the reason for the forbidden zone? And who or better what is John? In fact: Not all of the questions will be answered by the movie. A lot of them will still be open at the end of the movie and it will be your imagination to find an appropriate answer to them. This is one of the features that makes this movie so special: You only get a glimpse into a world which is obviously much more complex than our world now. There are social problems, technical chances and most important: metaphysical differences. Gods exists - and much more things that the human Mind cannot take easily.
Although this circumstances really could be annoying on the first glimpse, they actually do not. This is because of the consistent story of the movie, which is only a little part of a much bigger story happening only in your head. It's mainly a story about the last days of a God, and about his wish not to leave into punishment without saving his inheritance. His godly intuition leads him to a girl which is actually one of the very few capable to procreate with the Gods. And there is only one thing he wants to do with her: Procreate! But therefore he needs a human medium, which is hard to find in a world, where anyone seems to be biologically or cybernetically modified. Only when a prisoner gets free who was frozen for decades the God finds in him the compatible medium he searched for... You see: The main storyline is quite plain. Added to it are a lot of interesting characters and some side-stories, which can lead you on false tracks to the story but also give you some more information on the world. There is this political affair with Eugenics and the Senator who is involved in it. There are these beasts, which should have been extincted but are still alive - few but very dangerous, and there is this cop, who is straight on his path for justice, and for revenge...
All this happens in front of something one could call a "cyperpunk" atmosphere of a future New York: Nearly everything seems rotten and decayed, but in the middle of it, there are spots of high technology, if you are wealthy enough to participate in them...
And at the end, you will mainly have learned one lesson: That where powers like Gods are acting, no human action is worth anything. The humans in this movie are spectators, not actors. Humans are puppets, game inventory for a gamble of higher powers - and nothing more...
I here the critics saying that the CGIs could have been better, and I agree: For the high level of the plot and the great atmosphere of the movie (which is also perfectly supported by the music), it is a pity that on some little parts of the movie the effects seem a bit old or bad. But as a glimpse into the future of film art, this movie is an outstanding milestone. Sometimes the borders between real actors and CGI-crafted creatures are blurring... but only sometimes. The effects were the main reason to rate the movie not with a 10.
If you want a philosophical, dark-sci-fi movie you are right to choose this one. If you want space-crafts and explosions and less-brain stories try something else instead.