BEFORE: The calendar stills says June, but with this film I pass the halfway mark on Year 2 - and though I've still got a hefty list, I'm comforted by the fact that it's the smallest that it's been yet, and the number of films to watch is still shrinking. I've got a couple more films about people with strange powers to cross off...
THE PLOT: A young bald albino boy with unique powers shakes up the rural community he lives in.
AFTER: This is the human condition as it relates to matter/energy conversion, small-town life, school bullies and the struggle to fit in. Plus the concept that human's only use 8-10% of their brain capacity - so what would someone who used 90-100% be like? Jeremy Reed, aka "Powder", is discovered in a rural farmhouse basement, after the death of his grandfather - and he is forced to adapt to a society that he's only read about in his (memorized) library.
Speaking of Stephen King, I couldn't help but notice a similarity between the middle of this film and parts of "The Green Mile". Though Powder is white and Michael Clarke Duncan's character (John Coffey) obviously wasn't, they had some things in common. Two misunderstood people with powers that heal and/or harm, and when the town sheriff needed Powder's help to communicate with his dying wife, it reminded me of Tom Hanks's character bringing the death-row inmate home to heal his wife. (Yes, I know this film was released first, but I watched it second...and I'm guessing the "Green Mile" novel came first)
With Jeff Goldblum playing a wacky science teacher, I was also reminded of the flustered scientist characters he played in "Jurassic Park" and "Independence Day", but that's another story...
I had a bit of a problem with the ending - or rather, the non-ending. An ending without much of a resolution - it made me feel like someone embarked on a story journey without a destination in mind. So when I arrived at the end, it made me wonder if that was indeed where things were supposed to be.
Maybe it's all the superhero movies I've been watching, but I can't help but feel this would make a good comic book. It's got most of the earmarks of an interesting comic - moody, withdrawn teen boy with strange energy powers, a society that doesn't understand him, an interesting origin story, plus a healthy dose of ironic pacificism. Powder would rather NOT use his powers, and doesn't fight back unless he has to - and even then, he'd rather use his empathy powers over his electro-magnetic ones. None of that phony-baloney Tony Stark pacificism - "I don't want to make weapons...oh, wait, yes I do."
And it would be SO easy to bring Powder back for a comic-book. Giant splash - lightning strike on Page 1. A naked Powder re-materializes on a rural hilltop. Done. (You're welcome...) Powder goes to the big city to get studied - what effect do his powers have on traffic lights, city buildings, hospital rooms? Maybe he finds out that he can't live in a big city and then sets off to find meaning in small-town America (cue sad walking-away music from "The Incredible Hulk"...) Someone get me Dark Horse Comics on the phone...
Starring Sean Patrick Flanery (Young Indy!), Mary Steenburgen, Lance Henriksen, and Ray Wise (as the head of the Board of Education)
RATING: 6 out of 10 contact lenses
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