Official Synopsis
On the night of his 37th birthday, George Malley (Travolta) is knocked to the ground by a mysterious, blinding light and develops amazing mental abilities. With his newfound knowledge, George astounds everyone in town, but comes to realize that his wondrous experience has changed him and all those around him forever.
Phenomenon is a fun, yet tragic film. If you were to take two steps back and look at the story’s roller coaster ride, you may find some much needed improvements. Director Jon Turteltaub seemed to be in a rush with getting to all the ‘cool’ things that George could do with his powers, rather than developing where George came from. He tried to use the dialogue of other folks, and small, meaningless situations, to build Travolta’s George up. The first few scenes we have of George is a happy-go-lucky character, who is very settled with his life. That’s fine and dandy, but it doesn’t really explain who George is in life. Is he a simpleton? Did he come from a farming background? Where does his intelligence lie? None of this becomes clear because it isn’t properly explained. Why is that important?
To progress a character, like George, from nothing to something, you have to know where he is firmly in life. By the time the incident in the film happens, George is not clearly defined. He has done nothing up to that point to say he’s dumb. To make the leap to extraordinary individual, he has to be able to tell the audience how far he has come. When the flash of light occurs, our guy isn’t there yet. It’s too late, though, and we don’t know him well enough to say ‘WOW’ when things start to progress and change for him. Sure reading 2-3 books a day is neat, but did he ever read books prior? Yes, he can speak different languages, but how hard was it to do that before? I guess my complaint is that the movie hits its strides when George is developing his newly found gifts, but the place of origin is too undefined to appreciate them.
On top of this, his interaction with his fellow tiny town folks is both brilliant and confusing. The brilliance of this relationship is that the story does define how positively alone he feels when no one understands what is happening to him. He is smarter than everyone in town and his thirst for knowledge is unquenchable. While the other folks in town have settled on their lives, his life is just kicking into fifth. This part of the film is very well performed and written.
Now, the confusing part of this is when the town folks treat him like the plague. These are people he has supposedly been friends with for nearly two decades, and they want nothing to do with him or his powers towards the end of the film. I’m really not sure if people would react that extreme to such a life changing event. The way it’s written into the story almost makes it forced. It’s like they needed a reason for the story to turn against our hero, so they forced this awkwardness into it. It honestly has no place and it doesn’t fit.
Oh, and don’t even ask about the government intervention in the film; that comes out of life field and leaves just as quick.
By the end of the film you will feel bad for George. You will also feel good for him. I won’t spoil the ending, but it’s directly related to the beginning of this review.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this film, it’s not as brilliant as George. You will find some beautiful moments when the daylight is prominent in the shots. Really clear HD that has a heavy amount of yellow/red shines brilliantly. Regretfully, the transfer is a bit grainy. You will immediately see this during the establishing shot. This is carried throughout the entire film, which is sad. Thankfully, you will find no color banding or compression issues; just grain. It’s still not as bad as Rain Man, but certainly it could have been much better.
On the plus side, the audio is mastered in 5.1 DTS-HD (which is sweet with Thomas Newman’s musical pieces) and it’s presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio.
Sadly, no features.
