The problem with Mercury Rising is that it is a bit too far-fetched. We are asked to believe three outlandish ideas:
- The NSA has a super-duper encryption routine that it has spent billions of dollars on developing.
- This code holds up to brute-force analysis, but is easily breakable by an autistic 9-year-old boy.
- Rather than come up with a new encryption routine, the NSA would rather just try to kill the boy and anyone who knows about the boy.
Personally, I have a really hard time believing any of this because:
- There is no need to spend so much money developing encryption routines since they are developed for free at places like MIT and various privacy groups. What the NSA really spends its efforts on is just the opposite...breaking encryption codes.
- This one, I could to let slide. Now autism is something of a mystery, but there is no reason to believe that an encryption code would be visually breakable...especially since many encrypted characters would not have a visual ASCII representation (such as Backspace or Line Feed).
- What this one comes down to is who is more important? Ordinary US Citizens or special agents. As far as I am concerned, special agents have willingly taken on risk of death in order to protect the lives of Americans. Why would people in the NSA value them more than us?
The good thing about this film is that it moves well and is exciting throughout. Having Bruce Willis at the helm is this movie's strongest point and is what really drives it along.
My favorite scene: You have to like seeing Bruce Willis run through the halls of a hospital, shooting at the bad guys with one arm, while holding a kicking and screaming child in the other.
On the other hand, Alec Baldwin is easy to hate in this film, but his character is not really plausible at all. He was just too fake. I also felt that it was quite silly for the NSA to have just one hit man who always chased them around. I enjoyed Enemy of the State much better in its portrayal of the NSA as being everywhere, blanketing the country...there you never knew who would be the next adversary.
What I did like was the insight that this movie gave to autism. You might remember Miko Hughes from Kindergarten Cop where he explained to Arnold and the class, "Boys have penises and girls have vaginas!" He was quite different in this movie as an autistic boy, and his performance is to be commended. The movie also did well at its portrayal of the teachers and parents, highlighting their struggle, patience, and love for this boy.
It is fun and exciting to watch, but may be a little far-fetched.
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