Like many people, and like audiences as a whole, I have mixed feelings about The Cell. In the movie, a new technology allows one person’s consciousness to enter into another’s. Jennifer Lopez is the researcher who has had the most experience with the technology. She’s been using it to reach into the mind of a comatose boy. Now police are asking her to use her skills to find a serial killer’s latest victim.
The journey into the mind is an excuse for some great-looking cinematography and special effects. There are scenes of beautiful desert cinematography with rich, bright colors. More importantly, The Cell has some of the most amazing, impressive, surreal images in any mainstream film, ever.
On the other hand, The Cell is just another cop movie. The plot is a formulaic ditty where the cop uses a beautiful woman as bait to trap the killer. It has very little to do with surrealism or desert photography.
At least in Lawrence of Arabia, the beautiful desertscapes are fully justified. In The Cell, the visuals don’t support the story; they overwhelm it. If only The Cell were better balanced, it could have been a great landmark film. Instead, it’s just another love-it-and/or-hate-it movie.