The13th Floor is a solid film about reality, consciousness and playing God. It's about what our little lives are all about, and what happens when we drive to the end of the road, and go somewhere we've never been. It is about charting new territory, and the limitations of mindsets. It is breaking through barriers to find the truth.

      It is also about the inability of the mind to accept that we may just be a figment of imagination dreamt up wholesale.

      This film is based on a book called "Simulacron-3," by Daniel F. Galouye, which I have heard of but not read. I do not personally know the faithfulness of the film to the book, but there is an excellent discussion on this in the Production Notes section of the website. In fact, the website reveals the extraordinary insight that this is a product of German origin, which is not necessarily evident from the film itself.

      A great fan of Fritz Lang's work, I am only starting to go back and look at the possible influences on this piece… lighting, moodiness, attitude, distance, futility, hope, happiness…all could have different meanings now that the origins are clear. No matter. It is what it is, and I must accept it.

     Set in the present day, 13th Floor presents a murder mystery spanning worlds, one of them a virtual world set in 1937. A genius (for which the standard is still Einstein) develops a computer tool to take consciousness into the virtual setting. He is murdered, and suspicion falls on Douglas Hall, the assistant. Douglas must enter this untested virtual world for the first time to discover what message his boss left him.

     What Douglas discovers is that the "people" in the computer world actually have a consciousness. They are real, but not by our concept of flesh and bone. And what to do about them, the girl who is strangely familiar, and his own predicament, forms the basis for this noir thriller.

     The direction is by Josef Rusnak, in his first feature. He 2nd unit directed on Godzilla. Production by Roland Emmerich, Ute Emmerich (Roland's sister), and Marco Weber. I recommend watching all of these people very closely. They are determined, and productive, and with the rest of the engine of Centropolis Entertainment, will be providing probably a tenth of the quality entertainment of the next decade. Which is saying something.

     The acting is good, but not spectacular, including a by-the-00100111001100011's detective (Dennis Haysbert). In fact, he is almost a cliché, which like the other acting, works to the point of the story quite well. Vincent D'Onofrio is very strange in his portrayal of a computer programmer and a computer programmee. He/it add a lot to the look and feel of the film.

     The sets are excellent*, and the story detailed enough to make it worthwhile seeing. It has huge production standards, courtesy of the burgeoning Centropolis Entertainment group spawned by Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin, et al. And they provide enough polish and spit to sew it all up into a nice package.

     Comparisons will be made to The Matrix, but this is nothing like it, aside from consciousness in a virtual world. It is also reminiscent of Dark City. More like that. This too is mystery/detective fused with sci-fi as a premise, not action/adventure. There are no aliens here, though the stars should probably see an alienist after this is all over. Multiple personalities on screen tend to work their way into real life, if you can believe Brazilian Soap stars.

     Enough about that.

     What is most curious about this film is that it is not a summer film. Wrongly advertised as action/adventure/sci-fi, it does not belong in the current crop of fun flicks. It is serious, and thought provoking, and interesting, but not "fun". Even the website has an entire section devoted to philosophers, no less. Find something like that on the WWW website...(and that is a kick-ass website, me droogies…) The Thirteenth Floor felt like a fall film.

      And I question the sense of the title. I am not particularly intrigued by the number 13, and it evokes more of "13 Ghosts" and the supernatural than they may realize (most of the principles are of German extraction, and it would be interesting to know if there is a cultural significance to 13 in Germany not shared here, or vice versa). Anyway I like Simulacron-3 better as a title.

      Should or shouldn't, it doesn't matter that there really are no shoulds where film audiences are concerned. The unfortunate thing is that this film will not receive its due, opening just 9 days after SW1. It will be lost completely when Austin Powers, Tarzan, South Park, the General's Daughter and WWW open, not to mention the others awaiting arrival this summer.

     Too bad.