This movie gave me a new standard to which I can compare and contrast other movies. Up until I saw it, I thought Collateral Damage and John Q were total crap. After seeing this film, I realized that I was too hard on both. At least I was entertained at some time or some point in both Collateral Damage and John Q (even if for the wrong reasons---like gratuitous violence or indulgent melodrama.) I can safely say that my expressionless, catatonic face did not so much as twitch during the whole of Dragonfly.

Considering the fact that movies (once executed) are usually more entertaining than the script (with music, special effects, art-direction, etc.), I cannot imagine what anyone was thinking when they decided to do this. In the rush to crank out supernatural pictures after the Sixth Sense, I guess no one used any sense at all. (And to even compare the Sixth Sense to this is to compare the Golden Gate Bridge to a popsicle stick pencil-holder…one that comes un-glued in the sun-light.)

Other than some art film or God-awful film-class-required-viewing flick wherein you want to stab yourself thirty minutes in, I have never seen any movie where they completely forgot to put in the main and most necessary ingredient in ANY movie, book, story, script, etc.: CONFLICT. There was no CONFLICT in this film, NONE! In order to hide that, they would throw in a few loud noises and old-time cinematic effects (like re-loading the closet with clothes after they were all taken out!) Clearly, they saw the movie laying there like a turd in the road, so they ordered: "Dr. Spivey’s : How to Make a Flat Script Great, with Loud Noises" book. With it came the "Bump in the Night" kit Free! "You’ll learn how to drop lightbulbs, frighten cats, and scare a bird. Learn how to make loud noises, and even use shrill horns in the music. Learn how to startle an audience when they haven’t a care in the world."

It’s interesting also that Joe’s (Costner) dead-wife (the token spirit in this movie) expends more energy "haunting" him than a nuclear power plant generates in a week, but it’s all spent with images, knocking things over, and giving visions to children. Can’t she just leave a really scary message on the freaking answering machine. "Hello, Joe, this is your dead wife. Pick up the baby in Venezuela. Goodbye. And, oh, boo!" They could not do this because then there would be no movie….oh wait a minute, there was no movie, just a long, endless, boring collage of contrived scenes.

Why does Costner insist on playing the obsessive, flat-lined, overly-dramatic-by-being-calm-and-monotone guy that simply must do voice over narratives to express his ponderous thoughts. I think we’ve all sat through far too many to see a pattern developing here. Yes, Costner was great way back in Dances with Wolves (‘seems almost as long ago as when the Buffalo and Indians did roam the land.) I’d have thought that he would have burned up that back store of credibility long ago. What little was left should have went up like an oil refinery when he made the Postman. It seems as though we may need to have the Cinemator come from the movie-making future to put an end to this continuing violation of the senses….or else the future may turn into a litany of self-important importantless films that only seem good in Kevin Costner’s mind. Now that’s spooky!