Typing doesn’t lend itself to dramatic scenes, nor do hackers make great movie heroes, if they only sit by the lime-green glow of a pulsating monitor. Sena attempts to pump life into passive moments by having his hero dance to a jittery techno soundtrack while forging through cyberspace. Other scenes that make little sense include a murder through a two-way mirror and a customary car chase with nary a traffic ticket. The script, patched together from hashed-over movie plots, sends a mixed message.

None of the characters are developed beyond a two-dimensional crutch (Gabriel tends to drone on about movies and Ginger always nibbles Twizzlers). Where do women fit in this world of computer-worshipping moguls? Hale Berry doesn’t do much more than appear topless. To entice her into baring her breasts, the filmmakers offered an avalanche of cash. (Sources differ on the exact amount, but she landed somewhere between $500,000 and $1,000,000 as an add-on to her base salary for the nudity, which seems like an awful lot of money to dish out for a few seconds of cleavage.)

Gabriel talks a lot about the "haves" and the "have-nots" (need we guess which category he belongs to?) and the rights of individuals versus the masses. He asks Stanley if he would forfeit the life of one child to save a larger number of people. Stanley replies that nobody has the right to make that choice. In this Darwinian logic, Gabriel is top dog and Stanley, the ordinary man in a ratty T-shirt, seems more like an opposing force than a hero. It’s the classic case of villains stealing the show from less interesting protagonists. In this case, the filmmakers let the bad guys get away with murder…literally. Who cares about the faceless people who suffer in Gabriel’s chain of explosions? To make sure we get enough bang for our bucks, Sena films the blasts in Matrix-style slow motion from multiple angles, depicting banged-up cars and body parts in mid-flight. What’s the point of all this effects-laden razzle dazzle? If we take pleasure in viewing it, does this make us as monstrous as Gabriel? Should we cheer when the businessmen inside a skyscraper get blown to smithereens, just when they’re about to launch a new ad campaign…perhaps for a film not unlike the one we’re watching?