THIS MOVIE WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS….I REPEAT, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS
You can thank me some day.
Chris Johnson has the power to see two minutes into the future, or at least his own future. That is, until he "see's" beautiful Jessica Biel in one of his visions, taking place days or perhaps only hours into the future. So, twice a day he hangs out at this small restaurant in Las Vegas, waiting for her to walk in the door.
Between times, he does a mediocre job as a stage magician in a downtown Vegas nightclub. And he also spends time gambling. Which really works well for him since he can see the future. Works well until he foils a robbery, which leads into the first action scene which we have seen a hundred times in the trailers. Which made it unexciting, since there was no suspense, as we knew what was going to happen.
Which leads us into the main plot, once more something we are all already aware of from the trailers, terrorists have planted a Nuke in Los Angeles, and the F.B.I. in the form of always beautiful Julianne Moore feel that Chris's talent would be invaluable in tracking it down. The problem is, Chris is also being tracked by the terrorists who planted the bomb. So, Chris decides to run but not before he tries once more to meet Jessica Biel and this time he hits the jackpot. In she walks, being stalked by an abusive ex-boyfriend. Now comes one of the funnier moments in the film, with Chris able to see the future watching every possible move he could make on her fail before he hits the right one to make her willing to take a chance on him.
The next few minutes deal with Chris and Liz (Biel) getting to know each other on a ride to Flagstaff, and being forced to stay in a motel for the night because of a rainstorm. Chris wins points by sleeping in the car, Liz wins points by getting out of bed in her underwear.
Which is, by the way, about her only job in this movie; to look good and be eye-candy. That's it. Her character offers virtually nothing else, as Johnson could have had almost the same stuff with any other character. There was no chemistry between Biel and Cage and even with Cage using his patented 'one look on his face that always works' style, even he could not make me believe he had an interest in this woman. I think he had more of a connection with Moore's F.B.I. character.
The next morning, Chris and Liz wind up in bed. Wow, that was a shock. I didn't see that coming. Afterward, lying in the afterglow, Liz says "Maybe there is such a thing as Destiny" referencing a comment Chris had made the day before.
This leads into the other exciting scenes we saw already in all the trailers, the terrorists shooting at him, an avalanche, him breaking off into a dozen different Chris Johnson beings to track down the terrorists on a ship, and finally the nuclear explosion.
NOW FOR THE SPOILER…. You Ready? Don't Read Further if you don't want to know the ending. I mean it, I am fixing to spoil the entire film. SPOILER….SPOILER….SPOILER…. SPOILER….SPOILER….SPOILER….
They are apparently at ground zero of the explosion. You know what that means for human beings. Dead, zip, gone, blasted.

But this is when Chris WAKES UP FROM HIS FRIGGIN' VISION.
That's right, the whole film is one of his "I can't see more then two minutes into the future but I can when I am with Liz" visions and he is still in the motel with Liz, lying in bed. The film ends with Chris calling the F.B.I. and telling them he will work for them.
I actually stood up as the credits started and said, "You have got to be S*&(**^& me!" All around me, people in the audience were saying pretty much the same thing.
Now, don't get me wrong. This is a great way to end a story like this. In a book, or a Comic or even a TV show. But if I had to pay between $7 and $10 for a ticket to see this I would be completely ticked off. This is what I call a 'non-ending.' Sure, we could have Next 2, but do we really want one? Not unless they can come up with something more then just showing me the same things I saw in the trailers, I don't.
Now, Philip K. Dick is an incredible writer. And the short story that Next is taken from is one of his better works in my opinion. However, Next has very little to do with that story, The Golden Man. In that story, we have a time somewhere after a Nuclear War in which mutants have been born and are being hunted down by the normal people. Chris Johnson here can only see about a half an hour and is irresistible to women. And by the way, is GOLD.
Why does Hollywood feel it necessary to turn even the smallest decent story into a bad car chase film? This movie would have been well done had they stuck to the original story and not butchered it by making it palatable. Or pabulum in my opinion. The original Golden Man story dealt with racism, social priorities and the discussion of just what made a human being.
Next just deals with nothing. Wait for the DVD. Crap, no; just watch it on cable in a few months. That way you won't be out anything.