Out of the chutes i loved this movie. the theme and ideas are right up my alley (accessing the secrets to life via dreams and drugs, skewing our common perception of life and general philosophical banter), but the direction that i thought this film was going got derailed and ventured into a plain that i was not really expecting. typically, you could say that being surprised is a good thing, however, for me at least, i did not completely enjoy the direction the film took (i won’t spoil this, but you will understand once you see it). regardless of the direction Altered States took, the film’s awesomely mind-tripping special effects kept me glued (especially the effects during the last scene) and finally the film ends while falling back to the original philosophical and cosmic ideas it started with.

i am currently only giving this film 3 stars (3.5 really) however, i predict with future viewings that this film will make it to the 4 star pantheon.