Sorry, Noel - the reason "why this misses the mark for so many people" isn't any of the clever reasons you give - it's because, quite simply, the film is unadulterated crap. A waste of some of the finest talents Hollywood has to offer. And a waste of the evening I spent watching it when I hired it out on DVD, misled by comments like yours that I would find more in it that met the eye of the mainstream media reviewers who originally gave it the thumbs down. The film tries to be very clever by concealing from you what is really going on, and does this so well (or badly, depending on your perspective) that you are well into it before you realise that, in fact, nothing is going on at all.