Nicolas Cage has had nothing but flops lately, like “The Wicker Man,” “Next” and “Bangkok Dangerous.” His new movie, “Knowing,” finally makes it again at the top spot when it opened in the US two weeks ago.

It is an ominous numerological thriller where Cage is an MIT professor who figures out that the end of the world is near.

The movie opens with a prologue set 50 years ago. A grade school in Massachusetts buries a time capsule in their ground with the aim of opening it in 2009. Each pupil is made to submit a drawing about what they think the world will be in 50 years. Instead of drawing a picture, Lucinda Embry (Lara Robinson) writes a series of numbers on her paper. She later goes missing and is found writing more numbers on a door with her fingers.

In 2009, the capsule is opened and Lucinda’s paper goes to Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury), the son of an astrophysicist, John (Cage), who sees the paper and becomes obsessed by the numbers written on it. He correctly figures out that it’s a list of all the major disasters that happened all over the world for the past 50 years, starting with World Trade Center and 9/11. Three future cataclysms are also listed down and he consults other people to prevent them happening, but no one would believe him.

The first disaster involves the crashing of a plane on busy highway, confirming John’s hunch derived from Lucinda’s numbers as indicated in the longitude and latitude on his GPS. He is able to track down the daughter of Lucinda, Diana (Rose Byrne), whose daughter Abby (also played by Lara Robinson) proves to be a kindred spirit of John’s son. She and Caleb both hear voices whispering something to them and are visited by strange blonde men in the middle of the night who give them warnings.

“Knowing” is a disaster movie, but it’s not a simplistic one like “Waterworld,” “Deep Impact” or “Armageddon.” Actually, it delves into some serious ideas like fate, faith, predestination, prophecy, even the presence of angels. The problem is that it fails to integrate all these elements satisfyingly and does not succeed in getting the viewer fully involved in the issues that it aims to present on screen. The climax involves a Biblical allegory about the prophet Ezekiel that a lot of viewers who just go for mindless entertainment might find off putting since it posits that everything has already been scheduled, including the end of the world.

As directed by Alex Proyas (“Dark City,” “The Crow,” “I Robot”), “Knowing” starts as something mystifying and concludes as an “end of days” prophecy referred to in the Bible, which we’re sure most viewers won’t buy. He also delivers a message about families reconciling in time for such an unavoidable fatal event, like John going back to his parents from whom he’s been estranged for sometime. He’s very effective in establishing a creepy atmosphere, like the eerie presence of the blonde strangers in the woods, and also in executing the disaster sequences that feature some eye-popping special effects, notable the subway train crash in New York.

The finale also offers awesome CGI work concerning massive destruction, just like what we saw in recent “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” One problem area is the script, which failed to make most of the characters sympathetic, especially that of Diana who drives away stupidly with John’s son only to figure in a far worse fate than she expected. After we see what happens to her, instead of grieving for her, our tendency is to say: “Buti nga sa’yo, tanga!”

The acting is also nothing to be excited about. Cage is in full manic mode as the harassed astrophysicist. He gives another edgy portrayal, but his character is not fully well developed so you can’t really emphatize with him. He’s even upstaged by the cute little boy who plays his son in a number of scenes.