“TheAdjustment Bureau” opened March 4, 2011 to mostly positive reviews from critics, but does it really deserve them?

The movie trailer leaves people to think it will be full of science-fiction action, as Matt Damon (The Bourne Series) tries to reunite with a girl he loves, and a team of men from a secret agency do everything in their power to keep that from happening.

In order to enjoy “The Adjustment Bureau,” one can’t look at it through the lens of science fiction. Instead, one must look at it through the lens of a romance story between Matt Damon’s character and his love interest, played by Emily Blunt.

Blunt’s character, whose name is Elise, is a spontaneous ballet dancer that happens to run into Damon’s character, whose name is David, one night while he is badly losing a senate election.

She inspires him to write a speech that allows him to become a powerful contender in the following senate race.

Right after he meets her though, she runs away. As chance would have it though, he sees her on the bus the next morning, and she gives him her number.

After David gets off the bus and makes it to work, he finds all his coworkers frozen and a strange group of men in suits and fedoras using some odd equipment on his friend and co-worker.

David tries to escape the building when the men chase after him, only to find they are doing things no normal human can do, like go through a door on one floor and appear on an entirely different floor.

They eventually capture David and take him to an empty garage, where he is told about the group of men. They monitor humans and make sure that everything goes according to “the plan.”

No details are given about “the plan,” except for the fact that it is written by the man in charge of the group known as “The Chairman.”

They let David go on two conditions. First, he cannot be with Elise (they take the business card she wrote her number on and burn it), and second, if he ever exposes the secret organization, they will do a “master reset” on him erasing his memories, changing his emotions, and pretty much lobotomizing him.

David eventually gets help from one of the men who works for the Adjustment Bureau, a friendly African American man named Harry (played by Anthony Mackie), who tells him more about the bureau.

Now, the rest of the movie is David trying to reunite with Elise and stay with her.

The bureau however, tries to stop him at every turn, even playing dirty to “adjust” his life to be in accordance with the plan.

This movie certainly has science fiction elements in that the Adjustment Bureau can do some pretty amazing things, but the plot revolves around David trying to be with Elise.

If the movie were about David trying to take down the bureau, then it could be more of a science fiction and action type movie, but that isn’t the story here.

As it stands though, it’s essentially a romance thriller, and that isn’t a bad thing.

While its refreshing to see Elise as a spontaneous ballet dancer, she really is kind of flat as a character. She doesn’t change very much through the movie.

The villain of the movie, a worker for the bureau named “Thompson” (played by Terence Stamp), is cold, but not the good kind of cold where the audience can see his past and sympathize with why he is the way he is.

One could argue that he isn’t much of a villain, since he is just doing what he is ordered to do, but he still tries his best to tear David and Elise apart.

It’s a good thing the film has romance to fall back on, because the action, while occasionally thought provoking, can be somewhat silly at times.

David learns from Harry that the Adjustment Bureau workers always have to have their hats on, or they can’t use their ability to travel through doors to completely different locations. At one point, David remarks, “What if I just knock his hat off?”

The audience essentially asks the same question, “Yes, why don’t you just do that?”

Another reason that this movie isn’t an “action flick” is because there is no fighting of any kind.

The entire movie is David running from the bureau, trying to get to Elise.

Again, that isn’t a bad thing. While the movie has it’s silly lapses in logic that make the audience question the seriousness of the film, there is one key element to the movie that makes it a success and that is: Matt Damon.

His performance is stunning in “The Adjustment Bureau.” As his character changes through the movie, working to be with Elise, the audience resonates with his inability to give up on her and in turn seeks the satisfaction of David’s success.

Harry is another character that helps to make the film. Though he works for the bureau, he helps David and sort of becomes his “guardian angel.”

So while some characters are flat and the logic can be a little screwy at times, Matt Damon works a miracle and ultimately saves “The Adjustment Bureau.”

Averaging all of this together, “The Adjustment Bureau” gets a 7.5/10.