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DokBrowne [ 6.5 ]
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Overlooking a number of reasons to dislike this - the rampant cheating of the found footage gimmick (this might be the least faithful entry in that genre to date, with its constant edits, musical montages, and alternate views from different cameras), the one-note characters all around, the uneasy mid-film plug of Imagine Dragons, the soulless Platinum Dunes sheen (yes, even amidst the bargain production-values of the found footage excuse, there's a very synthetic Michael Bay gloss all over this), and the lazy script (even if you've only seen the minimum of cinematic time travel escapades, you'll be expecting the handy pattern, and boy howdy does it deliver that and nothing else: protagonist stumbling upon a way to affect time, then soon indulging in the spoils of his new creation, gradually losing sight of the consequences, getting too complacent with his powers to the point of irresponsibility, things getting out of hand, a mess made of the timelines, a final desperate attempt to restore normalcy while at his nadir, possibly being chased by the cops, just barely escaping the chaos and returning to the way things were in the beginning, possibly with a poignant twist about everyone's memory being erased...I realize this isn't the formula for all time travel movies, but halfway through writing that it occurred to me that "Project Almanac" is "Mr. Destiny" with a time machine instead of a Michael Caine bartender angel) - there's still some enjoyment you can squeeze out of this junior-league time travel tale. The actors aren't out of this world or anything, but they're basically appealing, and it's initially a bit engaging to watch their trial and error in modifying the machine. The trips back cover a checklist of understandable teenage wish fulfillments, like getting revenge on bullies, sneaking a second chance with the girl you like, backstage passes to Coachella, winning the lottery, fixing your family's problems, etc. And there's some real emotional potential to the subplot about the main kid going back to confront the father he lost at a young age....
But that's the problem: most of the potential here is shrugged off. The writers and director act like aiming for the minimum quality range was good enough, and called it a day with a decent film that doesn't go anywhere, really. It adequately executes everything its own trailer promised, but that's all. My fondness for time travel stories compels me to rate this 3 stars but it probably deserves 2 on a more objective scale.
The payoff with the father/son backstory is unsatisfying, the conflict between the kid and his girlfriend is tiresomely contrived, the time machine's possibilities are scantily explored, and there are some pretty big unexplainable goofs, even more than the usual brain-melting time travel paradoxes. And let's not even bother trying to guess at what the closing "we're gonna change the world" line means, because I'm sure the brain trust behind the movie didn't either. It just sounded like an exciting way to leave the story in an ellipsis. The movie presents it as an optimistic send-off, like maybe they're going to accomplish great things or at least aim higher than they did the first time now that they've seen what could happen, yet the whole rest of the movie is a nagging, Doc Brown-esque indictment of trying to play God, so it probably would've made more sense (and been way more memorable) if this ending had some implied ominousness, like here we go again, how sad and dark that they're probably caught in an eternal loop of discovering, abusing, then re-setting a time machine. But then the studio executives surely don't want to release a movie with an ending that bleak to the teen audience they have no respect for, so here's the generic version instead.
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| Weighted Rating | : 6.7 |
| No. Ratings | : 1 | |
| No. Reviews | : 1 | |
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