Release Date: 02/28/2014
Update: The Release Date is now uncertain
Update: The Release Date is now uncertain
A group of teens discover secret plans of a time machine, and construct one. However, things start to get out of control.
| Best Case Scenario:  | Worst Case Scenario:  |
When the trailer chooses women in bikinis getting wet for a movie ostensibly about time travel, you know you're going to get a serious, harrowing tale about actions and consequences. Once you see "from producer Michael Bay", you know you're getting a moving story about kids who really just want to do the right thing while their lives spiral out of control. Just kidding. You're going to get 40% Butterfly Effect, 40% Primer for dummies, and 20% Knowing, that offers nothing original and grossly misunderstands and simplifies how time travel would work, while breaking even its own rules.
The mark of a bad movie is when there are so many plot holes and poorly conceived writing that the trailer can't help but slip a few in. The main character realizes time travel must be possible because he sees a video of a birthday party when he was younger, yet present-day him can be seen in the background! This is actually in keeping with a prevailing theory of time travel (I will try to avoid delving too far into this, lest I reveal how little I actually know, or maybe I already have) that says that we are living in the end result of all of the, if any, changes time travelers have made to the past. So the idea of time travel gets put in his head solely by video evidence that shows he created it. But how would he have created without the idea being put in his head first? Some movies that deal with time travel use this as a philosophical jumping off point for making you think about predetermination (The Time Traveller's Wife comes to mind). This movie looks like it hasn't even realized what it's done before tossing the idea aside, like a toddler tired of their toy and eager to move on to the next.
Then we get to the real gem: the drawing on the neck. You just showed me, literally one minute ago, a video tape showing the main character in the past! He didn't invent time travel and then fade into the video Back to the Future-style once he was at his birthday! Even if the movie just plays by its own rules, the smiley face would've been on his neck the minute he woke up that morning, not appearing like an etch-a-sketch drawing the night they go back in time and draw it. Now that the movie's shown that's it's completely off the reservation for following any rules of time travel, it actually gives itself a bigger plot hole. If they want to avoid ever creating time travel, isn't it pretty darn easy for him to just not jump back to his birthday party? He never gets the idea for it; problem solved. The fact that this movie couldn't splice together a couple minutes of footage without tripping on itself is hardly a good sign for its entertainment value once it's actually asked to do this for a couple hours. Most movies take their entire run-time to screw up this badly, so unless this is some sort of Cliff's Notes version of their inadequacies, I'd expect the finished product to be infuriating.
They don't talk about the main character's dad much in the trailer, but I'm guessing the big reveal at the end is that the dad died trying to undo his work and one of them will have to make the same sacrifice. This sort of contrived sci-fi plot has been to death before and almost seems like a foregone conclusion to be in a stinkbomb like this. Frankly, I've sort of written myself into a corner here, because I've made it sound like a best-case scenario of 2.5 stars is indefensible, but I could see the movie playing so fast and loose and having enough unintentional laughs (like its progenitor The Butterfly Effect) to scrape by on entertainment value. I won't be holding my breath though, and my true guess is much closer to the worst-case scenario.
The mark of a bad movie is when there are so many plot holes and poorly conceived writing that the trailer can't help but slip a few in. The main character realizes time travel must be possible because he sees a video of a birthday party when he was younger, yet present-day him can be seen in the background! This is actually in keeping with a prevailing theory of time travel (I will try to avoid delving too far into this, lest I reveal how little I actually know, or maybe I already have) that says that we are living in the end result of all of the, if any, changes time travelers have made to the past. So the idea of time travel gets put in his head solely by video evidence that shows he created it. But how would he have created without the idea being put in his head first? Some movies that deal with time travel use this as a philosophical jumping off point for making you think about predetermination (The Time Traveller's Wife comes to mind). This movie looks like it hasn't even realized what it's done before tossing the idea aside, like a toddler tired of their toy and eager to move on to the next.
Then we get to the real gem: the drawing on the neck. You just showed me, literally one minute ago, a video tape showing the main character in the past! He didn't invent time travel and then fade into the video Back to the Future-style once he was at his birthday! Even if the movie just plays by its own rules, the smiley face would've been on his neck the minute he woke up that morning, not appearing like an etch-a-sketch drawing the night they go back in time and draw it. Now that the movie's shown that's it's completely off the reservation for following any rules of time travel, it actually gives itself a bigger plot hole. If they want to avoid ever creating time travel, isn't it pretty darn easy for him to just not jump back to his birthday party? He never gets the idea for it; problem solved. The fact that this movie couldn't splice together a couple minutes of footage without tripping on itself is hardly a good sign for its entertainment value once it's actually asked to do this for a couple hours. Most movies take their entire run-time to screw up this badly, so unless this is some sort of Cliff's Notes version of their inadequacies, I'd expect the finished product to be infuriating.
They don't talk about the main character's dad much in the trailer, but I'm guessing the big reveal at the end is that the dad died trying to undo his work and one of them will have to make the same sacrifice. This sort of contrived sci-fi plot has been to death before and almost seems like a foregone conclusion to be in a stinkbomb like this. Frankly, I've sort of written myself into a corner here, because I've made it sound like a best-case scenario of 2.5 stars is indefensible, but I could see the movie playing so fast and loose and having enough unintentional laughs (like its progenitor The Butterfly Effect) to scrape by on entertainment value. I won't be holding my breath though, and my true guess is much closer to the worst-case scenario.
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