Watchable drivel. Completely stupid action sci-fi nonsense. A film completely based and manufactured off of a throwaway pitch that sounded “cool” but nobody progressed passed that. Yeah, on its face, it sounds simplistic and pseudo-fun, which it is, or wants to be at least. But this is an interconnected fortress built of tachyon straw and Interstellar father/daughter friction that collapses with the slightest glaring poke or logical cough.
Time travel. Ugh. Movies centering on this problematic pillar either need to be really smart with how it is used, extremely charismatic in the storytelling, or ideally, a combo of the two. TW lacks either.
A huge problem with time travel films is causation. Automatically, when you pull someone from the past into a possible future where there is no history of this past event happening, it is a separate universe and timeline. Approach it as such. These people involved are vastly different and the 2 shan’t ever fuse.
As always, this future they are in can’t happen because they had a different past, and if that past didn’t happen to create that future then that future couldn’t happen to. It is a frustrating and illogical cycle.
Open ended time travel is not a chronological river of narrative. It’s so frustrating when conceptional beginnings and ends are falsely locked in. If possible, going back would happen anytime and all the time.
Paired with this story tunnel visioning are these gaping question holes. There is no reason she couldn’t jump back and make the serum to save the world. There is no reason others wouldn’t take up her cause. Why couldn't they use the gate when they wanted or needed to? Why, other than for narrative railroading, is it on some ticking clock schedule? These are hurdles that can’t help but trip a viewer up as they struggle to “enjoy”.
These blocks might be battle through if you didn’t have so many other cognitive clogs in the story. Like so many similar films, the weakened foe gets easier and easier for plot necessity sake. I can’t stand how the foes are impervious until we need the important characters to be able to easily kill/stop them. Also, in this apocalyptic ravaged world that literally only has thousands left on it, how did they have fuel, electricity, bullets, food. Why no other weaponry attempted: germ warfare, blades, sound or light to disable - just guns because it is easy and filmable?
Of course, at the end, it will be these handful of people, with the perfect skill/knowledge sets, who happen to know each other, that make it all work. SMH. Why wouldn’t there be more people from the future with them and why are there only a few people from the future anyways? They couldn’t get anyone else to go with them to save the world? No military would assist? No war survivors? NOTHING? And this scraggly team can kill all of these things? Oy vey!
Maybe all of these problems could be overlooked or swallowed down if you had the sugar of you had the allure of acting or the dominance of dialogue. Instead, we are left wanting. If Pratt isn’t full of quippy lines or self-deprecation, he doesn’t seem to bring much of anything to the acting table here. Strahovski tries with the tears, but she is hampered by another ridiculous “I can’t reveal the plot plan because the story needs the drama” character pigeonhole.
This just isn’t very fun, very exciting, or very logical. It passes the time, but is such a whiff.
