Creating a successful time travel movie is a tough nut to crack.
First the premise that time travel actually exists must be made believable and then its rules (and there are many) must be observed. Add an engaging storyline and you have a rather large number of hurdles to clear.
With Project Almanac, director Dean Israelite cloaks his coming of age teen tale with enough silly science fiction to rival all those other teen classics like Weird Science, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Clockstoppers. It does however tick the one box that almost all time travel films fail to address, that is to go back in time and win the lottery. Nothing sooths teen angst like mad stacks.
Through its predictable plot devices and overall theme of how cool science geeks can really be, it injects non-sensible science at almost every moment that real social interaction would have proved more useful. It really is most enjoyable to watch the filmmakers address almost every teen problem with a good dose of dodgy science.
With such a shaky start and wobbly middle, works like this depend on a crowd satisfying finish to pull it all together and alas, the film’s end is the beginning finish was not the final that was needed. If time travel is ever really brought to fruition, there will be more than a few films that warrants a revisit.
Rob Hudson
www.projectalmanac.com
