Time-Travel Movie Reviews: "Project Almanac" (2014)

Blurb from IMDB: "A group of teens discover secret plans of a time machine, and construct one. However, things start to get out of control."

Apparently, as long as you stand real close, you get to come along for the ride. 

(Spoiler alert)

So, this flick was pretty light on any serious time-travel (TT) science (there is a mention of using hydrogen as a fuel, and other gimmicky natural laws, but the device already exists, and just needs to be assembled). But even if while the film does nothing to further our understanding of TT science, it still has some notable features, just on the paradox of TT.

Rules-based travel: There is a tendency in a lot of TT films to wrestle with time travel as the possibility of altering past events so that one in effect tailors later effects. This film is no exception. But what is important here is that the rules are composed early on, and only when they are broken does trouble arise; as if the kids could have anticipated every mishap before doing anything of significance. The author thus steps into the screen when he signals that once the rules are broken (which we knew they would be), this change of events turns out to come with grave consequences.

I still enjoyed much of the narrative, even though nothing about the breaking of the rules is an obvious cause of the consequences later traced back to the travel (except that the travellers know that their world has been changed, and that this is impacting the lives of those people around them in increasingly negative ways). For example, David Raskin breaks a "cardinal rule" (which he himself composed) to return to a concert and kiss the girl he almost lost. The result? A major plane crash, forest fires in Brazil, and the school's team loses the big game. To be honest, the cause-effect relation seems to be handled pretty loosely.

At times, very Groundhog's Day.

They also toy with the whole doppelganger paradox, questioning whether or not it is possible for two copies of the same person can exist in the same Timespace continuum. Sadly, the author does not give us anything other than a cliche "it's ok as long as they don't see each other" scenario, which suggests that somehow, human psyches are elemental and cancel each other out if conscious awareness of this fact arises.

The movie manages to remain interesting all the same, suggesting that repeat of an event inexorable alters things, so that there is never any genuine "going back". The past, even in time-travel, somehow remains the past. There is also a constant exhilarating fear of meddling with time, and at once an irresistible urge to do so anyways. If this film did anything to break the mold, it has to be in the final scene, where it becomes evident that all the damage done isn't enough to stop the mad scientist from trying once again to change the world. This film seems fairly critical of the usual "once burned, twice shy," lesson about time travel.

"I keep thinking I can just go back by myself, and fix everything, I don't have to worry about anyone else."
~David Raskin