From August 26, 2013
SCORE: B+
A pretty neat sci-fi flick. Well acted. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has some makeup/CG work done to look slightly more like good ol’ Bruno (Bruce Willis).
I really liked the idea of crime bosses using time travel to bump people off. This movie is pretty brutal in its death scenes. People are shot down quickly and mirthlessly.
There’s some interesting things done with silence in this movie. Some scenes are calm and quiet, which magnifies the action scenes. Michael Bay should watch this movie and take notes so he will learn how to shoot an action flick, unlike ‘Transformers 2’ which is balls-to-the-wall action from start to finish. But when EVERYTHING is intense and action-packed, then NOTHING is. You need the calm, quiet moments to make the loud, action scenes mean more, sort of like how the band Foo Fighters always has calm, melodic music interspersed with hard rock. It’s the contrast that makes it great. (Did you understand that, Michael Bay?)
Early on, the main character’s friend is part of an underlying storyline about telekinetic people that you should pay attention to...
There’s a really interesting scene that happens to the character Seth, involving time travel and loss of limbs that reminded me of the people disappearing from photographs in the Back to the Future movies.
There’s a character who shows abilities similar to Jean Grey in the third ‘X:Men’ film. That’s what it most reminded me of, but I won’t say too much more than that.
