Review of Millennium (1989) by Tonygreen — 21 Sep 2021

The Good: A really cool concept (spoilers below), and the exposition is not overdone. The plot and pacing actually mostly works. The dialogue works for the most part, despite shoving in a few cliches and cheesy groaners. Kristofferson gives a great laconic performance in the leading male role. He was about 53 at the time the film was made, but looks more like he's 65, which may or may not a good thing. Certainly his character is quite a bit older than Cheryl Ladd, his romantic counterpart. Daniel J. Travanti as the somewhat creepy and enigmatic professor is also really great. The film has a very old Hollywood sensibility. The romantic plot is not superfluous sub-plot; it is central to the main plot. It's refreshing to see a couple of older actors as the romantic leads. It is unapolagetically a B-movie / extended Twilight Zone episode, and never really pretends otherwise.

The first 30 minutes or so promise to turn into a real hidden gem of a film until the budgetary constraints let it down...

The Bad:

Suffers from the curse of Sci-Fi being both expensive to make and a gamble financially. The Video effects are actually pretty good, the practical effects and prosthetics, costume etc. less so. They try to do too much with too little budget.

There is not a lot of chemistry between the leads, and the basis for the relationship isn't really explained beyond a satisfying sexual encounter. Which really isn't conveyed with any real eroticism either.

SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?

Yes, overall. It's different and fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously. And with a better budget and perhaps without the romantic elements could have been a really great Time Travel / Sci-Fi flick.

*************** SPOILERS FOLLOW ***************************.

I really like that there are no actual villains in the whole movie - scary looking characters for sure, but the real antagonist is just the situation.

A dying humanity in the year circa 3000 AD are infertile and dying, and must "abduct" healthy humans from the past using a time portal. To avoid the old time travel paradox - The "Grandfather Paradox" they abduct people on airliners from the 20th century moments before a catastrophic air crash. They were going to die anyway, and by using *technology* the operatives / "air hostesses" replace the passengers with exact (non living) replica bodies. And the saved / abducted passengers have another chance at life, albeit in a pretty **** future world.

As for the ambiguous ending, which I liked, my interpretation is that the viable humans restart in a separate timeline. Or perhaps they are projected eons into the future, into a world that has healed itself from humanity's excesses and is fit for life again.