Review of Paradox (2006) by Douglas M — 03 Sep 2016

There are a lot of different plot lines that can be used the driver science-fiction oriented story. One of the most popular has always been time travel. Of all the things that defined the physical universe many have been understood and controlled by man. We can defy gravity and fly and even also the very genetic makeup that defines us as a life form. The one thing we have never been able to do is enable us to move ourselves back and forth interrupting our inevitable along the unidirectional river of time. This fact is sufficiently intriguing to ensure an audiences interest in the story always gets in the way threatening to collapse the plot upon itself is the inevitable paradox. If you go back in time to shoot your grandfather, then how did you ever manage to be born and invent the time machine in the first place? There are various subcategories of time travel stories delineated by how they handle paradoxes in the context of the story. The name of the film on the consideration here unequivocally states this movie is going to play with the paradoxes to provide amusing nuances in the story. That dome is 'Paradox' the latest movie by director/writer Michael Hurst. Like many stories, particularly those of a trans-chronological nature are somewhat of an acquired taste and require an ability to overlook any internal inconsistencies and ignore the natural inclination to resist logical impossibilities. Save for discussion with friends after working have the only expectation to take into watching the expectation of having some fun. An indication that this is the correct manner to experiences film can be seen by how it is rated by any one of the many conglomerate ratings sites popular on the net. When the critics tend to handle film audience members of discovering merits this indicates something very important that you guide how you prepare yourself to watch the movie. This is a film that is not made for the critics, it was not created to be dissected and analyzed with cinematic merits. Instead it is something that fans can enjoy because they are free to just associate themselves in the overly critical part of their minds and allow themselves to be immersed in the story particularly the character development. Think of it is something that might be generated by a group of quantum telling stories around summer camp fire.

Scientists including Jim (Adam Huss) and Gale (Zoe Bell) have been working on the time machine quite a while and finally they feel they are on the precipice of success. The film may appear to begin in medias res but that, as we shortly will discover, is just an illusion which ultimately will start the plot points falling like dominoes lined up on a Mobius strip providing the justification for the title of the movie. Jim is stumbling about all the facilities the work on project 880 immediately realizes something drastically worn. Graphically he tries to call Mr. Landau (Malik Yoba), a visiting scientist invited by the project heads to justify and document the success of their hard work. Mr. Landau allows the call to go directly to voicemail thereby missing the frantic warming that Jim is trying to give him. He urges and not come to the lab this morning that if he does everyone will die. Infusing the film with a touch of slasher flick motif the person responsible for the carnage is walking around dressed entirely in a black rubber hazmat type suit with a matching black gas mask. How perspective is then pushed back in time to when the team was assembling for the trial run. Besides Jim and Gail the team includes a wheelchair-bound Lewis Aberricki (Bjørn Alexander), who is holding a small video camera and appears to be in charge of documenting the test. There is also Van Lang (Steve Suh) who is bizarrely blowing bubbles using a child's bottle and wand. Apparently he quit smoking and this relaxes him. Odd how they can create a time machine but they can't seem to figure out how a nicotine patch works. There is also the only obnoxious and self-centered William Wishman (Brian Flaccus) seems to be unfazed being part of the team to send a man through time. We are now looped around to the point that Jim is about to go through the fear created by the time machine, a dais in the middle for metallic antennae. When Jimmy emerges from the field he sees a body on the floor, decapitated the gun lying next to its dead hand. An automated voice announces "self-destruct in four minutes". Jim manages to catch up with his teammates and tries to warn those results in a rather esoteric discussion of the immutability of time and fate. Louis tries to recover the video from the camera but it only gives brief segments of their conversations. Meanwhile there are some government people trying their best to get down to the level of the facility that houses the project.

There are a number of factors infused in the construction of this movie that does set it above a substantial manner. By limiting the scope of the time jump to a single hour several of the most crucial memes are automatically folded in. the ever popular plot device of the ticking clock and the Sword of Damocles are organically created as Jim knows without doubt that in just sixty minutes his co-workers will be brutally slaughtered. Since the audience is privy to a god like point of view we have to reconcile what we know through Jim's jaunt to the very near future and what we are observing unfold from the chronological vantage of the rest of the team. This also gives us information about what is occurring to various crucial characters that will directly results in what occurs. A great part of the enjoyment derived from the multiple perspective adding to the escalating mystery.

The typical fault that adversely affects most offerings in this genre is to stick so closely to the predetermined checklist that there is no place to distinguish the movie from the plethora of others, the filmmakers here skillfully blended a slasher flick with a temporal mystery throwing in a conclusion that introduces plot points of conspiracy and a greater paradox surrounding the one faced by Jim. It would be far too much of a spoiler to allude to specifics but even if you manage to reach the correct conclusion it is the journey to the ending that will entertain you. The movie will not be included on any 'best film' list but many deserving films share the same fate. As mentioned those of us that lived before the digital age that provides a source of entertainment literally in your pocket, movie held a position of something special, away from the family television. We learned to understand that it is fine that a movie only offers a good time. This movie succeeds in just that. Apparently at this point the film is available through video on demand services including Amazon Prime and Vudu or from Canada which is still in Region 1.