Review of Project Almanac (2015) by Laura S — 01 Mar 2015

In the interests of objectivity, I must admit that I didn't have high hopes walking into this film, with only the knowledge that at best this was going to be a modern interpretation of the adolescent time travel genre.But by about two minutes in I?d been hit with the discovery that this was a film created by MTV and Michael Bay, using the hashed out ?shaky hidden cam? method of filming and. And by half way through the film I was attempting to distract myself with fantasies of my own iPhone and hydrogen (really?) controlled time machine that could take me an hour back to shred my cinema ticket- which is a realistic fantasy as the device this film centers around doesn?t seem able to go back in time much further than this.

For those who are invested in the time travel genre, this film begins with the usual promise for an interesting foray into the complexities of changing the past. Both in the technical issues of the butterfly affect, and on an emotional level as characters begin to craft relationships as fragile as the realities they move between. The film however struggles to flesh this out in an interesting or original way. While getting back at high school bullies or winning the lottery are rewarding enough to watch, the main bulk of ?time travel? that acts as the second act of this film revolves around a music festival that happened just three weeks before the machine is created. From this point the film continues to descend into a rushed ending, were the writers seem to throw away every chance of redeeming with any kind of interest.