Amazing concept. Horrid Execution.
The opening is a great mood setter. We get a mystery that in essence is not what you think it is. I'm in. And a little Kathleen Quinlan is always a good thing.
A wonderfully fresh take on a unique premise, if you buy into a couple of really bone-headed conceits.
1. How long have they lived in this house where they don't recognize they have never been in a solid 1/4 - 1/3 of the house. If you have ever walked outside your house, you know what is on the other side of all of your windows.
Sooner or later, EVERYONE explores the attic. Especially four untethered twenty somethings living together. Somebody is going to look for a quiet secret space for themselves.
I'll give them that, just to move things along, but it's pretty ludicrous. And they do try to explain it, I just don't buy the explanation.
2. How do they go in to all the DIFFERENT Alts. How do they know they are in different Alts and how would you return to a same Alts if you wanted? It looked like for a second, they were going to explain this with the angle of the mirror / John and Noel going to different places when they went in separately. They have the opportunity with the time dilution and the white board, but they don't explain it.
A point is made to show the wheels turn to angle the mirror and establish it doesn't work if straight up and down, but there are multiple angles to exploit. Is each one a different Alt?
Again, remember the color coding is for us, the audience, to keep us grounded. It does not appear to register with the characters.
3. Time Dilution make no sense. Does EVERY Alt have the exact same time dilution. That just seems like a huge ask. Because why would it? Especially since they establish each Alt has minor little differences, as evidenced by Devin's quest to find his father still alive; albeit in prison (as well as Marissa's journals detailing her search for Edward). A simple line or two could have cleared up all of this confusion.
Another way to look at it: one minute in our dimension is 3 hours (180 minutes) in the main Alt. Extrapolating that out, 1 hour is 180 hours or 7.5 days) 1 day is 180 days (6 months) and 1 month (which is mentioned) is 180 months or 15 years. That is plenty of time for our Alts to change significantly. Including moving out of the house they all live in, getting married, etc. All the things you have done in your life over the last 15 years. It's the difference between 25 and 40.
4. Money. WTF? Did they just bankrupt all of the Alts? And wouldn't that have sent up red flags everywhere. Especially over 15 years. Did they NEVER return to the same dimension twice? That would make sense of the money, but it doesn't work for Marissa's journals.
5. Kidnapped Josh. After all the lengths they go through to figure things out initially, they decide to conscript an Alt Josh, with zero due diligence, and bring him into our dimension, where they have already established things are marginally different, i.e. Ryan Gosling ad Emma Stone s Frankenstein. What could go wrong?
Anyway these are the ones just off the top of my head.
Intriguing movie. Fantastic idea. Clunky and hare-brained execution.
Why not take the time to make a few minor adjustments, a line or two of dialogue here or there to fix some of the more problematic areas?
Solid acting, solid characters, solid directing. The camera movement, lighting and color palette give the film a significant signature. It works as a engaging, cinematic experience, but fails miserably as a cohesive, well developed, intelligent story.
So many little under-developed and poorly-thought-out ideas prevent this from a being a 'you gotta see this' film (like 'Predestination' or 'Triangle') and making it an interesting, but ultimately frustrating distraction.
The opening is a great mood setter. We get a mystery that in essence is not what you think it is. I'm in. And a little Kathleen Quinlan is always a good thing.
A wonderfully fresh take on a unique premise, if you buy into a couple of really bone-headed conceits.
1. How long have they lived in this house where they don't recognize they have never been in a solid 1/4 - 1/3 of the house. If you have ever walked outside your house, you know what is on the other side of all of your windows.
Sooner or later, EVERYONE explores the attic. Especially four untethered twenty somethings living together. Somebody is going to look for a quiet secret space for themselves.
I'll give them that, just to move things along, but it's pretty ludicrous. And they do try to explain it, I just don't buy the explanation.
2. How do they go in to all the DIFFERENT Alts. How do they know they are in different Alts and how would you return to a same Alts if you wanted? It looked like for a second, they were going to explain this with the angle of the mirror / John and Noel going to different places when they went in separately. They have the opportunity with the time dilution and the white board, but they don't explain it.
A point is made to show the wheels turn to angle the mirror and establish it doesn't work if straight up and down, but there are multiple angles to exploit. Is each one a different Alt?
Again, remember the color coding is for us, the audience, to keep us grounded. It does not appear to register with the characters.
3. Time Dilution make no sense. Does EVERY Alt have the exact same time dilution. That just seems like a huge ask. Because why would it? Especially since they establish each Alt has minor little differences, as evidenced by Devin's quest to find his father still alive; albeit in prison (as well as Marissa's journals detailing her search for Edward). A simple line or two could have cleared up all of this confusion.
Another way to look at it: one minute in our dimension is 3 hours (180 minutes) in the main Alt. Extrapolating that out, 1 hour is 180 hours or 7.5 days) 1 day is 180 days (6 months) and 1 month (which is mentioned) is 180 months or 15 years. That is plenty of time for our Alts to change significantly. Including moving out of the house they all live in, getting married, etc. All the things you have done in your life over the last 15 years. It's the difference between 25 and 40.
4. Money. WTF? Did they just bankrupt all of the Alts? And wouldn't that have sent up red flags everywhere. Especially over 15 years. Did they NEVER return to the same dimension twice? That would make sense of the money, but it doesn't work for Marissa's journals.
5. Kidnapped Josh. After all the lengths they go through to figure things out initially, they decide to conscript an Alt Josh, with zero due diligence, and bring him into our dimension, where they have already established things are marginally different, i.e. Ryan Gosling ad Emma Stone s Frankenstein. What could go wrong?
Anyway these are the ones just off the top of my head.
Intriguing movie. Fantastic idea. Clunky and hare-brained execution.
Why not take the time to make a few minor adjustments, a line or two of dialogue here or there to fix some of the more problematic areas?
Solid acting, solid characters, solid directing. The camera movement, lighting and color palette give the film a significant signature. It works as a engaging, cinematic experience, but fails miserably as a cohesive, well developed, intelligent story.
So many little under-developed and poorly-thought-out ideas prevent this from a being a 'you gotta see this' film (like 'Predestination' or 'Triangle') and making it an interesting, but ultimately frustrating distraction.