This weekend, Elquinjena and I saw “Project Almanac” – there were good points and bad points, here’s my take (spoilers, duh)
A group of teens discover secret plans of a time machine, and construct one. However, things start to get out of control.
That short summary from IMDB doesn’t do this movie justice. Although I am thoroughly sick of “Found Footage” movies, this was actually pretty good with only a few flaws that I can see in the overall picture.
Really, this is what “The Butterfly Effect” should have been (10 years ago). School friends, with a far greater understanding of physics and engineering then they Should have, find blueprints and notes on how to build a time machine. Everything starts off OK, until our main character, David, realizes that he blew it with the girl of his dreams – and tries to go back and fix it. In order to do this, he jumps back in time.. into a time line they’re already altering.. As soon as I saw this, I knew it was going to blow up in his face.
So, they go back in time..
- Win the lottery (but not the jackpot, due to illegible handwriting)
- Spend 9 hours at Lollapalooza 2013 (great time, but blows his chance with a girl)
- Get revenge on some bullies
- Pass a science test
This is all well and good, until David goes back to Lollapalooza, to make things right with the girl. He gets the girl, comes back and there’s a lot of changes. And not for the better.
Now, there’s a lot of similarities between Project Almanac and The Butterfly Effect – most directly being, trying to set things right, but not accepting that some times, you cant have the big happy ending. So, multiple jumps back in time, crossing timelines, all in the effort to keep his girlfriend, and putting things back to normal.. ends up being an exponential disaster. Until you realize that you really shouldn’t have started this journey in the first place.
The only scene I had an issue with, was the ending. In the end, he goes back in time and prevents the time machine from being discovered. His friends can’t find it, therefore, no problems.. except.. the find the camera he brought back in time to prevent the machine from being discovered. If he were successful, then the camera shouldn’t be there, because he never had a reason, nor the means, to go back in time to begin with.. Paradox.
You can not go back in time and prevent yourself from doing something that would lead you to go back in time and prevent yourself from doing something that would lead you to go back in time and prevent yourself from doing something that would lead you to go back in time and prevent yourself from doing something that would lead you to go back in time and prevent yourself from doing something that would lead you to go back in time and prevent yourself from doing something that would lead you to go back in time and prevent yourself from doing something that would lead you to go back in time and prevent yourself from doing something that would lead you to go back in time and prevent yourself from doing something that would lead you to go back in time and prevent yourself from doing something that would lead you to go back in time and prevent yourself from doing something that would lead you to go back in time and prevent yourself from doing something that would lead you to go back in time… See how that works??
