Review: ‘Project Almanac’ not a great sci-fi film
Synopsis: After finding an old family video that seems to show something impossible, David and a group of high school friends decide to find the truth in the video. This ends up leading them to David’s father’s workshop and a prototype time machine hidden in the basement.
David and his group of friends finish building what his father had started before he died. After testing multiple times, they finally attempt their first jump. After successfully time-traveling the group starts to have fun with it but soon they realize just how dangerous time travel can be.
“Project Almanac” was an enjoyable film, but pacing issues along with a mediocre plot really hold it back from becoming a great science fiction film. We really enjoyed the concept of the film and wish they could have spent more time exploring the effects of time travel. This movie did a fantastic job making time travel look like it was truly feasible and the special effects looked very realistic, lending itself well to the found-footage theme of this film. Unfortunately the director, Dean Israelite did a poor job of controlling the pacing and we felt that he dragged out the character development part of the story a little too much, which caused us to become bored with the characters and unable to get invested in them.
Our main complaint with this film, though, was when the movie went into super-handheld mode. This is when the camera movements get extremely shaky. The motion sickness caused by the shaky camera work really detracted from the overall production. About a third of the film is this way, making it really hard to watch.
What worked: The concept of the film is what sold us on going to this movie. As huge science fiction fans we were really intrigued by the premise and wanted to see whether the film was going to do anything new with time travel. We still really enjoyed that aspect of the film. But our favorite part of the film was by far the special effects. It always impresses us when a hand-held, found-footage film is able to execute special effects to look realistic, and the filmmakers did an excellent job of that.
What didn’t work: We felt the biggest problem with this film was the pacing. This movie sold us on time travel but it takes over an hour before they first attempt it. This caused us to become a little bored and made it hard to focus on the story and characters. The movie was an hour and 45 minutes and only about half an hour was dedicated to time travel, including the climax. We also felt that the climax was rushed, especially after they spent so much time building up to it. But just as things started to get interesting, the movie was over.
Despite the motion sickness and lack of action-filled moments, this movie is still worth viewing if you are a science fiction fan, but we recommend waiting to view it at home. We give this time-travel flick a 6 out of 10.
Nate Gomes and Dylan McMullen are friends and co-workers who have worked as local television videographers, producers and editors for more than seven years. If you have any questions or comments about their movie reviews, you can contact them through email at watchmenmoviereviews@gmail.com.
Project Almanac
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Sam Lerner, Allen Evangelista, Virginia Gardner
Director: Dean Israelite
This story was originally published February 12, 2015 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Review: ‘Project Almanac’ not a great sci-fi film."