Project Almanac

January 30, 20155 min

We have learned a lot about time travel from movies. Those things we have learned are never try and change things that have already happened, and the thing most people want to do if they could go back in time is kill Hitler. The question you should ask your self as you read this, is what would you do if you could travel in time? Would you use it for monetary gain, or would you go back and relive a moment differently? With so many endless possibilities it really could be a conversation you have with your friends all night.

“Project Almanac” is the latest time travel movie to make its way to the theater. David (Jonny Weston) is a pretty smart kid. He just got into M.I.T with the help from his friends Quinn (Sam Lerner) and Adam (Allen Evangelista) and his sister Christina (Virginia Gardner), who films everything. While David got into M.I.T, he did not get a scholarship, so his mother must sell their house so David can go to school. David does not want that to happen, and while going through his father’s things, finds a camera with his seventh birthday recorded on it, and what he sees on it will change everything. It seems David is on the tape, not seven-year-old David, but David from now, in other words it seems David has time traveled. Blown away with what they have seen, they find something in David’s father’s basement, and together with his friends, David builds a time machine. They start small, things like going back and retaking a test, and make their way up to winning the lottery, but the more they travel in time, the more things change when they get back. In the end David must make a decision and in this case time doesn’t seem to be on his side.

It would be easy to say “Project Almanac” is just another found footage film, but that would be wrong. While there are a few “no way this was filmed with a camcorder” moments, you know edits and can’t forget those music montages, all it begs to ask is how it would have worked being filmed conventionally. With all that said though “Project Almanac” most of the time is a pretty entertaining film. Watching them solve their everyday problems instead of doing some grand and amazing thing, feels more in tune with what most people would do if they could travel in time. The story written by Andrew Dautschman and Jason Pagan, feels like a fresh approach to the whole time travel idea. Where the movie does falter is in the time logic (or movie logic), which makes the film feel longer than it really is. While “Project Almanac” is not going to rewrite the found footage world, it has joined the small list of entertaining ones. I won’t be telling you to run out and see this movie, but if you are going to the theaters anytime soon, you could do a lot worst than this one.

 

Brian Taylor

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