Project AlmanacIf I were to begin to describe Project Almanac exclusively by pointing out the ingredients that went into its recipe, I might start by observing that the movie was produced in part by MTV Films, that the movie claims to be of the "found footage" variety, and that the movie was produced in part by Michael Bay. With this kind of pedigree and knowledge base, you might guess what you're in for...and the truth is, you'd be right. It's easy to throw around words like "superficial" and "derivative", puffing up one's chest and pointing out how juvenile Project Almanac is like some "YouTube Roger Ebert". I'm not saying that the movie isn't these things, but let's look at it a little deeper to see what makes it so...just for shiggles.
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The basic plot of Project Almanac is one of time travel--specifically, high school whiz kid David Raskin (Jonny Weston) is struggling to finance his admission to MIT, and stumbles across his dad's proto-time machine in the basement and gets it working, sort of. David doesn't embark on his journey into the fourth dimension alone--he recruits his two nerdy buddies, his sister, and ultimately Jessie Pierce (Sofia Black D'Elia), a cute girl from school David's crushing on to help him build a working model, which conveniently fits into a sporty backpack. From the beginning of his video submission to MIT to the end of the film, the story is presented from the point of view of a persistent video camera, archiving the chronicle of David's scientific discovery--or at least standing on the shoulders of his dad's efforts. But David and company are high school kids, preoccupied with parties and members of the opposite sex, and their approach to time travel is that of a power fantasy, with the kinds of perils and pitfalls which come with it, as well as the excess. (But don't be too concerned, parents, it's still PG-13, somehow.) David and his friends may be dorky nerds (by MTV standards, such as they are), but it's hard to consider David's problems particularly noteworthy. While he is accepted to MIT, it is for a "measly" five thousand dollar scholarship, and his mom considers selling their house in their affluent suburb to pay for his school. Even David's school itself hardly looks to be the kind of institution financially on the ropes. Yeah, sure, education's important, but it's pretty hard to relate to David's "first-world" problems at large, or anyone else's in the movie. Oh, yeah, it's a time travel movie--got distracted by all the Dawson's Creek and Lollapalooza (that actually happens here, by the way, not just being sardonic)...My So-Called Flux Capacitor. There is a brief portion near the end where an allusion is made to the dependence on hydrogen to power the machine, a kind of heavy-handed "science as a drug" metaphor which I suppose someone thought was important to shoehorn into the flick.
Project Almanac's approach to a time travel movie is cobbled together from a smattering of other (better) time travel movies. About fifteen minutes into this movie, I had flashbacks to another film about a group of young professionals who work on a scientific invention on the ultra-cheap, which two of them accidentally develop into a time machine: this movie is called Primer by Shane Carruth, and I heartily recommend looking it up if you can find an affordable copy. Before I saw Project Almanac, I read a review online--not a particularly flattering review, but I can understand why--which compared the film to other films of the "found footage" style, intimating that the approach was passe since the days of The Blair Witch Project. While I agree that it, like any stylistic choice, is best used sparingly and when appropriate, I do find it hard to describe Project Almanac without referring to other films--not because it is an homage, but because in someways, it steals whole-cloth from them. While "plagarizing" is too strong a word, there are moments when characters confront their past selves, only to experience a kind of dissolving and paradoxical effect which anyone familiar with the Back to the Future films will immediately recognize by what Project Almanac is aping. Even the characters in the film are conscious of the filmic similarities, referencing movies like Looper and "Terminators One through Four". And while the film is banking on the found footage approach to give it something--tension, perhaps, I can't be sure--it is inconsistent on so many levels, I often found myself asking questions like, "who exactly is holding the camera" and "how on Earth did they manage to have live music remain continuous without a break when switching cameras". Either David is an even better film editor than he is a space-time engineer, or something fishy is afoot--I'm betting on the latter, though. It's very clear that Project Almanac is intended for younger audiences--the "selfie" generation, if you will--but it is a shame that it doesn't have a more original message or even a better way of saying it; I suppose all teens go through the motions the generation before them did, before they themselves knew better. When I started this site, I wanted to avoid delivering reviews, but again, I find it hard to avoid pointing out that for audiences familiar with other time travel movies, well...I can think of two hours or so they might wish they could go back to reclaim if they could.
Recommended for: Fans of superficial and derivative (there, happy now?) movies about time travelling teens, where high school parties happen in the streets, and the rock concerts look just like amateur MTV music videos--I'm sure they're out there.
Project Almanac's approach to a time travel movie is cobbled together from a smattering of other (better) time travel movies. About fifteen minutes into this movie, I had flashbacks to another film about a group of young professionals who work on a scientific invention on the ultra-cheap, which two of them accidentally develop into a time machine: this movie is called Primer by Shane Carruth, and I heartily recommend looking it up if you can find an affordable copy. Before I saw Project Almanac, I read a review online--not a particularly flattering review, but I can understand why--which compared the film to other films of the "found footage" style, intimating that the approach was passe since the days of The Blair Witch Project. While I agree that it, like any stylistic choice, is best used sparingly and when appropriate, I do find it hard to describe Project Almanac without referring to other films--not because it is an homage, but because in someways, it steals whole-cloth from them. While "plagarizing" is too strong a word, there are moments when characters confront their past selves, only to experience a kind of dissolving and paradoxical effect which anyone familiar with the Back to the Future films will immediately recognize by what Project Almanac is aping. Even the characters in the film are conscious of the filmic similarities, referencing movies like Looper and "Terminators One through Four". And while the film is banking on the found footage approach to give it something--tension, perhaps, I can't be sure--it is inconsistent on so many levels, I often found myself asking questions like, "who exactly is holding the camera" and "how on Earth did they manage to have live music remain continuous without a break when switching cameras". Either David is an even better film editor than he is a space-time engineer, or something fishy is afoot--I'm betting on the latter, though. It's very clear that Project Almanac is intended for younger audiences--the "selfie" generation, if you will--but it is a shame that it doesn't have a more original message or even a better way of saying it; I suppose all teens go through the motions the generation before them did, before they themselves knew better. When I started this site, I wanted to avoid delivering reviews, but again, I find it hard to avoid pointing out that for audiences familiar with other time travel movies, well...I can think of two hours or so they might wish they could go back to reclaim if they could.
Recommended for: Fans of superficial and derivative (there, happy now?) movies about time travelling teens, where high school parties happen in the streets, and the rock concerts look just like amateur MTV music videos--I'm sure they're out there.