Preface

• Project Almanac is one of those January movies that I wanted to see, but didn’t really get a chance to because I was catching up on all the Oscar movies.
• But also, all I knew was that a trailer for this thing played before Anchorman 2 and it was getting PUSHED. BACK.
• Which probably wasn’t a good sign…
• Luckily this thing wasn’t a complete disaster though.
• (It still wasn’t great.)

Premise

• So Project Almanac is a found-footage sci-fi movie about this group of high school seniors who discover that their group leader’s dad was a scientist developing a time machine.
• And the movie is very split in almost every area, which I’ll explain specifically in each section.

Cast and Characters

• The cast and characters in this movie are very split.
• The main guy was the kid from Chasing Mavericks, and apparently he was in Insurgent, but I don’t remember who he played…
• Johnny Weston is his name, and that kid is an up-and-comer.
• From the two things I’ve seen him in, he doesn’t appear to have a TON of range or versatility but I think he can really grow and bud into a bigger star.
• Then you have the supporting cast who basically come in on a take-em or leave-em basis.
• There’s this one guy who’s supposed to be the comic relief and he reminds you: oh yeah… Michael Bay produced this thing…
• But then there’s the love interest who I liked, she wasn’t super developed but she had a cute relationship with the main guy in the movie.
• And the smart lead guy had a smart friend and the smart friend was fun and functional.
• The main guy has a mom and sister in the movie too cuz, ya know of course he does he’s in high school.
• But I feel like they were just shoe-horned into the movie.
• It felt a lot like the writers knew the kids could play high school shenanigans, but they forgot that all high school kids interact a lot with, well… their parents!
• Overall there were a few other characters in the movie too who were functional enough but didn’t feel very vital to story or there were a couple characters that could have been all combined into one.
• The lead guy (the name of the character, if you couldn’t tell, I forgot) was really good though, I liked him.

Script/Direction

• Here was where the problems in the movie began to arise…
• Now this movie had a very solid three-act structure: it was set up well, it continued well, it ended well.
• The guy who credited with “Story by…” did great for this movie.
• But the actual execution of the story just felt clunky and off-pace.
• I understand it’s found footage, so sure things are gonna feel a little clunky but there are things in the movie that ultimately just deconstruct themselves.
• I won’t go into spoilers here, but the actual time travel aspect makes sense at first but as you go on, the whole thing just completely falls apart when you’re trying to make sense of it.
  • The prime example: if you watch this movie, notice how sometimes they run into their past selves and sometimes they don’t. So… Do their past selves exist or…?
• And the pacing was a little off too, like the set-up to everything felt a little too long and then them playing around with the time machine felt like it was SO long that the conflict wasn’t set up by the end.
• I did like the character interactions though. The dialogue and directing of those was done really well.

In Conclusion

• So overall guys, this movie was okay and you if you are forced to watch it you’ll probably make it through.
• I know this movie wasn’t trying to be Back to the Future but it felt a little too convoluted and messy for my personal enjoyment.
• But in the end, a lot of things just don’t line up, they don’t make sense, and a lot of the characters are just in the, “I guess I care about them,” field.
• So Project Almanac, Ehh… You Can Probably Skip It.
• If you’re on a plane or something and this is the one movie playing, I’d say to check it out though. I mean if you have nothing else to do and you can really turn your brain off.

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So guys, those are my thoughts on Project Almanac! What are your thoughts on this movie? Let me know in the comments down below, and as always, thanks for reading guys.