The Project Almanac cast reminds moviegoers what they enjoy about time travel. Paramount Pictures
By Amanda Giglio
After attending the conference call for Project Almanac, I was extremely excited to go to a screening of the movie and experience time travel for myself.
The film begins with the main character, David Raskin, creating an audition video for MIT with his friends and sister, which eventually gets him into the school. When he realizes that he does not have the finances to attend MIT, David goes in search of his deceased father’s old experiments and comes across an old film video of his seventh birthday party with a figure in the background who seems out of place.
Once he and his friends realize it is David himself in the background, they go on a chase to create a time machine and eventually use it to make their lives better, whether by winning the lottery, fighting bullies or passing chemistry.
It is not until one jump into the past changes the present in unintended way that things begin to take a turn for the worse.
The movie is definitely enjoyable. The story is interesting, and the dynamics between high school friends and romantic interests add depth. David Raskin, played by Jonny Weston, is a likable character.
For a sci-fi thriller, there are many parts that are laugh-out-loud funny. Shot with the found footage technique, the movie feels as if it was filmed as a home video. Even though the filming style is cool, it is a little overwhelming when the camera continually moves around.
My only criticism was that it was kind of anticlimactic. You realize that certain scenes need to happen to keep the story moving, but the main arch of the movie is not prominent, especially given that you never find out whether David goes to MIT or not. Project Almanac took the best aspects of the great time travel movies and put a unique spin on the genre. The concept of time travel is becoming a more popular topic of speculation today and this film makes you wonder what you would do with a time machine.
