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Film Review: Project Almanac
/ March 2, 2015
Project Almanac is like an extended version of those YouTube clips you see about explosive basement experiments, only with lighting and a bigger budget.
Centered on David Raskin (Jonny Weston) and the discovery of time-machine blueprints in his Dad’s workshop, Project Almanac follows he and his high-school friends as they tirelessly build the machine and consider its potential. Realizing this could be David’s long-awaited ticket into M.I.T., the group films everything, taking the audience on a bumpy hand-held adventure.
Full of real-life stuff ups and in-jokes you’d imagine from bunkering down with your best friends, Project Almanac feels like a fun Friday night, but gives food for thought too. It reminds us it’s good to be a geek and that knowledge is ‘so in’ right now (people who understand gadgets will take over the world), and that really, if we had a time-machine, we probably wouldn’t do anything that grandiose.
For these teens time travel is about making it to concerts they missed, passing the class test, and getting back at bullies – not killing Hitler and being at the moon landing (as one suggests). They don’t want to change the world, just their high school experience. David says, it’s not about money, but second chances. And all they want in those second chances is to be a little more confident, and a little less selfish. They want to correct small inconvenient mistakes.
Which thankfully, we don’t need a time machine to achieve. Attaining confidence and consideration comes down to changing our choices. Being obedient to our conscience in the moment, and understanding – as our posse find out, that we can’t fully comprehend the ripple affects our decisions, and are therefore better off if humanity doesn’t try to govern time.
Sure a world without being able to re-live your fav festival and fix your first ‘real’ kiss may seem a sad one, but the Bible encourages us that all those moments we wish we could do over, are actually best kept. James 1:2-5 says,
“Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work in you so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”
If we were to step back in time and adjust all the experiences of the past, we’d render ourselves incomplete, lacking opportunity to chat with God and gain His wisdom for our present circumstance. Of course we don’t always get it right, but cultivating perseverance is part of what makes us whole as humans. And as God says, he’s not going to look at those faults and say, “Nope, no more wisdom for you, you didn’t get it.” He’s going to give it to you generously, ready for another chat next time.
Overall, like most time travel movies you’ll have to accept there’s going to be inconsistencies and questions in Project Almanac, but the script is fresh, Michael Bay delivers the fun, and its premise is worth giving some thought to.
7/10
High point: Witnessing the ‘rise of the geek’ and watching David’s sister play the role of ‘blonde-who-asks-for-techy-speech-to-be-explained-in-plain-English-for-audience-benefit.’
Low point: Watching product placement fly by in slow motion as marketer’s capitalism on the trendy social media medium.
Best digested with: Red Bull and potato chips.
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