Tuesday 2 January 2007

Deja Vu is a joke

Just came back from the cinema – decided on déjà vu…eish.

The action is thrilling and all and all, but you can almost figure out what’s going to happen at least 45 minutes in to the movie.
That’s crucial for me.
I want suspense damnit.

The whole movie is just mediocre really. Whoever came up with the story line was just too damn lazy. The idea is good enough. You know, the whole notion of time travel. But how time travel is possible in this movie is just dumbass. It just don't add up.

Through satellite tracking????…basically the latest satellite technology allows the FBI to be able to see into the past. They can only go four days back in time – not a moment sooner or later. What's crucial is that you can just decide you want to see what happened at 2am, or 4am, or 5pm...you have to wait for the day (past) to play itself over again. You can't fast forward. The existance of PVR technology makes this movie look dumb.

Anyways, so Denzel figures that he can use this technology to go back in time and save the world…
The story goes something like this. An ATF (bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms - something like that) agent travels back in time to save a woman from being murdered, falling in love with her in the process.

There is a scene where Denzel is trying to keep the satellite signal and is looking through a lens (that allows you to see the past) with the one eye, and with the other eye – he’s trying to maneuver his way through traffic in present time (he’s driving). The scene is insulting because you know that hand/eye coordination can't be that good even for an ATF agent.

Out of five spoons – I give it one and a half. Purely because some of the action is fun. And the effects are great. (The director, Tony Scott is the same guy who did Man on Fire which I liked – déjà vu just don’t compare)

Heartwarmer

2 comments:

Brokensword said...

I love time travel or 'I see the future' kinda movies. They are the ultimate because in terms of originality, you can make up what ever rules that will fit into the universe of your movie. Back to the future, the time machine, even the borderline Minority Report got my juices going. I love them! What I do hate however is when they disguise a cheap action movie as sci fi thriller. Case in point, any futuristic Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jean-Claude Van Damme movies.

Speaking of time travel, I was channel hoping the other day and stumbled into an episode of Blackadder where Baldrick builds a time machine. To prove that it does work, one of the items that they have to bring back from the past is a pair of ancient underpants, the nastiest kind. Naturally, Baldrick pulls off his own.

But anyway, going back in time movies are tricky because if you change one thing, the effect in the future could be hugely significant. In this episode of Blackadder, Blackadder, bumps into Shakespeare and asks for an autograph which he gets. After which he beats up Shakespeare saying it was for all the school children in the future. When he goes back to the future nobody has heard of Shakespeare. Hilarious stuff.

Heartwarmer said...

I loved those movies. The ones I saw that is about time travel.
If the idea of time travel is done well, it will work in a story every single time.
My point is that - deja vu just didn't make it believable. IT was just badly explored - very bad.