This is a terrible movie. As an initial idea for a story idea, it potentially had some promise. Unfortunately, it comes across as though someone had that initial germ of an idea, then instead of playing around with that idea, thinking stuff up for it, fleshing it out and so, they just went straight to writing a script with no actual creative development beyond the initial thought of: What about a story where 'this' happens? To explain...
The notion that some genius Bill Gates type billionaire has come up with a concept which might make time travel possible, but their idea might actually prove devastating to the planet and so the board of directors at the company plot to oust the genius founder in order to prevent such a risky endeavour being developed, and so the guy has to continue the work covertly, is not a bad idea for a story. It sort of put me in mind of the development of the first atomic bomb in the US during WW2, where some of the scientists involved in the process were concerned that detonating an atom bomb might start a chain reaction which would not stop and might potentially set fire to the Earth's atmosphere, but they were overruled by those who thought otherwise. Kind of intriguing to have a plot along those lines.
But the problem with this film is that this is only the vague concept of an idea which it has, it needs much more to be done with the initial idea for it to be believable and interesting. Just throwing in words and phrases such as 'quantum' and 'temporal displacement' etc, is just not enough to carry things along in a satisfying manner. There is not even a vague stab at how such time travel machine might actually function, nor any attempt to show it, let alone explain, even in the flimsiest of ways, how it might cause a problem if it did work. And that's just not good enough for something which is trying to hang the entire plot of the movie upon such a concept as some kind of techie thriller.
No amount of techno-babble, nor showing computers doing surveillance, in an attempt to seem high tech, can substitute for the writers not even having a half-arsed stab at how such a time travel concept might actually work and what problems that might trigger.
So we are then left with a bunch of people talking to one another on webcams and mobile phones for the entire movie, about some truly vague 'machine' which might pose an unspecified global threat, and whether they should 'activate' said machine via some passcodes they have been given, for some completely unfathomable and unmentioned plot reason which doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It's not even lazy plot writing, it's non existent plot writing.
There are one or two good performances from a couple of the actors in spite of the lame ass script and story they are working with,but these are not enough to save it. There are some rotten acting performances too. Then you have Anthony Hopkins doing a sterling job of playing Anthony Hopkins, as per usual (yawn). Give him a hand, he's British!
As if all this wasn't as tedious as it sounds, when the thing eventually staggers to an entirely unremarkable finish, we're then treated to an end title sequence which revels in patting itself on the back by showing a bunch of cuts from when the movie was being made, which the director is clearly convinced will showcase his brilliance.
It's absolutely bloody awful. It makes the worst student film you've ever seen look like Lawrence of Arabia.
