Project Almanac

Project Almanac is a sci-fi found footage film about.... no, not horror.... time travel. I thought it was an interesting way to show a time travel film and really made sense when you were watching it, as to why they would be filming, so it helped to know why they always had a camera out. Overall i would have to say that this was a pretty fun film and doesn't go too over the top with the confusing back and forth through time stuff that other time travel films do. It is pretty easy to understand for a general audience and that helps to have more people follow the plot but can make it a little more predictable. I didn't feel that this was all that predictable though, there were quite a few moments that i could not have guessed and some others that were foreshadowed a little too much. So in terms of the plot it was very coherent for 96% of the film and i have to say was also interesting, just the last 2 minutes of the film for me got unnecessarily complex and ruined the fun adventure the rest of the film felt like.

Also, while this was a found footage film there were many times throughout the film where i was able to forget about that. The shaky cam and awkward camera angles that do bother me in other found footage films didn't have the same effect in this film. Some of the ways that sections are shot with a mounted camera or in an environment that would be shot with a moving camera in a regular film helped to take my mind off the fact that this was just another found footage film. So to make it a found footage film but have elements of just a regularly shot sci-fi film i thought really elevated the film.

In terms of the characters i thought they were all very well written, sometimes a little over exaggerated in terms of their emotions but as a group i thought they worked pretty well. I also have no idea who these actors were but they were all pretty good, no standouts but they were all good to watch. Unfortunately where this film let me down a little was the first section of the film before all of the funky time travel stuff begins, it was just a little too slow and i would have liked for them to just cut to the chase and get to the time travelling without the setup that didn't really add anything to the film except for a few minor plot points later in the film. In the end this sci-fi time travel film does a good job at creating a fun and easily understandable story with pretty good characters. But is let down by a fairly unnecessary first section and a very unnecessarily confusing ending. - 7.3

The teenager David Raskin (Jonny Weston) is a genius that dreams on joining the MIT. He has a crush on Jessie Pierce (Sofia Black-D'Elia) but he is too shy to date her. When David finds the design of a time machine that belonged to his father, he decides to build the device together with his friends Quinn Goldberg (Sam Lerner) and Adam Le (Allen Evangelista) and his sister Christina Raskin (Virginia Gardner). Soon Jessie joins the group and becomes David's girlfriend. When their experiment gets out of control and changing the future, David decides to fix the problems making them worse.

"Project Almanac" is a sort of "The Butterfly Effect 4", with a similar storyline with many paradoxes. Each time that the teenagers interfere with the past for personal profit, the future changes and the responsible David tries to fix it. Unfortunately the funny adventure is ruined by the awful camera work. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Projeto Almanaque" ("Project Almanac")

Love a time travel / time loop movie but this one wasn't one of the best.

If you can get past the annoying teenage characters. If you can get past their questionable plot choices. If you can get past the annoying shaky cam "found footage" filming technique. If you can get past the absolutely ridiculous" time travel logic". And finally if you can past the gaping plot holes. Then there is a movie here.

Sadly all the above has been done in other films with better results.

If you want to see a better teenage shaky cam film watch Chronicle. If you want to watch a better time travel movie watch Primer.

HOWEVER... I did watch it till the end so I'll give it a 6 out of 10.

Found footage movies are often pretty predictable and sketchy, but project almanac isn't. Unlike other movies of this genre, the pace is kinda slow, which is appropriate for the story. When you build a time travel machine, it is normal that it takes multiple attempts before it works. Even though sometimes you may wonder why the characters are still filming their journey, it's not disturbing enough to prevent you from focusing on the plot, which is a good thing. There's also a good love story and some funny moments, in addition to a breath taking last act. I'd compare it to the Canadian movie Chronicles.

Overall you'll have a great time watching this movie, even more if you are familiar with this genre.

This film seems to have really divided people on here but on the whole I really liked it.

Teenager David Raskin (A very good Jonny Weston, an actor clearly with a good career ahead of him) is a bit of a brain box at school. His best friend is an even bigger nerd than he is and not as brainy and of course he fancies one of the it girls, while his sister is being bullied by some others. Weston is a very good looking actor, so trying to pass him off as a science geek is really a bit of a stretch one of the films weakest flaws but one I was prepared to forgive. This group form an unlikely alliance when they discover via one of David's deceased Dad's experiments, they have invented time travel. They jump together and change various things in their recent past and also do some fairly typical teenage things like go and win the lottery. Someone on here was moaning saying people wouldn't do that, they would go back and see people they loved and so on - well I am fairly certain as a teenager I would do both.

Our lead character though cannot leave well enough alone and jumps once too often and the ripple effect begins to cause them problems.

Project Almanac is a found footage film and these normally alone will cause me not to watch them but I found the premise of this one intriguing enough to seek it out. It's helped by a reasonably good script which plays out like a good episode of the Twilight Zone but what really helps the film is the cast. Its pretty rare that a group of teenage actors should all be universally so good, but that is certainly the case here. Sofia Black-D'Elia who more recently starred in Born of War is especially good and one I predict big things for while Sam Lerner who plays the thankless role of the Annoying friend clearly has taken on board everything his actor father taught him. This really is a talented group of individuals.

The film reminded me of the 1980s cult film The Explorers and I found myself rooting for the hero towards the end because you wanted him to set everything right. I really enjoyed this film and stayed up really late when I was super tired to watch it. Thankfully I wasn't bored and I was with them until the end. Recommended, from me at least anyway.