Project Almanac

Project Almanac stars newcomer Jonny Weston as David Raskin, a physics major that got into MIT. David doesn’t have enough money to pay for school and his mother may be forced to sell the house he and his sister live in to pay for his college education. In a desperate attempt to earn more scholarship money, David goes through a good portion of his scientist father’s uncompleted work and finds a temporal relocation device that he and his friends fix and operate to change the past to build a better future for themselves.

Project Almanac has an interesting premise for a time travel film but it doesn’t even attempt to do more than the plot demands. The characters are incredibly one note. The film doesn’t work at all to make the friendship between the characters believable and is instead only interested in where they travel to. As a result of this action, when David really needs support to fix the problems that have been created by the group he feels like he has to do it all on his own because everyone around him is so fiercely panicked. No one should expect these teenagers to make adult decisions but it’s troubling that all the responsibility would be left up to the one person who caused most of the damage in the first place.

The writing of this film telegraphs everything that will happen in this film. There are no surprises to be had. Every person who you think might be interested in each other actually is. The film drags at the beginning but the film hits its stride once David and his group of friends start time traveling. The effects created to simulate the time travel are simply stunning and there is a real sense of wonder the first time you see the teens travel back in time. Another problem where the weak writing really comes through is in the character of Quinn Goldberg played by Sam Lerner. Lerner is basically playing Miles Teller’s obnoxious character from 21 and Over on speed. This person is constantly just out to have a good time until things get too real and the time travel goes wrong. He is by far the most unlikable character in the film thanks to his pompous arrogance.

Second in stupidity is actually the film’s main character. He goes through such a character transformation that it’s shocking and painful to watch. The character starts out noble and kind and introverted but the more he travels in time the more his arrogance builds about how he believes he can make a better future for himself instead of just letting things play out naturally. He becomes selfish to the point where you don’t care whether the character lives or dies. What is so frustrating is the thing that sends so far over the edge isn’t the injury of one of his friends but the disappearance of someone he becomes close to throughout the films running time. It’s such a traumatic event that he temporarily becomes obsessed with fixing what happens.

The film is shot in the found footage style of filmmaking. This style aids in giving audiences a first person view of all that happens to the characters but in the more serious moments that shooting style becomes clunky and distracting. This shooting style makes things so frantic that it almost takes audiences out of the movie.

Project Almanac had the chance to be the Chronicle of found footage films but instead it’s just a dumb teen drama that has characters who do all the cliché stupid things teens would do if given time travel. This is one trip in time only good for young adults.