First there was 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, then there was 2008’s Cloverfield, then all hell broke loose with the Paranormal Activity franchise, followed by 2012’s Chronicle, which is the most respected film of the handheld camcorder genre. Didn’t the executive producer’s stop to think that repeating this tired routine with new film Project Almanac would send the genre into catastrophe? We’re simply bored rigid with these films, so why do it?
Quite rightly, after watching Project Almanac, a true film geek will want to travel back to 1999 and stop Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez from ever delivering The Blair Witch Project. It would simply have immobilised the genre of the ‘found footage/shaky camera ordeal’ that these film-makers have parodied. Some filmmaker’s have managed to get away with stealing the cookie from the jar, but first time director Dean Israelite has been caught bewildered and now must pay the consequences.
The major novelty in Project Almanac is to lob a homemade time machine into the mix that allows a gang of teen nerds to manipulate the past and improve their social status; their grades, their bullied reputation, their wheels and their love life all benefit from their time travelling ways. The idea of going back and seeing the original Star Wars premiere is briefly mentioned as an option (Ed: and they didn't do it? What kinda of nerds are these?) But it loses out to the ever-popular winning the lottery by knowing the jackpot numbers ahead of time. All these traits are fun but then the bad ripple or butterfly effect changes the tone of the film. Sadly, this is the segment that no one cares about.
The one redeeming feature is the young cast. Captivating, Jonny Weston is the clean cut geek who wears Harry Potter glasses and is trying to get into MIT. With his role in Taken 3 and the upcoming Insurgent, Weston does well to translate the fun yet fear his time machine produces. Ginny Gardener is excellent as his little sister who helps him poke around his dead father's documents. There is true family chemistry between them, it isn't unbelievable that these two would be siblings and enjoy their initial adventures together after discovering a picture of an adult Jonny in the background of his five year old birthday party.
Time travel films can be astonishing but now have been done to death. Obviously the Back to the Future franchise will be the King of the premise. The Bill and Ted films will happily be the Queen. The Butterfly Effect is the Prince (and in all honesty is a decent film). Sadly Project Almanac is the illegitimate bastard that was struck with Parkinson’s disease due to over shakiness that we’ve all seen before. It's a disappointing effort indeed.
Project Almanac is out this Friday.