ARQ Movie Review

ARQ (2016)

ARQ -A serviceable budget sci-fi film.

Watch ARQ on Netflix
Written by: Tony Elliott
Directed by: Tony Elliott
Starring: Robbie Amell, Rachael Taylor, Gray Powell
Rated: TV-MA

Plot:
In this Netflix original, a rogue scientist battles a group of raiders after his newly developed power generator, while all of them are trapped in a repeating time loop.

Verdict:
I like science fiction, especially time travel. This is a budget movie for sure with a more than a few plot inconsistencies, but it's an entertaining mystery thriller that presents a slight twist on the time loop drama. Effects aside, the story is still underdeveloped.
It depends.

Review:
This movie jumps right into the first loop without even an introduction. This omission is obvious and the movie would have benefited from some kind of introduction. I would like to see a flyover of a ruined city and then zoom into this house just so we get a sense of the world. It could be the lack of budget, or it could be wanting the viewer to be as disoriented as the characters, but is is that hard to use a drone in Detroit?

This is part Source Code (2011) and part Edge of Tomorrow (2014). With a half baked setting, this never feels real. It's a twisting tale of deception, and the twist is that more than the main character start to realize they are looping. Though Star Trek: The Next Generation did something very similar in season five's Cause and Effect. This also has hints of Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman where certain cities experience time differently.

This puts us in the main character's shoes. We're as bewildered as Ren as he tries to figure out what's going on, but if you think about many of the plot points the logic lacks. Hannah yelling alerts their captors, but a metal chair hitting the ground does nothing. For some reason the ARQ is shutting down because "it's using the same power." It generates power, so it's inconceivable that it runs out. It could have just been called a glitch and left at that.

We finally get a shot of the city later in the movie, though it should have been used to build the world initially to ground the story. The loop is relegated to just a small radius, but why is only the border petrified? The entirety of the radius should be discolored as much more time has passed inside that bubble.

The loop can change, since Ren and his captors begin to realize what's happening. The loops have occurred thousands of times, which should mean they've made at least hundreds of video, but earlier in the movie he only saw one video. They should all be in one folder. We see the one folder. He should have seen the other videos when he opened the folder. It's contrived that he didn't realize how many loops there were.

I liked the ending that they want to keep trying to fix it, that is right up until we get a final stinger. It just wasn't necessary. Maybe the movie wanted some kind of symmetry with the first and last shot, but I don't care.

The movie isn't very picturesque. This should start and stop with the ARQ. The first shot could be a macro shot on the ARQ that traces the wires, runs along the cylinder, and then snakes into the room where Ren is sleeping. The final shot could zoom into the spinning ARQ cylinder. There are no good chases in the house, and there's no good action. All of the shots are very basic.

This isn't new ground by any means, but when you cover something that's been done so well so recently liked Edge of Tomorrow, you really have to nail it. This is just average. It's nice for an afternoon when you want background noise.