Written by: Fredrica Bailey (co-writer), Stefon Bristol (co-writer)
Directed by: Stefon Bristol
Starring: Tden Duncan-Smith, Dante Crichlow, Astro
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer & more information
Plot
Best friends CJ and Sebastian build a pair of time machines and use them in order to save the life of CJ's brother.
Verdict
I hoped this would mix the usual time travel tropes with relevant social issues. It doesn't. While this could almost be a kid's movie, the children are profane. I don't have an issue with that generally, but in a movie that seems part kids' movie it's a mismatch. While the movie at no point is good, the lack of a conclusion took me from turned off to irritated. What a waste of time.
Skip it.
Review
I like time travel movies. I will watch just about anything if it includes time travel. Sometimes that's detrimental with movies like this.
This jumps right into the action with the kids about to time travel. I appreciate the lack of a boring buildup. Why they were using a security camera to record this scientific achievement instead of their phones I can't figure out.
I can accept these kids have overcome what adult scientists have yet to figure out. Kids movies do that, but this isn't a kids movie.
The movie has a strange tone. It seems like a kid centered movie, but the children curse like sailors. It's a weird combination because I never figured out the target audience.
I thought the core of the movie was going to be about CJ's brother who was mistakenly killed by the police. A social issue infused into a time travel movie could be a welcome new angle to enliven the story while also providing a solution to a poignant social issue. The movie does none of that. It falls into all of the old, tried time travel tropes.
To be a kid scientist, CJ is rather obtuse. She makes mistakes when traveling to the past that could have big ramifications yet she's completely apathetic. She in fact does screw up the present by meddling in the past. CJ is just annoying.
Movie works towards a climax where the elements and the characters triumph, generally speaking. This movie works to that point, well just before that point and starts the credits. I suppose the movie wants me to assume CJ was successful. Right before the movie ends and before she's solved the issue she created by acting stupid, she states she has it all figured out. What if she's created an endless loop?
This movie has no ending. I assume they ran out of time and/or money. This could at least hint at an ending with text on the screen, but what we got is not an ending. For a movie that is objectively bad, this makes it all the worse. On the bright side, I don't have to wonder if I wasted my time. I definitely did.
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