Sorry for the lack of reviews recently, I like to do at least one a week for The Dark Globe but being Assistant Sales Manager of a company is a stressful job it seems so I have been super busy as of late and have struggled keeping up with my own main blog. But I finally got time to watch a film at last and one that I was looking forward to seeing, didn’t see it and then forgot about it.
Usually I’m not bothered about seeing any film with Justin Timberlake in it, not that he’s a bad actor. I just can’t get the thought out of my head that he’s that gay dancer from N*Sync. I should get over those preconceptions as that was an entire decade ago.
So I gave his latest offering a chance, mainly because of the other actors that were in it too and I must say I was impressed. It gives an interesting look into what life might be like if “time” was the currency instead of money. Literally working to live, fighting to survive.
Story; This entire film plays as a more detailed version of Robin Hood basically. A poor man that steals from the rich and gives to the other poor. However replace Robin Hood with Justin Timberlake and his merry men with the ever so tidy Amanda Seyfried. Set in the mid 2100s thanks to genetics everyone stops aging when they reach 25 and they have a built in body clock that gives them one year to live. To get time they can either work and earn the time or steal time from others.
Once the clock reaches zero they suffer what seems to be a heart attack and just die. They literally run out of time. Justin Timberlakes character lives with his 50 year old mother (who is also youthful due to the non ageing) Olivia Wilde. Some how stopping themselves from engaging in incest (I know I wouldn’t be able to) they scrimp and scrape every single minute they can just to survive.
One day after she finishes work Olivia realises she doesn’t have enough money to pay the bus fare, she tries running for her life but before she can reach her son her time expires and she dies. Possibly the greatest shame in this entire film. How dare you kill off Olivia Wilde! Timberlake soon accepts his mothers death and ends up at a bar, there he saves some “old” rich guy from being killed only to discover he was out to be killed. The country live in sectors, Timberlake being in the poorest, the rich guy being from the most extravagant. The rich guy tells Timberlake how they stockpile time just so the rich people can be immortal. He tells him how he wants to die, the body doesn’t age but the mind does and at 105 years of age he wants to rest. While Timberlake sleeps the rich guy gives him the full 116 years he has and leaves himself with 5 minutes.
Timberlake doesn’t arrive in time to save him and his time too runs out and he dies. Timberlake then sets out to rob the time from the rich people to give to the poor so everyone can live an equal full life, he finds help in the richest man on the planets daughter who also doesn’t agree and they go on the run from the Time Keepers (the futures version of the police). It’s up to these two people to make sure many don’t die so few can become immortal.
Character’s;
Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) – The main protagonist of the film, Timberlake does a terrific job in this film and has actually made me interested in seeing another film offering from him. I remember being largely unimpressed with his previous work but he did a fine job in this one, while nothing special it did the job that needed to be done.
Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried) – This girl is extremely tasty and I you will have seen her in such films as Mean Girls, Dear John, Red Riding Hood and the television series Big Love. She too does an excellent job of playing the hot, sexy sidekick and love interest to Will Salas.
Timekeeper Raymond León (Cillian Murphy) – I don’t know what it is about this guy but he strikes me as being a very handsome man. The Irish actor has starred in quite a few big films of the past such as 28 Days Later, Batman Begins/Dark Knight/Dark Knight Rises, Sunshine, Inception and the new Tron film so he’s no stranger to this sort of setting. He puts on a unique performance in his role as the Timekeeper and I honestly couldn’t imagine anyone else taking on this role. Bravo Cillian, yet another notch in the bed post of awesome performances.
Phillippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser) – Who is this Vincent Kartheiser? You may ask yourself and you may be right to as he’s not a particularly that well known actor. Well he stars in the TV series Mad Men, a show I haven’t yet watched but it’s one of those I plan on buying at some point and quickly catching up. I first saw him in the film Indian In The Cupboard when I was but a young child and then later saw him as Connor in the TV series, Angel when he starred as Angel’s son. I loved his character in that film so I was excited to see that he was in this film. He plays the rich and mighty character well and I can’t wait to see if his film career continues.
Along with these four main actors there are also some other names people will have heard off such as the previously mentioned Olivia Wilde who gets killed off very early in the film, Big Bang Theories; Johnny Galecki who also, gets killed off and Alex Pettyfer as the main villian of the film who you may know from the poor I Am Number Four, the sub par Stormbreaker and the unknown Beastly. (Well I haven’t seen it anyway…) Although this film will go a long will to improving this new actors career.
Overall Rating; While this film isn’t all that highly rated by the proper review sites, it did do well at the box office and I can see why as it is a pretty good film and an interesting take on the future. I know I’d certainly hate to live in that time because there’s no way in hell I’d be one of the rich people with a 100 years on my clock. But on the plus side at least everyone is a sexy bastard in the future. This film gave a lot of young actors the chance to shine as there wasn’t many actors above 30 in this film and it’s films like this that can introduce to us new talent. However Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried’s roles I feel could have been filled by anyone else and just been as good, if not, better. That’s not a knock on them but they just weren’t special. You throw someone like Chris Pine in this film and it probably would have made more money. I did like this film though and for that reason I shall rate this film 7/10.
Legendary Post 