In Time (2011) Review: In The Future, Puns Run Rampant

That’s what sci-fi is all about. Fun commentaries on the state of things as they are now and how they could potentially snowball into fantastic, futuristic summer blockbusters.

It gives you a sneak peak at a possible future so that you can reflect upon the present. In this case, the future is adorned with a sleek, minimalist aesthetic, and has the visual offerings of a world populated by 25-year-old MILFs. Cars (for the most part) are universally chrome plated, and everybody’s dressed as sharp as a tack. In terms of the images provided here, things are entirely satisfying, and there isn’t a single cast member who isn’t sporting a pair of entrancingly alluring eyes. It’s a cheap way to keep audiences paying attention, but hey – I’m not complaining.

No, no, I’ll save that for this film’s sorry lack of plot and meandering second act. Once Will finds himself on the lam with a privileged and pampered Amanda Seyfried in tow, they kind of just spend the rest of their time robbing banks. Though I’ve heard of plenty of people who’ve crapped their pants over this film, it’s a real shame that more wasn’t done with what was already a great idea. You could say it’s a story that’s based entirely around the characters as, in essence, it boils down to their growth and burgeoning awareness of the world around them. The problem is that they don’t really have any clear motivations aside from evading the police (aka, the TIME KEEPERS) and so things begin to bog down about half-way through.

"Time is of the essence."

That is, until the sporadic moments where tension is ratcheted up so artificially that it amounts to copying and pasting the same element over and over.

“That element” being an old-school technique called the ticking clock. Everybody’s gotta deal with stress, and this trope is a fantastic way to bring those feelings back to the surface.

It works like this: Give your characters a clear goal to achieve with something important at stake. Once that’s nicely established, give them a limited time to achieve said goal – a day, 10 minutes, whatever. If you like your tropes with extra cheese, then try making the task defusing a ticking time bomb, and watch the audience’s subsequent heart attacks.

In Time will take this same storytelling technique, and whore it out every time things get boring, like some kind of Alfred Hitchcockian prostitute. Considering the fact that everyone’s got their own ticking clock going as they start their day, it’s an obvious choice to make. The first time it’s used, it’s used quite well.

But when it’s used for what seems like the 17^th time, it starts looking a little lazy. It starts looking like maybe somebody ran out of ideas or didn’t know how to use his setting correctly and settled with repeating himself over and over for cheap thrills.

*shifts eyes*

I’m just saying, bro.

It sure is hard to find proper images from this movie. I mean uh, "It's Time."

The Verdict:

Aside from the obvious contrived drama and the dialogue that’s been sacked with puns, In Time really isn’t that bad. If you’re a little pretentious or happen to review movies for a living (but really, is there any difference? Ohohohoho!) then it might just make you upset. Otherwise, if you’re just looking for an interesting concept to mull over and bring things into perspective, then I suppose that it couldn’t hurt. In Time doesn’t wind up as the cerebral thriller that many had hoped it would be, but otherwise it’s utterly harmless.

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