At first, this film evoked associations with the Strugatsky novel “A billion years before the end of the world”. The main character finds a badge that transports her to the “bright future”. Scientists in this future have created a dangerous machine, which after a certain period of time will arrange a global apocalypse. And this led to the creations of inventors, which the agents of the future recruited in the past. An interesting beginning, even though it has been rocking for quite a long time in order to become interesting - the foreword about a boy who became one of the chosen holders of badges, the adventure of the main character on the launch platform, her stay at school, communication with her family, again the platform ... It's boring. When she finally finds the icon, and the main action begins, two tricks appear, significantly spoiling the impression.
First, it turns out that this is not the future, but a parallel reality, created so that geniuses can create away from politicians and bureaucrats. Not that this is a big problem, but... Whether it is the future, its utopianness could be justified by human evolution or eugenics, but in this case they are recruiting into the world people from our modern reality with all their human shortcomings like greed, narcissism or the many small complexes out of which the big Hitlers can grow. In this scenario, it is much more difficult to believe in the ideal society as shown in the film.
The second catch is naivety, which entails illogical plot, stupidity of dialogues, excessive pathos, making the relationship between the characters too formal and devoid of sincerity. The further the plot develops, the more holes appear in it. What kind of robots chased the main characters, what drove George Clooney from the utopia, what happened to the utopia itself, why did it suddenly become so dark? These questions will remain unanswered.
The logic of character behavior also contributes to the collection of questions. Why, why do they think so, why are they so sure that their actions will help the world? Again, no answers. The most logical character was the villain performed by the magnificent Hugh Laurie. And his speech about saving humanity is so adequate that even somehow does not coincide with the general naivety of the film. However, as soon as I dreamed that he would now remove the rose-colored glasses from the heroes and show the harsh reality that they claimed that a large metal ball in the sky was to blame for everything, and went to destroy it. Although it was the control center of the entire utopia. However, to think about the consequences of their actions is not in the style of the main characters.
Once again, I am convinced that Lindelof is a very mediocre screenwriter. What “Prometheus”, “Star Trek”, “World War Z” – movies with a beautiful picture and a weak script. So the “land of the future” did not pass this fate. Futuristic views of the city, special effects, beautiful landscapes please the eye, but you just have to think about what is happening, as the joy immediately passes. However, it is impossible to call the film completely bad either, if only because the film about the bright future has not been, as far as I remember, since the old Star Trek.
6 out of 10
Original