How’s this idea for a scary future: everybody who lives past 25 years gets one more year to live, and all their time can be earned and spent as currency. It can be quite interesting to see this scenario and how it’s implemented; if nothing else, the film does a fine job of presenting its main concept and sticking with it. There is a fair amount of action (some fighting and car chases), but nothing that really stands out. Fortunately, the film never really bored me at all.
I found the story and concept to be quite interesting. Anybody who knows sci-fi inside-out may immediately draw some parallels to Logan’s Run, and given the standard dystopian setup, they may find this film quite predictable (although throughout the last hour or so, I felt this was some kind of sci-fi version of Bonnie and Clyde, and I thought it was cool that way). With the premise, there are a lot of inherent implications that can be drawn (with some help from the script, which makes clever use of time-themed phraseologies); the film seems to occasionally hint at the audience that time is short, time is precious, and we gotta make the most out of what little time we have. It also goes on to underscore the dichotomy between the rich and the poor (as do most dystopian stories). At the core, the story has a serviceable set of characters; they’re not mind-blowingly deep, but they aren’t totally boring either.
The film is competently made, with decent photography and editing. Acting is a mixed bag; it can be hard to take Justin Timberlake seriously, but he does have his moments. Amanda Seyfried is gorgeous and I loved watching her in her role; Cillian Murphy was pretty darn cool as the Timekeeper. Writing shows a few good strengths and a few bad weaknesses. This production has decent-looking sets, props, and costumes. It’s one of those movies that uses modern locales and props to show an ultramodern setting. Music is alright.
In the end, I didn’t really see that much wrong with this film. I'd recommend it as a rental for anybody who's interested.
4/5 (entertainment: 4/5, story: 4/5, film: 4/5)
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