Project Almanac Review

Project Almanac

Cast: Amy Landecker, Sofia Black-D'Elia, Virginia Gardner
Director: Dean Israelite
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller

Synopsis: A group of friends make a crazy discovery that leads to the development of a working time-machine. Keeping their incredible discovery a secret, the tight-knit gang start travelling back in time, experimenting with small tweaks in the past, that ultimately go on to change the course of each of their futures. With each trip back, the adventure increases but the risks mount and the stakes grow bigger. In bending the world to suit themselves, their actions start to create worldwide effects – leading directly back to the group. In the end they face a race against past and future time to correct their mistakes and put their lives back on track.

Review: Project Almanac had similar themes to both Looper and The Butterfly Effect.

The film starts by introducing you to the characters; a group of young adults about to graduate from school with the main character trying to get a scholarship to MIT, while searching through his dad's research notes for a submission he comes across an incomplete time machine that was built 10 years ago...

After they finish building the machine and use it the future and past begin to change and this is where the laws of cause and effect come to play.

The main character is constantly plagued with the decisions to change the past and ends up destroying the machine to reset the future. This movie started fairly slowly but when events cause the main character to keep jumping it soon became fast paced.

Most of the footage was filmed from a chest mounted camera for documenting the jumps but it was not jarring like in Cloverfield, but while in the process of jumping the camera does move around a lot and could be disorienting.

I would suggest anyone who likes movies involving time travel and cause and effect to see this movie.

- Nick Russell

Project Almanac
Release Date: February 19th, 2015