Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Predestination Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 30, 2015

Some things are inevitable.

Science Fiction Writer Robert Heinlein's work has been the subject of several films over the years, most famously 1997's Starship Troopers, the ultra-violent and darkly satirical story of man's future war with otherworldly bugs. While that film enjoys some wild entertainment value, it's the below-the-surface details that truly make the movie, bending it from bloody popcorn flick to critically insightful masterpiece (even as it strays a bit from the original source novel). The latest Heinlein story-turned-film is Predestination, based on the writer's short story All You Zombies. Predestination is a classic mind-bender, a film that's nearly the reverse of Troopers, toning down the raw entertainment value in favor of the darker, more complex drama that unfolds. Yet at the center -- even if the center is, essentially, the entire body -- is a story that requires audiences to dig deep, deeper than most genre films have asked them to dig before, in order to appreciate both the insanity and the beauty of not only the story's core details but those more intimate and certainly even darker narrative pieces that form the movie's awkward and disturbing yet brilliantly simple foundation that challenges one's own perception of time and self.

Revelations.

A guy (Ethan Hawke) walks into a bar...because he works there. His name isn't really important. While he's amiable and more than capable of pouring drinks and chatting up customers, he's really something else: a temporal agent who, once horribly disfigured in the line of duty but now fully healed following a skin graft but still suffering from damaged vocal chords, has traveled through time, to this time, with an assigment to stop a terrorist known as "The Fizzle Bomber." One of his customers is another mysterious individual who tells him a lengthy, detailed, and incredible story of a life quite unlike anything he has heard before, or perhaps one that rings more familiar than he lets on. What follows, as the customer's past is revealed and the barkeep pursues his target, is indeed a tale of preposterous, yet in this world, wholly plausible, proportions.

Predestination is such a masterpiece of complex, fully integrated, everything-matters narrative details that to offer a full discussion in a compact review would be a disservice to the movie and audiences that have yet to see the movie. Needless to say, however, the movie is many things at once: uneasy, unnerving, intriguing, dark, violent, smart, and even flat-out weird and revolting. Each of these facets and emotional responses are critical to fully understanding the story, appreciating what it's doing, and sorting out the details -- most all of which are eventually conveyed on-screen -- after the fact. The movie is an unusually smart affair that's challenging to watch, confusing in bits, mysterious in others, clear yet elsewhere, and beautifully simple but at the same time mesmerizingly complex by the end. The movie serves as what should be considered, today, the de facto champion of the time paradox fictional genre, taking audiences places they never quite imagined, and doing so in a film that's really not about specific times or even events but the people involved in those times and events. 1940s, 1960s, 1980s: it really doesn't matter when. What matters is the deeply thought-provoking events that unfold in its various times, events that will quite likely be viewed as so unique and come so far full circle that even the deepest thinkers may not have ever taken classic time paradox ideas quite so far as Heinlein and The Spierig Brothers go in Predestination.

Predestination has mastered the marriage of raw and refined. Beyond the unsettling core story, the movie is not necessarily slick, but it is, at the very least, smooth in production and effortless in delivery, finding a good rhythm as it opens up one world only to reveal layers upon layers underneath that build off the same narrative yet twist it with every new disclosure. Much of the fun in the moment comes in simply trying to stay ahead of it rather than understand it, though of course there's enough other quality details to enjoy beyond the mental exercises the movie demands of its viewers. The base production is of high quality, with some nifty, if not fairly basic, visuals and makeup supporting it along the way, almost always at work in either hinting towards what's to come or reinforcing both established and yet-to-be-discovered details. In essence, the movie is always working on its own behalf, even in its simplest little bits, from its action-oriented open to small little blurbs seen in newspaper clippings or uttered in what seems, in the moment, almost throwaway narrative. The performances are excellent and key to making the movie work, and as believably as possible given its rather unusual greater story. Both Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook are nothing short or marvelous, managing to balance their parts' numerous demands both physically and emotionally and with a grace and confidence required to fully sell what is virtually an impossible story. They make their characters rich and full as they both understand and execute the total necessary range to do so and expanding as the film moves along with an equally necessary seamlessness from one revelation to the next.

Predestination Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Predestination's sharp and detailed 1080p transfer suits the material superbly. The light digital sheen never gets in the way of revealing with tremendous accuracy even the finest little details down to bandage textures, intimate skin and makeup features, scuffs and wear on a well-used briefcase, and even liquor bottles and the wooden bar that feature so prominently in the film. Image clarity is therefore excellent, and there's never a hint of softness to be seen. Colors are rich and satisfying, from bold red lipstick to a flashy yellow taxi. Parts of the movie favor a warmth (the bar) and others a colder appearance, but no matter the lighting or even the relatively sterility of any number of scenes, there's never any absence of strikingly realistic coloration. Black levels are suitably deep and true, while flesh tones raise no alarms. The image produces no overt banding, noise, or blockiness. This is another A-grade new release presentation from Sony.

Predestination Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Predestination arrives on Blu-ray with a rich and robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It's expectedly strong and detailed in all areas. Music is smooth and precise with evident clarity and a good sense of heft and natural authenticity about it, not to mention excellent and natural stage placement and surround immersion. Gunshots hit surprisingly hard with a weighty aggression and impact on surfaces, metallic surfaces in particular, with positive force and, it seems, across a good bit of area around the soundstage. There's not a ton of big, noticeable ambience, but light background details help naturally fill in some quieter gaps. Dialogue delivery is firm and accurate with consistent center delivery.

Predestination Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Predestination contains, primarily, a making-of documentary that's nearly the length of the film. Also included is a separate short featurette and a blooper reel. Note this package does not include DVD or digital copies.

• Bloopers (1080p, 1:37).
• A Journey Through Time (1080p, 4:33): Cast and crew briefly discuss the original story, recap the plot, discuss its style, shed light on cast performances, and more.
• All You Zombies: Bringing Predestination to Life (1080p, 1:16:30 total runtime): A compelling, detailed, multi-part making-of that examines a broad range of topics, presented in linear fashion, as they relate to the movie construction process. Segments include Introduction (3:47), Casting (5:13), Pre-Production (18:08), Principal Photography Week 1 (8:24), Principal Photography Week 2 (8:45), Principal Photography Week 3 (4:14), Principal Photography Week 4 (6:35) Principal Photography Week 5 (8:20), Principal Photography Week 6 (5:20), Post Production (5:30), and Conclusion (2:50).
• Previews (1080p): Additional Sony titles.

Predestination Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Predestination is a movie better left explored rather than spoiled beyond a basic entry point, which even then shouldn't take prospective viewers through the front door frame. It's a film with complex ideas that's rich for study even below the surface and into subtext that may be found in all of the movie's little crevices, nooks, and crannies. Yet it's not for everyone. It's only for people with an open mind -- make that a wide open mind -- and those who are unafraid to be challenged and unsettled while entertained at the same time. This is fascinating stuff, probably too much for the more timidly minded or easily offended, even, but a film ripe for discovery beyond even the basic complexities it places on the screen, complexities which the film sorts out by the end but, in doing so, only opens a brand new door leading to a world of thought-provoking possibilities. Sony's Blu-ray release of Predestination offers rich video, excellent lossless audio, and a numerically small supplemental package dominated by a big making-of. Highly recommended to the right audience as outlined above.