Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Project Almanac Blu-ray Movie Review

Should you give this movie the time of day?

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 27, 2015

Time travel has been, and will continue to be, a staple of the Science Fiction genre, offering creative minds an opportunity to explore not only some fancy future-thinking technology but grapple with some pretty nifty ideas on everything from challenging fate to self-interaction, from altering the past to shaping the future. From H.G. Wells to whales, from James Cameron to Robert Zemeckis, the sub-genre has enjoyed a rich history in film, a history the filmmakers of Project Almanac certainly envisioned joining. The latest time-travel film, which follows a group of teenagers who construct their own machine, makes up for its total lack of plausibility with a healthy spirit and overcomes the hurdles of its generic time travel predicaments with a good foundation on which it's all built. While the movie never quite makes it as anything better than a fully passable time-killer -- the shaky-cam nonsense and terribly flat characters really drag it down -- it serves the genre well enough as a baseline competent picture that certainly had room to grow but doesn't bomb out so easily as one might expect.

Time travel. Right here, right now. Powered by Xbox (and not even the new one).

Technical genius David Raskin (Jonny Weston) wants nothing more than to get into MIT, and his friends -- Adam (Allen Evangelista) and Quinn (Sam Lerner) -- along with sister Christina (Virginia Gardner), do what they can to help him with the application process. He's admitted, but he's not given the scholarship he needs to attend. His heartbroken mother puts the family home on the market, but David cannot bear to watch the family suffer so he can move ahead with his life. When he finds an old video camera in the attic that contains footage of his seventh birthday party, he makes an astonishing discovery: himself. Not his seven-year-old self but rather him, as he is now, a high school senior, standing the background of one particular, and peculiar, moment. The clues lead him back to the basement where he unearths one of his late father's old secrets: Project Almanac, a "temporal relocation" or "time travel" device. It's in an unfinished and nonworking state, but thanks his and his friends' technical know-how, they piece it together and get it operational. Their fun time travel diversions, however, quickly catch up to them, leaving David responsible for setting things straight before the world spins out of control.

Project Almanac doesn't reinvent the Time Travel sub-genre, but it certainly knows how to have some fun with it. The movie's middle stretch dedicates to all of the wild-eyed, hair-brained schemes that so often flood the mind when it's time to ponder the "what ifs?" of time travel -- passing the test, winning the lottery, throwing a great party, hitting up an event, or saying the right thing to get the girl. It's fun to watch fantasy spring to life in one of the more cheery bits of time travel shenanigans cinema has ever seen, and even if little of it amounts to much more than entertaining filler, it's a nice reprieve from the heavier (is there something wrong with the Earth's gravitational pull?) time travel paradoxes that define most of these movies. Project Almanac does go there, and it does so satisfactorily, with a predictable but honest loop-back to one of the key moments of the first act. Things get a little complicated on the way, however, and the movie doesn't do the best job in the world of giving tangible shape, meaning, depth, and most importantly approachability to the mess the kids make of the timeline, but credit the movie for throwing it out there, blending it in with the more happy-go-lucky fantasy angle of it all, and offering a fairly complete picture of the ups and downs of time travel as experienced by a few modern-day teenagers.

Unfortunately, those teenagers represent the movie's single greatest shortcoming, outside of, arguably, the wobbly, unnecessary "found footage" style that only ever gets in the way and adds nothing to the movie, neither visually nor dramatically. But the characters -- even lead protagonist David -- lack personality and distinguishing characteristics. They're flatly developed and rely more on base camaraderie than intimate detailing to sell their friendship and shared experiences in time travel. Even with David's manufactured credentials, the movie stretches plausibility to its limits that he and a couple of friends, with the horsepower inside their Xbox 360 and a few little off-the-shelf components, could finish David's father's work, which is conveniently left behind in the family basement rather than kept under lock-and-key at some secure facility. Nevertheless, the characters -- and their skills -- seem like just a way to get to the juicy stuff. That's OK; not every movie can overflow with creativity or introduce a Doc Brown to the world, but it would have been nice if there was a little more in the way deeper characterization to go along with the movie's blend of fantasy-meets-the-reality of time travel that it does fairly well, and surprisingly so at that.

Project Almanac Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Project Almanac may be a "found footage" movie, but it at least doesn't look like one. While all the shaky cam, skewered angles, and other hallmarks remain, the movie doesn't have that blocky, low-res "prosumer" look about it. Project Almanac looks quite handsome, truth be told, presenting a surprisingly film-like image that's sometimes lost to all the excess motion but that becomes abundantly evident when things slow down. General details are a great strength. Basic image clarity excels. Backgrounds in several key locations -- David's basement, various spots around school -- reveal accents with pinpoint precision. Facial and clothing textures are spot-on accurate, too. There's some intentional break-up seen throughout the film as the camera is rattled by the heavy time travel thumps and thuds and whirlwind-like activity that accompany the jumps. Colors are simple but effective; nothing stands out as excessively flashy or unusually dull, resulting in a good palette that largely goes unnoticed, and that's not a bad thing. Flesh tones satisfy and blacks, likewise, impress, particularly evident at night. There's a small bit of banding in a couple of shots as well as some scattered noise but nothing that rises to the level of concern. On the whole, and for the style, this is an excellent presentation from Paramount.

Project Almanac Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Project Almanac's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack excels. Its primary element comes in the way of the heavy, rumbly sound effect that accompanies actual time travel. The track not only creates a hefty, immersive depth and low end thrust in these moments, but all of the bits of debris and whooshing air that swirls around also fill the stage to make for a complete, satisfying, and believable effect. Other bits are equally impressive, such as the drone buzzing through the speakers early in the film, light background ambience out in the neighborhood, and basic school hallway and cafeteria din. Even little things like a rattly shopping cart being pushed through a store are naturally authentic. Music is well balanced and enjoys precision clarity. Dialogue is true to life and focused in the center. This track does everything right and helps pull the audience into the film from a sonic perspective.

Project Almanac Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Project Almanac contains alternate and deleted scenes. Inside the Blu-ray case, buyers will find a DVD copy of the film as well as a voucher for a UV/iTunes digital copy.

• Alternate Opening (1080p, 3:29).
• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Adam Plays Baseball (1:39), Scholarships (1:14), Cafeteria Kiss (0:33), Fundraising (0:52), Adam Made the Team (1:00), Predicting the Pitch (0:56), Rooftop Fight (1:01), and Quinn Confronts David (1:52).
• Alternate Endings (1080p): Alternate Ending 1 -- Going Somewhere (2:34) and Alternate Ending 2 -- My 7th Birthday (2:11).

Project Almanac Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Project Almanac has "disaster" written all over it, particularly considering its "found footage" approach. Yet the movie rises above expectations -- not too far, certainly, but higher than anticipated -- and offers a nicely balanced and enjoyable time travel experience that takes the time to enjoy the possibilities before getting into the nitty-gritty consequences thereof. Though neither as mentally deep nor emotionally pulling as the genre's best, Project Almanac nevertheless manages to entertain in all its imperfect glory. It never wears out its welcome but it does play it rather safe and never stretches its characters. Still, it's a fun little ride that should scratch most ay time travel itch. Paramount's Blu-ray release of Project Almanac features solid video and audio. Supplements are limited to a handful of alternate and deleted scenes. Worth a rental at release and a purchase on the very cheap down the line.