GRADE: D

I’m not usually one for puns, but I couldn’t resist. The movie is filled with pun-esque dialogue revolving around time, so I felt I owed it to the film. This was one of the things that never really settled in for me. I couldn’t look past this type of dialogue where characters talk about time as a currency, a way of life. And the film doesn’t help the viewer get there either as Justin Timberlake says in the beginning that he doesn’t know how the world got there — this is essentially saying, ‘This is the way of life, accept it.’ Well, it’s a lot harder to accept when not a whole lot makes sense. I will be the first to admit, my initial reaction to the trailer was way off, because In Time turned out to be a dud.

First I’ll review the film in the video below. Then I’ll talk spoilers after the video. So when you see In Time, check back in.

..: SPOILERS :..

The different classes of people are separated by a system of check points where travelers are forced to pay a huge sum of time like a month, and four months to join the richest collection of people. This would make sense if people could only travel on the roads. Why can’t people just walk in the terrain, off the provided path, or cross the river in the film like illegal immigrants do to enter our country? Maybe there is some sort of militarized defense — but of course, as I said in the review, very little in this futuristic environment is explained. Oh no, the roads are guarded, no one can go anywhere without permission. Yeah right.

The concept of transferring time is absolutely ridiculous. Like I said, if there is no way to keep the ghetto people out of the richer time zones other than sentry points on the road, why wouldn’t the poor revolt and go steal time from the rich? If it’s as simple as grabbing someone’s arm, go jack all the rich peoples’ time. And you would think everyone in the ghetto would just be killing one another off constantly, stealing the time from the weak to survive. Yet, we only see a few doing that. Sure there are time cops, but when peoples’ lives are at stake, masses will do anything. This weak cop force couldn’t stop them all.

The game where two ‘macho’ men grab arms and fight over time — “We play to zero” — is quite possibly the dumbest piece of action I’ve ever seen. It was laughable watching JT and Pettyfer fighting over the time. The writer who cooked up this idea for a game, should be dealt with.

Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfriend drive an armored truck through the front doors of a “time loaning” post and simply walk off uncontested with tons of looted time. First off, there is no resistance? No security guarding this “bank”? In a time — there I go again — where time is the currency, you would think there would be armed security like at any other place in possession of precious resources. You would think as much, considering time is the most precious resource. Second, how are JT and Amanda the first people in the ghetto to think of simply busting through and stealing the time? There is no security, you would think people who are going to die off without extra time would discover this.

Another small thing that annoyed me was the couple just all of the sudden driving around this armored truck. How did they get it? Wouldn’t it be just as difficult to steal this truck away from armored guards, or did the guy just leave it running on the side of the road?

The last scene in the film really made me roll my eyes. This modern day Bonnie and Clyde walk up to this gigantic building where time is kept with two hand guns and talk about robbing it. How would a fortified place like that get robbed by two people with handguns? Wouldn’t an establishment like this have enough security to handle two people armed with no more than pistols? And wouldn’t these time reservoirs be ready for the threat of theft due to the escalation from recent events, especially a chain of time banks being robbed?

The worst sequence by far was when JT and Seyfried penetrate her father’s guard. First, JT is the most wanted fugitive in this whole… city, country, world, whatever it is. As previously stated, no definition. Somehow he gets to be part of the personal security of arguably the most important man in this world. There is no background check for this type of job? His face is plastered on billboards, television, and posters all over, and no one notices him? Epic fail.

Then, after they steal the one million years or however long it was, they simply go back to their car and leave. No resistance again? The personal security detail just vanishes after their boss is taken hostage, and there is no alarm after one million years is stolen out of a highly important locked vault? This gigantic lavish building has no extra security?

The second stupidest part of the film is when JT and Seyfried have to reenact the running scene that took place at the beginning of the film with Olivia Wilde dying. I understand trying to reuse that scene, so the audience knows that JT can’t let the same thing that happened to his mom, happen to the woman he loves. But this should have never happened because five minutes before this, THEY HAD ONE MILLION YEARS IN THEIR HANDS! Neither of them thought to take some of it knowing they would die when the five minutes on their arms ran out?!

JT has never driven before, yet in the movie he is involved in high speed chases and pulls off extremely technically skilled maneuvers. He explains there is nothing to driving, but driving like that, yes, there really is. Driving like that takes a lot of skill, and having your main character just saying it’s easy isn’t going to convince an audience his driving prowess makes sense. He also never talks about getting into fights, or firing a gun, or acts like a badass early on despite living up in such dire conditions. The only fighting he talks about is the “arm” fighting I described above. Yet, he is able to beat up and escape and entire squad of trained time officers with Seyfried as his hostage, and later kill an entire pack of gangsters in 4 seconds… of time.

In Time explains that everyone lives until they are 25, and then after that their clock is ticking. The clock needs to be replenished to survive, and everything in the society is purchased with this time. But if the clock does not start until 25, how do those under 25 pay for things? Their clocks aren’t running yet — do they just use the stockpile of time built up? Do they have unlimited time before they are 25? Again, poorly defined.

The guy who gives JT all his time acts like he can’t die unless he gives all his time up. If he really wanted to die, he could easily just kill himself. The film says people can still die outside of running out of time. I’m not saying this is completely un-plausible that this character doesn’t just jump off a bridge — which he essentially does anyway — it just would have worked to have him say he wanted to give the time away to someone deserving or something.

How about In Time constantly referring to JT’s dad, but never actually following through and explaining his significance? That really ticked me off. And what are the chances that one of the only other people to reject the system was his dad? JT was only significant in this world because he got the gift from the suicidal man. The guy didn’t seek him out, so JT getting all this time was just by chance — and the film never established any sort of destiny type angle, so don’t even try to make that argument.

I could go on longer, because this whole concept of time being everything in a society does not make a whole lot of sense to me. The filmmakers really needed to do a lot more to make this futuristic concept work.

What Did You Think Of The Film?

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