SFL 358 Blog Entry #2 - In Time

This movie has a really great premise, but doesn't carry it out very well. It takes place in the future when humans have been genetically manipulated to not age past 25. When they reach the age of 25, the countdown begins. As they work to prolong their lives and extend the clock that displays on their arm, time is literally money. Justin Timberlake's character, who has grown up in the poorest district, fights to give the poor more time and bring down the entire corrupt system.

I like this unique idea and I feel like it could have been a great movie. However, the story that proceeds feels like it is being made up as you watch it. It feels like the director didn't really know where he wanted to go with it, and so he just hastily threw scenes together and came up with an ending that seemed fit. My biggest problem was the amount of questions I left the theater with. Not deep, thought-provoking questions, like "What would I do in such a world?", but rather "Why on earth did they do that? What was the point? Why did that happen? What was their motivation?" These are the kinds of questions that should usually be answered in a film. Finally, my other main beef with this movie is how the vast majority of the actors who are pretending to be 25 are obviously older. I can understand that it would be very difficult to find enough good actors who are 25, but many of the ones they chose were just not believable!

In regards to the effects of the media, this PG-13 movie was rather mild (at least I think it was). There was some violence, but it was nothing graphic. The profanity was pretty low, with only one f-bomb (which was really unnecessary). Some of the violence is glorified, but most of it is shown as evil. I don't believe this media would be very harmful.