In a future where people stop aging at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year, having the means to buy your way out of the situation is a shot at immortal youth. Here, Will Salas finds himself accused of murder and on the run with a hostage – a connection that becomes an important part of the way against the system.
We saw this Justin Timberlake flick last night. I was underwhelmed. The society in this movie managed to genetically engineer people to die when their allotted time runs out, have neon green digital read-outs on their arms, be able to restore their time via these handy little metal devices or by clasping each other’s wrists, and oh, yeah, live forever (as long as they have the time stored up.) Amazing.
I could buy that. I was totally willing to buy that. BUT:
1. They still drive regular cars. (Must have a car chase, after all) And the cars actually looked like cars from the 50s. For that matter, the guns looked like today’s guns.
2. They aren’t able to track criminals. I’d think technology would have advanced so that each person has some sort of GPS chip maybe inserted in their bodies. I mean, babies are even born with the read-out, so why not a location device, too?
3. The police/time-keepers don’t seem to be able to use helicopters to chase criminals either.
4. The characters are surprised every time the prices go up on stuff, even though apparently this happens all the time. Justin’s character is surprised when he doesn’t get paid as much because his quota went up when he wasn’t looking. He even surpassed his quota last time! But when we saw him working, he was not working at an “I gotta make quota!” pace. You’d think you’d be a little frenetic when making quota is a matter of life and death.
5. They don’t have cellphones.
6. Apparently Will’s mother can’t just pay for part of her journey home, so she dies because she can’t run all the way before her clock runs out.
And I really didn’t see the point of the movie. The protagonists, Will and Sylvia, were working to free the lower class. But the point of doling out the time was so that the world wouldn’t become overpopulated. If the revolt succeeds, then Earth has a huge problem. I didn’t think the system they had was right, but what Will and Sylvia do isn’t going to solve anything.
My rating: 5/10 stars.
