Well, I promised some feedback on
Timequest, and here it is.
The basic plot is that a scientist from the future travels back in time to warn JFK and Bobby Kennedy about the assasination in Texas, so they can avoid being there. So, he convinces them that he's telling the truth and they avoid the assassination, catch Lee Harvey Oswald and attempt to unravel the plot against the president. Oh, by the way, Mister Time Traveler must've tipped the Kennedy's to the fture as they manage to avoid Vietnam and end up partnering with the Soviet Union to go to the moon, etc...Also, Mr Time Traveller has changed is own history in the process so the Kennedy's find the young kid who would grow up to invent time travel and watch over him and take care off him.
The film is well made in terms of production, etc...for the most part. In the end, the serious problem is that, well, it really didn't have much of a story to say, and it didn't have enough time to say it. One device the director uses is to constantly switch between time frames (1960s, 1970, early 2000s) to throw the viewer off and try to build tension. This actually works to provide some uncertainty, but in the end this just masks the movie's lack of fundamental tension or conflict. Basically, guy has (rather creepy) obsession with the Kennedy family and the "Camelot" of the JFK presidency, goes back in time to stop the assassination, and life is great after that. There isn't really much conflict ot story to tell. There's an attempt to build some tension with Bobby Kennedy in a poltical fight with J.Edgar Hoover and Bobby trying to find the young time traveller in the new time line, but it really doesn't amount to anything. There's also a subplot of Bruce Cambell in a small role as a movie producer in the early 21st century trying to unravel the events in Texas on the day of the assassination, but that never really goes anywhere or amounts to anything.
In all, it's a movie that's more interesting to watch then to have watched. As it goes along, and the movie swaps between time frames, a certain amount of tension builds up and you keep expecting it to go...somewhere...somewhere interesting or dramatic. When you are done and you look back you think "that's it? An hour and a half of the director wishing JFK had not been killed and how great life would've been if that had been the case with some editing to make that seem more interesting than it really was?" Ironically, while there wasn't much of a real plot, if the movie had been longer there might have been time to actually develop some of the sideplots that go nowhere and have them develop into something that actually added some interest. For example, I kept expecting there to be some consequences of Cambell's character trying to unearth the past..but that plot line ends before it can get moving.
Post Edited (09-16-05 10:43)
