A Promise of Time Travel

Interesting story and really nice dialog choices at times - and yet it never really was able to engage me and I reckon that will be true for most people who may decide to watch this low budget effort. Time travelling is a tough subject - no matter how it is used. It can be a great tool for excitement one way or the other for viewers.

While there are some nice moments and touches, I would just call this a decent effort. You may feel differently one way or another. In this case I'm middle of the road ...

I stumbled upon this movie on Amazon prime and started watching fully expecting to turn it off after 10 minutes. Instead, the movie drew me in, entertained, and left a lasting impression. To the point where I felt compelled to leave this review, and I never review anything online. It is a low-budget production, which shows to varying degrees throughout. But if you can overlook the lack of polish, the acting and writing are surprisingly good and drive the movie along.

On the surface, this movie is about time travel, but, like all of the best time travel movies, it is actually about something else. The movie uses time travel to explore ideas of love, obsession, and regret, and does so in a way that I will be thinking about for some time to come.

It is hard to say more without giving spoilers, but I would recommend this movie to anyone who is willing to get passed the low production values in order to experience a really unique story.

The current reviews of this movie average 5.5 from a little over 100 viewers. With no insult-to-intelligence intended, I think that may be because A) a number of people simply didn't understand it (it's not a simple story at all) or B) there wasn't enough adrenaline present to fuel today's CGI-addicted audience.

Despite my lack of tolerance these days for "yet another time travel story", this was unique in both concept and execution. With the exception of the two lead female characters (who both do quite a good job of acting), the other characters seem stylized, goofy and cliche. This gives the film a feel of "amateur" until one starts to realize this may be intentional. Then as the ending is unveiled (no spoilers!) we find out there is very good reason for these characterizations-- and we understand how brilliantly the whole film was carried off.

Could it have been better? Maybe with a big budget and top-level director, yes. But I doubt the story could have been more convincing or the actors done any better job pulling off their roles. (With one conceptual exception, which I simply cannot go into here without a major spoiler.)

The time travel schtick has been done to death... with this exception. This is a bit new, a different twist, and that alone makes this film well worth watching. I wasn't sure until the very end whether I liked it or not, then realized how well done it actually is. Like THE SIXTH SENSE there are clues scattered all throughout the film, but it is unlikely the viewer will recognize any of them until they start coming together near the end. The whole film is like a jigsaw puzzle that provides glimpses here and there but no clear picture until it's almost finished. The ending is a totally unexpected twist that makes this particular take on time travel unique and sets it apart from what-has-gone-before.

So despite the very slow-moving pace of this film, despite lack of real climax or action or anything which ordinarily would move me to give a movie high ratings, I give this a good solid 8 stars for achieving what it intended to achieve and pulling it off in a logical manner.

As a note: if anyone watches this and "doesn't get it" (it helps if you're a scifi geek to start with), just research the ending on Google; there should be explanations aplenty. As someone who has read and watched this genre pretty much all my life, I can say it is one of the better presentations i have seen on this theme and when it all wraps up, is surprisingly well done. I agree with doubtitall's review: the final plot element hits unexpectedly and is worth taking the time to watch this film... even if like me, you've had your fill of time travel movies.

A Promise of Time Travel is a surprising gem.

It has the low budget feel to it, and the special effects are effectively non-existent. The trailer didn't look promising at all. For most of the movie it seemed the story could be just a vehicle for ramblings into thinking about time travel rather than actual science fiction. It seems like it might be one of those movies that ends with a question mark rather than any answers about what's been happening.

Still, the story was intriguing enough to keep me watching, and I'm glad I did. The payoff was superb.

One would think if one had any control over time whats-so-ever, one could have used those powers to speed up the movie just a tad. It crawls along at less than a snail's pace.

Honestly, I am only 1/2 way through the movie and already it seems I have been watching it for an eternity. Hopefully something eventually noteworthy happens.

Since I've yet to see the end, there are no "spoilers" involved here but based on what I've seen so far, I am guessing it will meet the two criteria of a "chick flick". 1. Nothing much happens during the movie. 2. One of the main "nice" characters must die in the end.

Again... That is just a mid-movie prediction... not a spoiler.