ARQ

Time loop movie. Does it make sense overall or rather are there holes? There probably are some, but upon first viewing I couldn't find big ones that would take the fun out of watching the movie. So if you are into Science Fiction and movies with a tight idea, than this is one to watch and enjoy.

Twists and turns are coming accordingly of course and some are very neat and sweet indeed. The acting is OK for a genre movie and the characters are "acting" appropriately. There is action, there is tension and everything is playing at one location. So while it may seem easy (logistically speaking, also wardrobe), it isn't easy to keep the tension high for the viewer and making it fresh every time around. The movie achieves that on a tight budget

I saw Edge of Tomorrow a few months ago, and ARQ is a movie best scene when it's been so long since you've seen a good time loop movie that your standards aren't too high. Because Edge of Tomorrow is a lot better.

In this movie, a man keeps going through the same eventful couple of hours as masked thugs invade his home. There's more to it than that, of course, and he finds himself dealing with a variety of circumstances in a variety of ways.

It's all perfectly adequate as time loop stories go, but it lacks the sort of clever touches one expects from mind-breaking fiction, although I did like a revelation close to the end.

This is a low budget movie that all takes place on a handful of sets in an ordinary house. The dystopian background is generic and the acting is more functional than anything else.

It's fine, if you have nothing better to watch.

This is going to be somewhat of a difficult review as my rating is based on hypotheticals... let me explain that:

This movie is very familiar in the sense that the "groundhog day" concept has been beaten to death, then you wake up and it's beaten to death, then you wake, etc... however I felt ARQ did an amazing job of realizing this, and ushered us into the story line of continuous time-loops relatively fast and efficient, while still keeping me intrigued to the background story taking place. There is a lot of information and history left to the imagination which will definitely turn viewers away, though I personally found quite refreshing. They stuck to the main story line without jam packing a compendium of background knowledge into the film. The acting was great, the set was limited to a house which really created an intimate environment for the viewer, and the film pulled off a cliché story while maintaining a certain level of uniqueness.

This is where the hypotheticals come in to play: If this was the pilot episode for a new TV series setting up a story line for an entire season (one in which the time-loop was resolved early and didn't play-out all season) then this would be flipping fantastic, and would have every viewer intrigued and ready to watch the next episode. As you would expect in a really great pilot episode, the ending left me smiling while simultaneously giving the finger to my TV screen. If a second episode was out, no way I'd be choosing to write this instead of finding out what comes next. However, this wasn't a pilot episode, it was a movie. Which kind of changes my tune a bit, and leaves me still giving the finger to my TV, though without the accompaniment of a smile. I really hope they somehow expand on this with a sequel, or turn it into a TV show, but those are hypotheticals.

I still choose to give this a higher rating, because it could be the beginning of something awesomely awesome. If I were you, I'd give it a watch and see for yourself... Here's to OPTIMISM!!

I'm starting to really like Netflix. Everything I've watched from them turns out to be very good, which is amazing because I was beginning to believe that the era of movies is over. It seems that nobody wants to make good movies anymore, CGI is king, and viewers are expected to like whatever is released by the greedy studios. Then Netflix happens and suddenly you can watch movies like ARQ.

To the point, though: I've just finished watching ARQ, literally one minute ago, and I didn't even wait for the credits to run, I was already on IMDb signing in to write a review. I've never done it before, but this time I had to. This movie deserves a lot of praise. Of course, it is a 'Groundhog day' type of movie that has been done before, but I've never seen it done so well. That's why I usually hate this type of movie: because they don't get the science right, they don't have a suspenseful story and they do a lot of illogical stuff just so they could wrap things up nicely. This isn't a mess of a movie like that. That's the main thing I liked about it, that they keep me waiting to see how the next loop is going to change. The story is really gripping, and I liked the actors a lot, they really make it look realistic and believable. And I love that someone finally came up with a story like that, in which you can see what might happen if you were stuck in a loop. Remember the movie 'Looper'? In the end, if you analyzed it, it didn't make sense. ARQ does, and it keeps you guessing, it's unpredictable. It was such a pleasure to watch, particularly because it's full of twists and turns and I challenge you to guess how it ends. Each loop is a surprise, I can't even say how refreshing it is to have watched something like that. I hope more people come to review ARQ and that they recognize what a little gem this movie is. It's not a great movie, I'm not saying it is, but it is a solid 8 out of 10 as someone already noticed. It really is. I like clever movies, and this was certainly clever. I liked 'Edge of tomorrow' with Tom Cruise for the same reason - because finally the scriptwriter got time travel right, or at least they make it look like that's the way it would work. It's an achievement. A big thumb up to Netflix.

To get this out of the way, the movie is neither a 10 nor a 1 and the end is a bit unsatisfying.

This being said, this movie is enjoyable if you can stand the "Groundhogs Day" mechanics. I would definitely recommend the movie for friends of mine who like Science Fiction movies. Maybe I would even buy the BluRay.

It is full of twists, surprises, I can understand the emotions of the characters and I really like how the characters developed. Yes, there are plot holes (like with every movie that involves time travel), yes, not each performance is Oscar worthy, but if you don't expect "The Godfather" in the Star Wars universe, you might like it.

I rated it 7 out of 10, because I really like SF flicks, for "normal" people it might be a 6.

Enjoy