The Parallax Theory

First off I hate how this is listed as a TV miniseries, as it lead me to worry I had watched some kind of insanely edited 72 minute version of what was a 6 hour thing, but apparently according to the listing on amazonprime, each episode is around 15-20 minutes, so the 72 minute film is the thing in its entirety.

This is the sort of film that, due to the choices made by the writing and the director, necessitates a very strong, likeable, charismatic lead character, because we are in this "ride" with them all throughout and they are narrating it all throughout.

Unfortunately, the lead guy is a complete a-hole. It's almost entirely due to the writing and the script, not the actual actor. His character is insufferably obnoxious, snarky, arrogant, and just a little bit dumb, and at no point does he appear to have any real redeeming characteristics.

Even his meeting of his future wife goes literally straight from "hi, i'm john" to them having sex for the first time in 10-15 seconds. Aside from coming up with his parallax theory, of which we see and hear almost nothing specific to judge it scientifically, he is just an average jerk whom we are constantly told how great and smart he is, but at no point does he ever show any hints of greatness.

Instead, he just randomly, spontaneously out of nowhere, comes up with a theory that an asteroid that passed Earth in 1979 is a binary asteroid, and the other asteroid will hit Earth in a year. No one believes him but his youtube video goes viral and an eccentric millionaire type pays him to help build a fallout shelter.

There's a slew of minor characters and events who are very poorly written and largely serve to continuously pump up the audience with just how awesome John is and what a genius he is and so many of the tense dramatic moments end up prompting laughter.

Apparently the lead of this show is a you tube star. He should stick to making you tube videos and not acting. He is so bad it's cringe worthy. The girl that plays his wife was pretty bad as well. She was so over dramatic it was terrible. Not trying to be mean but she looks like E.T. Her eyes are so far apart! I have no idea how they got these roles but they are terrible. I really hope that this kid uses some better actors next time and not his friend. Vincent Cyr needs an acting coach or something if he ever plans to act again. The acting takes you so far out of the story which isn't terrible. It's not that original either. I would find something else to watch instead of this thing. I hate to bad mouth things but it was so bad I couldn't help but write about it!!

The super positive reviews here must be friends and family of the cast, because this was just atrocious.

The male lead's acting was so pretentious I thought this was a comedy when it first started. Super smart guy just knows stuff...because? Whatever.

The pacing of the story just feels "off". Why was this a tv series, again? Each episode is 15 minutes, and there are only 6...just make it a movie! Are films so bad nowadays that studios carve them up in post production into short tv episodes in an attempt to what, make them seem less dull?

Mission not accomplished here. So boring, with an incredibly unlikeable cast. Hard, hard pass.

I thought that this might be a cool movie based on its premise. But falls into tropes at almost every turn. This movie had bad acting, bad writing and bad directing. It had no energy, nothin in it to want me to watch The performances were tired and obvious. Please do yourself a favor don't waste 72 minutes on this movie. I gave it 1 star because I couldn't go lower

So, I've been a big fan of Sawyers work for a few years, and I knew that this would be good, but holy crap. This was freaking beautiful! The cinematography was absolutely stunning, with great VFX and insanely talented actors. Vincent Cyr did an amazing job as playing Jonathan, and I'm not just saying that because my name is Jonathan. He has a bright future ahead of him as an actor. He is also a very talented director too, with his YouTube videos. I've heard that Sawyer's next film is an adaptation of his short "Welcome to Tokyo"? I love that short so much. In the end, the Parallax Theory is absolutely stunning, and I am very proud of Sawyer for making his first feature length film!