Escape 2120

I have three words for this movie: Terr-i-ble. It may have had a great story but I couldn't follow it. The acting; the acting. I normally would disregard bad acting if the story was intriguing. But I didn't pay great attention and wasn't worth it. Played in the background while I looked at stories on my phone 📱.

Terrible acting. Cheap props and scenery. I felt embarrassed for the actors.

The future is ... the woods. And in these woods are a few tan, dome-shaped, canvas tents. And inside these tents are a few wooden tables and chairs. The only thing to eat is apples and tomatoes. And everyone dresses the same.

Oh. And there's only one black person in the future.

There's a guy who looks like Rodney Dangerfield and laughs like Sideshow Bob strutting around harassing people - especially Dave - for some reason that never really makes sense.

Dave is the sullen, prickly, unlikable main protagonist.

This sparsely populated future of all (but one) white people is, inexplicably, preoccupied with the legend of the "Devils Child."

And it looks like Dave is the Devil's Child. But it's all a misunderstanding. And I can't tell you the meaning (much less the menace) of the legend, or how the legend (one of the more boring and pointless legends you'll ever hear) got started.

Anyway ... there's this legend and, because Dave steals some era-appropriate clothing from a wooden box inside one of the canvas tents, they decide he's the Devil's Child. Which is a weird touchstone because they don't have currency in this communist "utopia" and everyone wears the exact same Joanne Fabric jacquard camouflage outfit so ... why would anyone even know or care about the clothes? They act like he's committed the worst sin imaginable to modern human.

Dave is not a time traveler, per se. He arrived to this "utopia" (movie synopsis description, not mine) by curling up in a cave and inducing a state of suspended animation. So it's not like he did something to alter the timeline, thus creating the legend that he would then double back and inadvertently became the star of.

I just don't know. I mean ... I REALLY don't know because, suddenly, the "rules" seem to change. He goes from a guy who napped his way 700 years into the future (a one-way trip) to a guy who is able to jump around into different timelines and (I guess) dimensions.

The device he uses to accomplish this feat looks like the guts of a 1960s transistor radio. Somehow the D batteries used to power this contraption haven't decomposed in the intervening seven centuries.

WT actual F? Just when I think I kinda understand the stupid premise, some script writer's drunk brother enters the room and says, 'hold my beer.'

Whenever I start watching an obviously low budget, indie film, I prepare myself mentally for weird premises, subpar acting, plot holes, homemade props, jarring soundtracks and jerky editing. By lowering my expectations, I'm often rewarded with a quirky and memorable little gem.

But this one? I don't get it. Even allowing for the obligatory, sci-fi suspension-of-disbelief, nothing is even remotely plausible. Nor does it add up to anything logical.

I award it all of the 'Ed Wood' stars available.

Just when the current year couldn't get any worse, there is this.

"Escape 2120" tells the tale of Dave, a young man who had lost his parents, and was looking to escape his life. He wins a competition with his prize of helping two scientists with their experiment in time travel.

The story has great ideas, in both who to travel through time, and what the world would be like in the distant future.

Unfortunately, the movie was very slow moving, with a number of the concepts, not very well explained.

Too much time was spent on dialogue, and not enough on exploring the world of the future.

I did like the Doc - who seemed to be a cross between Doc Brown (Back to the Future) and Max Headroom.

With a bigger budget, this movie would have had the potential to be very impressive and entertaining.

I did watch this movie till the end, but it was a struggle.