La hora señalada

In NYC, air traffic controller Dylan Branson (Michiel Huisman) has a premonition of a shooting in Grand Central Station at 2:22pm. He goes to work and nearly crashes two planes into each other at 2:22pm. He continues to encounter strange occurrences at 2:22pm. He meets art gallery owner Sarah Barton (Teresa Palmer).

There is a good idea somewhere here and these actors could have made it work. I'm still not sure if this premise makes any kind of movie sense. It would probably make more sense without the complication of the past loop. It could be more compelling. I really like the beautiful looking couple although they could have some better writing. The movie just needs to clear up the rambling premise.

This movie will frustrate you at the end, where you are expecting explanations and loose ends tied up, but no - only a lot of confusion that makes absolutely no sense.

Acting was amateur. Writing was worse, and in fairness is perhaps why the actors made such a poor impression on me.

This movie has no point! Zero!

An American sci-fi drama; A story about an air traffic controller who is suspended from his job after a near miss incident, who starts to notice a reoccurence of the conditions that led to his suspension. Drawn into a complex relationship, he must figure out a way to control time itself. Pattern, repetition and predestination often feature in sci-fi fantasy movie plots, but when complicated ideas are ill-explained, it makes for difficult viewing for the circumspect viewer, even one prepared to suspend belief. The lead character is a poseur, a man of metropolitan cliché, rushing about carelessly - this runs in stark contrast to the traits one associates with an air traffic controller. The love story also feels unnatural. The stylisation of the film feels misplaced too with voiceovers that reduce the illusion further.

Overall I enjoyed this movie but I think it was more style than substance. The direction and visuals were excellent - it's possibly worth watching the movie solely for them, especially if that's your kind of thing. The aerial ballet and art exhibit scenes in particular (which you get a hint of in the trailer) were stunning. It's a well-made movie with a sufficient budget.

I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say it reminded me of Knowing and Twelve Monkeys - however, compared to those two movies, the stakes felt rather low and the mystery was never particularly compelling, on top of being a little too predictable. I always felt I knew the general direction it was heading, even if I didn't have all the details yet.

Keeping this short, I don't understand why there's so many negative reviews of this flick. I see a repeating pattern for genre movies such as this, in that the sex & explosions popcorn actioner crowd seem to take it personally when they don't understand what's going on.

Above average movies such as this and other hidden gems like "Predestination" get an unfair rap from the instant gratification legions, who seemingly don't like any pointed reminders that they're stupid.

Good casting, locations, cinematography and a breathtaking soundtrack used to the best possible effect make this a welcome addition to the stable of movies that you wouldn't usually watch because of all the naysayers, but are glad you did once you do. Yeah, there's some minor plothole issues and the pacing was a bit confusing at times, but the good far outweighs the bad.

Watch it.