I just watched Timecrimes, the 2007 Spanish movie, and I was very disapointed by it. I felt a lot like I did coming out of "The Truman Show." In both cases, I felt that having seen/read a lot of better science fiction with similar stories or concepts that these movies just didn't impress me much while others thought they were great.
My main complaint about Timecrimes comes from the unbelievable actions or responses of the characters in the movie.
(spoilers)
First of all Hector at first seems to know nothing about time travel, can't seem to even understand the concept of who the other Hector is, but within a few moments (minutes or hours in his world) he seems fully versed and knows that he must manipulate the timeline to get Hector 1 into the machine.
Second, many of the characters seem to react to what is happening in completely bizarre ways. When Hector first arives at the "house" of the institute, he doesn't look for a door, he just straight up smashes a window. He doesen't look for a phone, he just plods around (eventually finding the walkie talkie). He plods up the path to the time machine seemingly unhurried despite being chased by a killer. Only the scientist's urging gets him to run. After Hector gets out of the time machine he doesn’t seem to react normally, he asks no questions and just heads outside. The Girl just follows him into the woods cause he asks and insists, and when he is a considerable distance away from her with only a knife, not even looking at her, she just stands around not even attempting to escape for quite a while. Half the movie I was sitting around wondering why these people were acting the way they were, it was totally unbelievable. It always seemed like they were just doing what they were doing because the plot demanded it, not that any reasonable or even frightened person would do those things.
Finally, the thing I dislike most is Hector 3’s final actions. Hector 3 doesn’t even try to avoid the death of The Girl. Instead of talking to Hector 2, and trying to avoid the death, he just goes about plotting a murder. There is no way that the characters in the movie, or even we viewers, can know what will happen if the events of the “past” are altered by the characters. For someone who just learned about time travel a few hours before, he seems to be awfully certain murder is a better outcome than trying anything else. I figure that Hector 3 could meet Hector 2 on the stairs, direct him downstairs and tell Hector 2 what he needs to do to become Hector 3. “Do x, then y, then get in the machine and travel back to the start, then do z, then meet yourself here and tell your earlier self what I am telling you now”. Yeah, we don’t know that Hector 3 would stay intact, we don’t know that the universe wouldn’t unravel (ala Back to the Future), but we don’t know the opposite either. I don't see the justification that the character as presented would decide to commit murder over trying to find a way out. I realize this is completely subjective, but for me it was another example of the character acting as the plot requires rather than how anyone rational or even scared would act. I realize that Hector 2 could have done the same thing by meeting with and talking to Hector 1, but that is more difficult as Hector 1 knows nothing about the time travel and would short circuit much of the plot. But that has to be preferable to outright murder.
So what do you guys think of the film? Did anyone have a similar reaction to mine?
My main complaint about Timecrimes comes from the unbelievable actions or responses of the characters in the movie.
(spoilers)
First of all Hector at first seems to know nothing about time travel, can't seem to even understand the concept of who the other Hector is, but within a few moments (minutes or hours in his world) he seems fully versed and knows that he must manipulate the timeline to get Hector 1 into the machine.
Second, many of the characters seem to react to what is happening in completely bizarre ways. When Hector first arives at the "house" of the institute, he doesn't look for a door, he just straight up smashes a window. He doesen't look for a phone, he just plods around (eventually finding the walkie talkie). He plods up the path to the time machine seemingly unhurried despite being chased by a killer. Only the scientist's urging gets him to run. After Hector gets out of the time machine he doesn’t seem to react normally, he asks no questions and just heads outside. The Girl just follows him into the woods cause he asks and insists, and when he is a considerable distance away from her with only a knife, not even looking at her, she just stands around not even attempting to escape for quite a while. Half the movie I was sitting around wondering why these people were acting the way they were, it was totally unbelievable. It always seemed like they were just doing what they were doing because the plot demanded it, not that any reasonable or even frightened person would do those things.
Finally, the thing I dislike most is Hector 3’s final actions. Hector 3 doesn’t even try to avoid the death of The Girl. Instead of talking to Hector 2, and trying to avoid the death, he just goes about plotting a murder. There is no way that the characters in the movie, or even we viewers, can know what will happen if the events of the “past” are altered by the characters. For someone who just learned about time travel a few hours before, he seems to be awfully certain murder is a better outcome than trying anything else. I figure that Hector 3 could meet Hector 2 on the stairs, direct him downstairs and tell Hector 2 what he needs to do to become Hector 3. “Do x, then y, then get in the machine and travel back to the start, then do z, then meet yourself here and tell your earlier self what I am telling you now”. Yeah, we don’t know that Hector 3 would stay intact, we don’t know that the universe wouldn’t unravel (ala Back to the Future), but we don’t know the opposite either. I don't see the justification that the character as presented would decide to commit murder over trying to find a way out. I realize this is completely subjective, but for me it was another example of the character acting as the plot requires rather than how anyone rational or even scared would act. I realize that Hector 2 could have done the same thing by meeting with and talking to Hector 1, but that is more difficult as Hector 1 knows nothing about the time travel and would short circuit much of the plot. But that has to be preferable to outright murder.
So what do you guys think of the film? Did anyone have a similar reaction to mine?
