My Review of "Predestination"

Predestination is a movie that came out in 2014. I haven't heard of this movie but I do like my time travel movies. When I saw the description for the movie it seemed innocent enough. It was supposed to be your run of the mill time travel movie where they fix a problem in the past or the future to make the world a better place. Instead this kind of flipped everything around.

The movie starts off with a quote and a very mysterious scene. The question was asking if we could get away with killing a monster that caused the deaths of many would you do it? It then goes into a scenario where a mysterious assailant is arming a bomb.

Something horribly goes wrong in the process and there is someone on the floor with their face totally burnt. It's a gruesome scene and doesn't really give you any context whatsoever as to what's going on. Don't worry though, the story will all reveal itself eventually closer to the end.

We then get introduced to a time travel agent. He's sworn to secrecy and is working for the government. His job is to jump to the past to find some sort of fizzle bomber. This bomber is the evil doer that claims the lives of thousands of individuals in New York city.

Little did we know that this time traveler has attempted to apprehend this individual many times and failed doing so just as many. He then goes into the past into a bar. There he works as a bartender and he meets a very strange fellow.

The two of them build some sort of rapport with one another and eventually the mysterious man opens up. He wants to tell the bartender his miraculous life story.

This is where the movie goes off the rails for me. From the opening scene of this movie it seemed like there would be a lot more time travel and action. Instead this movie is more about this mysterious person in the bar. Although this individual does have one hell of a story. Still I feel a little duped at this point of the movie.

That's not to say that this movie isn't good. Even though I started realizing this movie was going another direction they were able to keep me on board for the ride. Boy was this story a roller coaster. The story already starts to sound strange from the very beginning but you can kind of tell where this movie is going as the story unfolds.

For me there isn't really a huge shock factor closer to the end of this movie. I thought that they pretty much lay it on pretty thick for us as the viewers to understand what is about to happen next. Even though it was quite predictable it was still engaging.

Each member of the cast was able to bring so much life to their characters. This helped me get totally absorbed in this absurd story. I also liked the fact that they covered a lot of the big questions a lot of people might question throughout the movie. Why were they only specifically looking at this one big incident when there is tragedy throughout our human existence?

They do have a few rules for their time traveling agents and they kind of explain why they couldn't prevent things like world wars. That's not really the point of the movie though. This movie is more so about the story of this mysterious man in the bar. It all harkens back to the age old story of what came first the chicken or the egg.

Of course a lot of people will be able to rip this movie apart with logical questions like how does it all start etc. To enjoy this movie you can't think like that. I believe this goes for all time travel movies because ultimately they are all flawed in their own way.

Time travel movies tend to have some moral dilemma questions that we all ask ourselves. What would we do if we could travel to the past. How would we fix ourselves. This movie is no different.

Overall, the most important aspect of this movie is if it was entertaining. I would have to say yes. I liked how they pieced everything together at the end. Although predictable it was still satisfying to see the end result of the insanity that happens in this movie. I would have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. It's a worthy movie to check out especially if you're into science fiction movies.