Written by: Chad St John
To be directed by: Timur Bekmambetov
To star: Robert Downey Jr and Reese Witherspoon
Aliens are destroying our planet by going back in time. They travel back each day to destroy each yesterday. One man, James Smith (Downey Jr), beats them to a yesterday to warn people of impending disaster.
Talk about a nonstop action flick. The action in this one starts from the 2nd page and doesn’t let up for another 109 pages. This is nothing but pure action which will be infused with the charm of Robert Downey Jr and Reese Witherspoon and with Timur Bekmambetov’s visual flare as an added bonus.
There’s probably no-one hotter in Hollywood right now than Robert Downey Jr and it’s surprising that it took the success of Iron Man for the industry (and the public) to realise just how fantastic he is. The guy’s 100% pure charisma isn’t he? Show me someone who doesn’t like Downey and I’ll show you an idiot.
Reese Witherspoon is equally as charming as Downey but packaged in a different way. I actually like Reese Witherspoon, not her tired romantic comedy roles, but the few things she’s done outside of that typically shitty genre. She was great in Freeway and Election. Reading the script it was exceptionally easy to picture her in the role of Riley with everything Riley says sounding like it could come from Witherspoon and her sexy as hell accent.
The dialogue and banter between Riley and Smith is pretty natural save for a few instances and I’m hard pressed to think of two actors who’d be better in these roles than Downey and Witherspoon. Now it may be that because I had these actors in mind before I started reading the script that I somehow projected their suitability onto the characters, but the casting seems pretty spot on to me.
As for the actual aliens the jury’s still out. From what’s in the script I pictured them as the velociraptors from Jurassic Park covered in armour, carrying futuristic assault rifles, and with a Blackberry on their hip. Kinda like a douchebag dinosaur. There’s something equally terrifying and comical about that image. Depending how they’re done and the combination of live action and CGI they could be halfway decent or absolutely terrible. I certainly wasn’t that fearful of them the way they were described in the script though.
On an end note I’d like to say that I really disliked the very last action line which has the Blackberry device powering on, indicating that the alien ships are near. Every time I encounter something like this in a script or film it drives me fucking crazy. Kinda like the shitty ending in the Eagle Eye script where the PS3 says hello to the kid as some indication that the supercomputer AI is still around. Those kind of tags bug the living hell out of me. Just end the fucking story already. It’s one step above winking at the audience. There’s nothing wrong with the film ending with a sense of closure. Hopefully when The Days Before is released that final shot of the Blackberry in the trash won’t make the cut.
RATING: 6/10
CONCLUSION
It’s a very cool concept to be going back in time day by day to prevent aliens from destroying the world but I just wasn’t a fan of the aliens being repilian. Dinosaurs take over the world with assault rifles and Blackberrys. Ugh. I think the imagery of New York being ripped apart will be a major factor in how the film turns out, just as the visual effects for the reptile aliens will be. I have the utmost faith in Downey Jr, Witherspoon and Bekmambetov so if the visual effects are up to scratch I think the film could turn out to be a fairly enjoyable popcorn flick, but that’s all it’s gonna be.
