Monty Pythons writer+ time travel+ Apocalypse= weird but good!

Rating: 8/10 (21 July 2016)

12 Monkeys is one of the most interesting and weird movies, I have ever seen. Anything from its designs ,costume and setting are unique and I am unable to say for sure from where Terry Gilliam took inspiration. What did you expect he is one of the writers of the Monty Pythons movies ,so such a surrealism in the movie ,it should be expected! So the movie is no doubt a good one and it has the rare distinction to be a good non-linear flick. Just for the record that kind of flick has a confusing story, the editing is made in a non-linear way and at times you find yourself question what the hell is happening. And that method has become famous by Quentin Tarantino.
And sadly this method though quit interesting, has some major drawbacks: 1) It is difficult 2) You have to know when and where to do it That is the reason why few directors use it. Just take the movie Alexander , which is a complete mess ,honesty I have no idea what was he thinking.
And here we go: In 1996 (keep in my the movie came out in 1995) a man- made virus emerge and devastates the human population forcing us to go under ground in order to survive. So about forty years after a operation is organized and gives to some convicts a choice, if they travel through time in order to gather evidence for the virus for the science team to create an antidote for this virus, they will be pardoned! One of the volunteers is James Cole, played by Bruce Willis, and he is the main character and for this movie the point of view character and this mission ,although it sounds pretty straight forward, there is very important issue with the time travel business: Time traveling has the major side effect , it mess with your perception of reality and we can clearly seeing to Cole's case .
This breaking of the understanding of what is real is seen by the fact Cole is seeing and hear things that doesn't add up and the fact that at times his story line is anything but linear, for he is in one point of time and in other in the next scene makes for a surreal experience ,which at times makes you question ,who must reliable is your POV character, for even though it is clear that time travel creates issues, so much craziness seems a bit extreme! And that is great this gives one for the main themes our relationship with technology, which on the one hand helps us find solution (time traveling) ,but on the other the virus was artificial!
Also an other theme that come in to view with so much time hopping the memories of Cole can they be real or he for real nuts, it is open to you to decide and whatever you think ,you may right,wrong or both ;)! In short in a world that has sane people act like idiots and the, so called, crazy give logical expansions for what is happening ,how could we be sure for what we think ,is made for logical conclusions or we have lost it? That question is made by Brad Pitt's character Jeffrey Goines for that times (literally) he seems be totally mad and what he says makes sense and when we see him "be sane he sounds and moves with no connection to the reality!
In general the movie give zero care to say an linear story or make any real sense of what is happening, but it try to make you question all of the above ,with some time traveling throw in to the mix ,just to confuse you even more! And here is the broken part, the fact that you can't not make sense what is happening and the nut job character you meet don't help either. That ambiguity makes the flick awesome for philosophical questions like those above can be made, but they have to fit to the story and here they do very well.
In short if you want to play smart to the hipsters,cine snubs that think they are smart then watch that movie and used mad clews in order to break their little pathetic ideals to the iceberg of the Titanic! Have a good it and if you don't understand it the first time, its OK I deed it to watch two times in a weekend to get it and then read some analyses for that! So don't feel that the film wants to make you feel stupid, it wants to make you fear confused, confused?