Wondrous preacher of time travelling mayhem

Rating: 7/10 (3 November 2009)

Terminator, Donnie Darko and Bill and Ted's excellent adventure have all debated the mystic art of travelling to and from collective points in time. Throughout this wonderfully colourful and exuberant picture Gilliam contests the implications of time travel and how it affects society.
Bruce Willis is the time traveller as he is sent from the future to suss out the beginning of the end for humanity. This complex ideology provokes meaning of health, disease in the face of humans and animals and strikes a provocative note for the way the world is being run. 14 years since its release and issues with animal testing and time travel are still present in our world and with this being a good preacher, alerting us to the environment's dangers; this is also a timeless picture, easily watchable again and again.
Like Donnie Darko you will need to watch it over and over to fully comprehend the hidden messages. The climax is heavily debated and open to many depictions. This is a very good picture owing to its preaching ideologies and masterful open situations.
However there are a few issues to be debated. For one the ending whilst brilliantly open still leaves a massive weight to be decided. There is an overload of characters with not a strong depiction on many except the central three. Though you will want to watch it again the first viewing gives the viewer an awful lot to deal with but it is certainly worth it come the finale.
Willis is good as the central protagonist keeping a clever restraint on his character's emotions whilst Brad Pitt's elaborately provocative protagonist excels in being mentally unstable but with a hidden agenda that adds delicious mystery and tension at all the right places. His Oscar nomination fully deserved.
Gilliam, a master of the unusual, brings his elaborate styling to this picture with the future depicted as cellmate survivors chosen to go into the past and the guard ruling from high chairs. The selection process is wonderfully weird with Cole's brief future stint on the earth's surface exceptionally breathtaking. This particular scene marks the picture's cinematography highlight with the snow and the lion placing the picture right into its main point, the future. There are occasional over steps, such as the weird ball shaped object Cole looks into before travelling in time and the section in the war seemed a bit unnecessary.
Whilst there are minor slip ups this is a wonderfully imaginative picture that excels on its issues of real life and the climate we live in. Gilliam shines with profound imagination with the story revolving and turning till the excellent end scene.