Too much like parody

Rating: 5/10 (24 March 2008)

I enjoy almost any sort of SF but this had too much of the parody about it for me to really enjoy. The other thing is that I go to the movies to escape from the madhouse, not be immersed in it.
The story is interesting, it's the presentation which spoiled it for me. In 1996, a virus decimates humanity, killing 5 billion and leaving a mere 50 million who are forced to seek refuge underground - non-human animals once again rule the surface of the earth.
Convict James Ross (Willis) is sent back from 2036 to try to find the cause and help prevent the disaster as well as gain a pardon for himself. An animal-rights group called the 12 Monkeys is the focus for scrutiny - after all it's people like that who'd want animals to rule, right?.
Unfortunately time-travel has a few quirks (or is it his nutter overseers running the show) and he arrives in 1990. There he engages with psychiatrist Railly (Stowe), eventually kidnapping her and fleeing as fugitives. In this first engagement Ross is quite convinced of the reality of his mission, as much as Railly is convinced he is delusional.
He is pulled back to 2036, then resent to the correct time 1990 (after a WWI hiccup during which he is shot). Again he engages with Railly but this time it's she who begins to realise he was telling the truth and that humanity is in deadly peril. Ross however, begins to think he is in fact delusional and that it is all a fantastic construct existing only in his mind. After a struggle, she manages to convince him otherwise.
Tracking down the animal libbers led by the insane Goines (Pitt), the pair find they are relatively harmless, simply releasing all the zoo animals into the city. The real danger lurks with Peters (Morse), coworker with Goines' brilliant virologist father (Plummer).
In the airport scene finale, seen many times throughout the movie but never until then explained, Ross (from 2036) tries to stop Peters and his briefcase full of virus-filled vials, but is shot by the authorities while he (Ross as a child) looks on. So Peters escapes to begin his deadly virus-releasing tour.
And there's the silliness of it - so this time at least, it was pointless. The good guy Ross gets shot and probably killed, the bad guy Peters escapes to wreak havoc on the world, the sort of reverse outcome which many people expect and which makes good box-office these days. But if you have time-travel at your disposal, there's nothing to stop you trying again and again until you produce the outcome you want.
Parody - not serious SF or thriller.