Gattaca meets Robin Hood

Rating: 6/10 (10 November 2012)

In Time is another one of those sci-fi films that is enjoyable to watch as long as you leave your brain at the door.
For one thing, all the characters in it are supposed to look like they are 25. So, it is a beautiful cast. For me, Justin Timberlake does a more than adequate job as the leading man: our Jack Dawson with an ankle holster. Amanda Seyfriend is supposed to look pretty and pout a lot and she is good at that. The wig does nothing for her and the chemistry between her and JT is lacking, but it all works for the most part.
Cillian Murphy as the bloodless, but in his own way honorable, Timekeeper Raymond Leon is the stand out, must watch, performance of the movie. Even though he's stolen Neo's attire, Murphy has logged another great turn as the bad guy. Or is he the bad guy? Arguable, but he is under-utilized in the movie, unfortunately.
I also dug Alex Pettyfer's gleeful turn as the fancy-boy gang leader who embodies the complete opposite of the movie's real antagonist- apathy. The writers blew his fight scene with JT by providing the back-story to JT's father. If that scene weren't terribly predictable, it would actually be a great scene.
Besides pretty faces, the movie also has a creative hook- time is money. From that rather easy analogy, all sorts of comparisons with real life can be readily made, and the movie does SOME of that, though it isn't heavy-handed about it. And that is a GOOD thing since have we not seen it 100 times before? Class warfare 101. The rich are evil and trying to kill the poor, or at the very least, monopolize the world for themselves. Yada, yada, yada.... zzzzzzzz
The problem with all this is that the world the movie is set in is so illogical that it is difficult to logically draw any conclusions from it. In this world, death has been conquered, and yet, there are no cellphones. There are no cops, and few weapons; this in spite of the fact that your life can be stolen with a simple turn of your arm!
When the unfortunate Bonnie and Clyde portion of the movie begins, JT and Amanda only need to stroll into a vault to steal time. Why the crowd that was there didn't steal it in the first place remains a mystery. They could have. There was nothing to stop them.
Plus, death has been otherwise conquered, but you can die, by your arm being turned. Sorry, but medically try to figure that one out once.
The ending of the movie is next to preposterous, a culmination of the off-track final 30 minutes.
Still, it isn't the least entertaining thing you could choose to see. Just give the brain a rest.