Nice idea, poor execution

Rating: 4/10 (17 October 2015)

IN TIME bears some similarities to LOGAN'S RUN in its depiction of a youthful society who never outwardly age and who are consigned to oblivion at the age of 25. However, the narrative then takes on an extra twist and runs with it (literally, as it happens) in its depiction of time being treated as a currency; you can buy, sell, and steal it, and when it runs out (which you know thanks to a handy tracker on your wrist) you die. It's as simple as that.
I actually like the premise, which has the potential for lots and lots of suspense; it's like having a ticking bomb strapped to your wrist. What could go wrong, right? Well, the answer is most things. IN TIME is an insipid, soulless Hollywood blockbuster, happy to copy the look and style of recent films like JUMPER without ever bringing anything new to the table. Kiwi director Andrew Niccol once made the excellent GATTACA so it comes as a surprise he made a film so unoriginal and uninteresting.
One of the worst things about this film lies in the central casting of Justin Timberlake as the hero. He's wooden, never less than wooden, and merely cast due to his popularity with audiences. I hated his protagonist throughout, so that made the film as a whole hard to sit through. Amanda Seyfried is better, and Cillian Murphy is always a pleasure to watch on screen, but when you have such a vacuum of acting talent in the central role then your film's going to be flawed. It doesn't help that the family-friendly rating means that there's nothing contentious or powerful here, or that for a film with a chase-focused storyline there aren't really any good action or suspense scenes to enjoy.