Time Loop-Hole

Rating: 3/10 (18 September 2014)

I still struggle with movies that fail to address the linearity of time. Perhaps it's just me being pedantic or even narrow-minded when I say cause should always precede effect. Viewers of The Big Bang Theory might remember this scene:
Scene: Later that night, Leonard is sitting in the time machine, turning the lights on and off. Sheldon enters.
Sheldon: Leonard, it's two in the morning.
Leonard: So? Sheldon: So it's my turn. Why did you set it for the day before yesterday?
Leonard: Because I want to go back and keep myself from getting a time machine.
Sheldon: You can't. If you were to prevent yourself from buying it in the past, you would not have it available in the present to travel back and stop yourself from buying it, ergo you would still have it. This is a classic rookie time travel mistake.
Leonard: Can I go back and prevent you from explaining that to me?
Sheldon: Same paradox. If you were to travel back in time and, say, knock me unconscious, you would not then have the conversation that irritated you, motivating you to go back and knock me unconscious.
Leonard: What if I knocked you unconscious right now?
Sheldon: It won't change the past.
Leonard: But it would make the present so much nicer
In the same vein, the element of time travel is treated too loosely in this film, with no consideration for the subtleties of the butterfly effect. Had the film been able to substantiate and explain this alternate paradigm of non-linear chronology, it would have been a true masterpiece. Alas, the existing execution appears to be too convenient and easy for my liking.
However, seeing as the franchise is far from concluded, I can only hope that future instalments fill in these gaps.