Our mission at SAW is to foster conversations about this thing we all love (or love to hate): film/TV. Many of our features are designed with you in mind. Your opinions, to be more to the point. You have ’em. We want to hear ’em.
Question of the Day (QOTD) is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a film/TV-related question that we put to you, the reader. The comments section below is like the feedback box at work; except, in this example, we actually read what you write and care about what you have to say.
Time Travel movies success will usually hinge on their time travel mechanics and how well they adhere to the rules they have set forth along with how entertaining it tells the story around them. Regardless, of the movie and its mechanics, usually, there is some debate regarding the ideas and rules set forth during the movie. So let’s get our debate on! This isn’t a debate about what movie you think is the best or your favorite overall. The question I ask today is simply about the actual time mechanics used in the movie and how effective they are to the science, magic, rules, lack of plot holes, covering all its bases, etc. they have set within the film. The one with the least amount of plot holes or troubling paradoxes that would undermine the movie’s mechanics.
So the question I ask today is: What Movie Has the Best Time Travel Mechanics?
I enjoy Villeneuve’s approach in Arrival with a much more imaginative use for non-linear time travel and it may just be my favorite time travel movie overall but for me, Primer (2004) may be the best that works in the world it has created for time travel. The idea that entering and staying in the time machine for the amount of they want to go back in time makes it simple but effective. It’s not being able to just jump around to whatever period of time you want at any time. It may not be as grandiose as Endgame or as “fun” as time traveling in a DeLorean but it makes a lot of sense on the small scale it is presented. Of course, there is more to it but I don’t want to get into spoilers.
So what about you, folks? What Movie Has the Best Time Travel Mechanics?
I’ll see you in the trenches.
