Timeline

In the wake of Paul Walker's death, I thought it'd be appropriate to review a movie he's in. But since I'm not a huge Fast and Furious fan, I searched through Netflix to find a movie I may enjoy. Then I came across Timeline. I had seen Timeline a long time ago but I didn't remember most of it. What I do remember is two of my favorite themes in a movie, Medieval battles and time travel. What could go wrong?

Well... more than you would think.

Timeline follows the story of Chris Johnston (played by Walker). He's a guy who's father is an archeologist (Played by Bill Connolly). Unfortunately, this movie really isn't about Paul Walker's character. For the entire movie, he's kinda here just for the ride. He doesn't do too much important things and he's not trained in history so he doesn't know much. This isn't Walker's fault, he actually did a good job with what he had, I think this is mostly a writing thing.

The rest of the cast is either a student of Connolly's or a member of a company called ITC, what that stands for I don't know.

When the students are doing an archeological dig, they come across a tunnel with a piece of parchment signed by Billy Connolly and a pair of his spectacles. By going to ITC, they figure out that Billy Connolly went back in time to 1357 and he didn't come back. So Walker and his friends must go back to the 14th century and find his father before time runs out and they are stuck in 1357.

Some of the people that join him are his kinda girlfriend Kate (played by Frances O'Connor) and Andre Merrick (played by Gerard Butler). They're also joined by a French student named Francois (played by Rossif Sutherland) and a Marine named Gordon (played by Neal McDonough) and two Marines that die right away... so they're kinda pointless.

When they first get to 1357 France, they are immediately attacked by English soldiers, for no reason and their two marine escorts die. One of them goes back but not before he had already been shot by an arrow... oh and pulled the pin on a grenade... The grenade returns in the future and damages the time machine. So the guys back in modern times have to fix the machine in 6 hours because that's the amount of time the guys have in the past before they have to return or they can't come back.

Here's the first thing that is wrong about this film. The characters are written kinda horribly and sometimes they're just stupid. Before going back in time, the guys say, you can't bring back anything modern, including weapons. They don't really explain why but I guess I could understand they don't want anybody to discover guns before their time. I mean I don't blame this marine for bringing back a modern weapon for protection but a grenade? How would that help at all? And going back to bringing back things that are modern, the professor leaves a pair of spectacles, and it didn't destroy the world. This movie doesn't really worry too much about the space time continuum, which is okay, sometimes Time Travel movies can get bogged down with disrupting history but this movie doesn't really give a shit most of the time.

And then there's Gerard Butler's character. Both Butler and O'Connor's characters are hilariously into history. They go into this tunnel from the past and it's like they're having an orgasm with everything they look at.

And then when Butler gets into the past, he meets this French woman who helps them escape. After that moment, Butler's entire quest is to make sure this woman survives. They don't say a word to each other for half of the movie and then when she suddenly learned English out of nowhere, they barely speak to one another before they're kissing already. Butler leaves his friends to go save this random ass girl, and yeah she turns out to be the sister of some important French guy but damn Butler get your shit together. And as you might of guessed, he ends up falling for her and not going back to his modern time. Cause that makes sense. Leave all your friends and family behind, leave all your responsibilities and stay in a time riddled with the black plague... not modern things for a girl you spent a full 6 hours with.

Well as I said before, the time machine is damaged and unless they fix it in less than 6 hours, they can't return to the present.

The fixing of this is done by members of ITC including Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), Matt Craven (look him up, he'll look slightly familiar but not enough to know exactly what he's been in) and the bass player from That Thing You Do, Ethan Embry. (That is the only thing I know him from)

This plot line is convoluted by Embry urging the ITC guys to fix the machine so his friends can come back, Craven not really doing much but you know he's a good guy, and Lupin just being an asshole for now reason. Near the end he gives up and doesn't think they can bring them back to the present. He starts packing and freaks out because... the media will figure out? It's just very confusing because the movie wants him to be an asshole but its so forced.

There's another subplot of a man named William Decker (played by Marton Csokas). Just before they go back in time, they tell Gordon to take care of Decker. We don't really know who Decker is but we assume its bad.

Well it turns out that this Russell Crowe look alike has been back and forth through the wormhole that he's unable to go back without screwing up his body (That's a whole subplot in itself that doesn't really go anywhere) So he joins up with British forces and becomes a high ranking member of Michael Sheen's army... somehow.

I guess he was left behind and therefore has a grudge against the people who travel to the past... for no reason. So if he has to stay back, they all have to?

Anyway he doesn't really make sense but he had to be an antagonist.

I've talked a lot of shit about this movie, and there's more to say, like Francois who is all scared of going but Butler forces him to because he speaks French... well he dies right away... sucks to suck. And many scenes that kind of skipped over important parts to save time... anyway, I wanted to say the good things about this movie.

It's a fascinating concept. I know its based off a book and the real credit goes to the book but still, its interesting. Despite the convoluted plot, its a pretty entertaining movie. Despite them being a little stupid sometimes and doing things that don't make much sense, I liked the characters.

I think they got some really good actors to play these roles and this is back in 2003 before a lot of them got big. I had no idea Gerard Butler was in this movie till I watched it again. And say what you will about his movies, Butler can act. Paul Walker was good too despite not really having a point in the movie.

All the characters have to do whatever they can to survive this insane, nonsensical medieval world and you can see they're affected by it.

The characters who die, although they may have died either prematurely or in a nonsensical way, it was sad for me as a viewer to see them die. Though some of the deaths were rushed, they had a little bit of an impact on the characters enough for me to buy it.

I don't know. I enjoy this movie even though I know its not that good. I recognized the bad aspects of this movie are overwhelming but for some reason, I still enjoy it. Maybe I'm a sucker for time travel/medieval movies but I enjoyed it.

Is it a great movie? No. Is it a great time travel movie? No. Is it a great medieval movie... eh... no. i think this is the kind of movie you watch for free. You borrow it from a buddy who got suckered into buying it, or you get it as a gift, or you watch it on Netflix.

There's my thoughts on Timeline. What do you think of this movie? What's your favorite time travel movie?

I couldn't really find a video that connects enough to this video so I guess I'll leave you with this. Rest in Peace Paul Walker.