Country: Australia
Movie Review: With a bewildering plot and incisive storytelling, “Predestination” is a quite surprising sci-fi thriller that pelts us with a positive, intriguing ambiance. It’s the third feature film from Spierig brothers who counted with Ethan Hawke in the main role for the second consecutive time, after the not so convoluted “Daybreakers”, released in 2009. Sarah Snook, in a sort of DiCaprio style, also stars as a disgraced unmarried mother whose life was ruined when forced to become a man after being picked by a Government recruitment bureau that traces virgin teen girls with sublime skills in order to accomplish their mysterious missions. Later on, with the help of a Temporal Agent (Hawke) who’s in possess of a time-machine in the form of instrument suitcase, she will have the chance to get back to 1963 and revenge what they done to her. A discreet start misleads us to think that this would be another banal story, but after an entire hour of preparation, a key element in this case, the film shifts into action - risky missions, time travels, procedural routines and vicious cycles that may be baffling but widely satisfying. The film presents all the attributes to please, not particularly the lovers of visual sci-fi (since the special effects weren’t stunning), but the ones who fancy intricate plots set up in labyrinthine forms, in a similar way to “Looper”, “12 Monkeys” or “Inception”. Shot with good taste and vigorous colors, “Predestination” revealed to be creative enough to keep us ‘alive’ till the end, even if some plot elements, after thoroughly analyzed, leave us ruminating about its logic. Right after “Under the Skin”, this is another satisfying sci-fi release for this end of the year.
