These Two Project Almanac Clips Throw Teens Back Through Time
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January closes out with the found footage time travel joint Project Almanac, and despite rushing to excise a controversial bit of footage from the film and trailers (it shows a real life plane crash that traumatized the families of some of the casualties), Paramount insists than the film will be ready for theaters a week from today, on January 30. Now in the final promotional push, the studio has released two new clips to give you a better idea of what to expect.
The basic premise of the story is that a group of teenage friends discover one of their fathers created a time travel device. Being impetuous youngsters, they, of course, use this technology wisely and responsibly, by travelling back and doing things like wining the lottery, exacting revenge against those who have wronged them, and generally having a grand time. As you can imagine, after a honeymoon period, things take a dark and treacherous turn.
In this first clip, one of the friends notices something strange in a video of his seventh birthday party (stranger, that is, than a high school kid sitting around watching footage of his childhood parties), and tries to get his pals to pay attention and take a look. It’s like herding cats. If I had to guess, I’d say that this moment probably comes from early in the film, and maybe kicks off the friends investigating why one of them appears to be lurking around in the past.
Even more than the content, you get a feel for how they’re going to approach the found footage aspect of the film. One of the things this format often runs into is that at some point you wind up in a situation where you need to show a scene that someone holding a camera has no logical business filming. From this snippet, however, it looks like they’re going to use more traditional editing techniques and strategies to work around some of this.
Clip number two is more action heavy, and shows the crew of teens jumping through time, possibly for the first time. This footage is full of jittery excitement and gives you an idea of what you’re in for in the moments of higher activity. Like most found footage movies, you have to worry that it will go overboard eventually, but from what we’ve seen out of these two pieces of footage, it doesn’t look like you’ll have to pack you Dramamine. Maybe have some in reserve, just in case.
