Giant Freakin Robot

Both audiences and studios often look at January as a time of the year that’s a desolate wasteland full of terrible movies, and it certainly is that to a degree. While the last of the awards hopefuls open wide, there are going to be a ton of bad movies released over the next few weeks (The Wedding Ringer anyone?). But the first month of the year can also be a place where movies get dumped because no one can figure out how the hell to market them, and in 2015, one title that falls into this category is the latest from the Australian duo Michael and Peter Spierig (Daybreakers), the time travel thriller Predestination.

Based on Robert Heinlein’s classic short story “All You Zombies,” Predestination premiered at the South by Southwest film festival last year, though it hasn’t hit theaters until now. Don’t let the timing of the opening turn you off, because what you get is an ambitious, weird, well-made sci-fi story that, while it may not blow your mind wide open, is interesting and definitely worth a watch if you’re looking for unusual genre fare. And if you’ve encountered any of the marketing, you have very little idea what you’re getting into.

The Spierig Brothers’ time travel thriller Predestination hits theaters at the end of this week (we’ll have a full review to accompany the release). While we hope many of you go see it, as it’s totally worth a few hours of your life, we think that a lot of people may sit this one out. After all, January can be a rough month at the theater, quality wise. Though the film is being marketed as a time-hopping crime story in the vein of Minority Report and TimeCop, that’s not what you’re going to see. Deliberately paced, continually shifting perspectives, and inherently weird, Predestination feels like a movie that the distributor has no idea how to sell, and as a result we’re afraid that this will fall into a category of films that, while excellent, are totally underappreciated. And in that spirit, we’d like to take the opportunity to explore some of our favorite under-the-radar time travel movies.

Since The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, the end of the year has been rather sparse as far as sci-fi is concerned. Fortunately for us, we won’t have to wait too far into 2015 to get our first intriguing wide release of the year, as the Spierig Brothers’ Predestination opens January 9. And if you want to get me a late Christmas present, you can go see it in the theater.

I’m afraid a lot of people are going to sit this one out and miss something really cool. January is not exactly known as a hotbed of quality film releases, and studios often use it as a dumping ground for movies that didn’t turn out as well as they hoped. But Predestination is not one of those, and my guess as to why it has this less than optimal release date is that they have zero idea how the hell to market this movie, because it’s definitely not the movie being they’re selling.

Now that both Interstellar and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 are out in theaters, there’s not a ton of new science fiction coming to your local cinema before the end of the year. Right now the main focus is on prestige pictures and getting those films onto screens so they qualify for the various end-of-the-year awards. Fortunately we don’t have to wait too far into 2015 to get our first dose of sci-fi, as the Spierig Brothers’ fantastic Predestination drops on January 9, and now you can watch the first seven minutes of the film here.

I like this move because this extended clip from Crave Online gives you a better feel for the movie than any of the trailers we’ve seen up to this point. January can be a dead zone where studios dump movies that didn’t turn out as well as hoped, but if you think that’s the case with the Ethan Hawke starring Predestination, you’re wrong. The film is quite good, but it simply feels like they’re not sure how to go about selling it to audiences, and that’s a fair problem, because this is a very unusual movie.

January is often looked at as a time of the year that’s a desolate wasteland full of terrible movies, and it certainly is to a degree. There are going to be a lot of bad movies in the first month of 2015. But it’s also a place where movies get dumped because no one can figure out how to market them, and this time around one of those films is the Speirig Brothers’ Predestination, which is back with this new trailer.

Base your movie on a classic Robert Heinlein story and you’ve immediately got our attention. And that’s just what the Spierig Brothers, Michael and Peter, the duo behind the zombie tale Undead and the vampire drama Daybreakers, did with their new time travel thriller Predestination. We’re only a short way out from release, and they’re back with a slick new poster for the film.

Based on Heinlein’s short story “All You Zombies,” the basic plot of Predestination sounds similar to a few other notable science fiction movies, most prominently Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report and the Jean-Claude Van Damme joint TimeCop. Ethan Hawke stars, and the cast also includes Sarah Snook, who is getting good marks for the horror flick Jessabelle, and Noah Taylor, who is fantastic in everything from Game of Thrones to Edge of Tomorrow.