Time travel movies can be some of the most difficult to put together as they require more effort than almost any other genre. Sure, there can be an excellent director, dynamic actors, beautiful set pieces, cutting edge special effects and a great script, but if the proper thought isn’t put into the time travel aspect itself, it can create huge problems and plot holes for the movie. And by proper thought, I don’t mean making it so complex and intertwined that no one can figure out what is going on; in fact, the simpler a director or screenwriter can keep time travel, the better. Classics such as Back to the Future and Terminator worked so well because time travel was explained simply and presented in such a matter-of-fact way that audiences accepted it without a second thought. The most complex theory delivered in Back to the Future was a time travel paradox; something I’m sure the average filmgoer of the day had never heard of before and didn’t understand. Because of the effortless way it was defined and described, however, a paradox is now part of pop culture vernacular, and we have that movie to thank for that.
Looper also handled this extremely well. As I’ve stated before, Looper was my favorite film of last year, and one of the best time travel movies ever made. Yes, some people will call me out on this because of a plot hole in the end, but that plot hole really only exists due to people over analyzing the film and making time travel too complex. Bruce Willis as Old Joe explained it best when he said, “I don’t want to talk about time travel because if we start talking about it then we’re going to be here all day talking about it, making diagrams with straws.” If a viewer accepts the fact that time travel exists, and the magic associated with it (yes, magic, because we can’t travel through time), and it has been presented simply, then a movie based on this premise will succeed.
Why am I bring all this up? Well, as we all know, Bryan Singer is directing the new X-Men movie based off the Days of Future Past storyline, which heavily relies upon time travel to tell the story. As reported at comicbookmovie.com, he has been in touch with other directors, namely James Cameron, in order to get advice from them on how to deal with time travel. Here is what he had to say:
It’s epic. We get to bring both casts together. We’ve cracked it in a way that makes sense. I had a two-hour conversation with James Cameron about time travel, string theory, multiverses and all that. You have to create your rules and stick with them. That’s what makes Terminator and Back To The Future work so well. And there are certain mechanisms in X-Men, certain powers, perceptions and characters, that make this possible. More than any of the movies I’ve made, it comes to me much more quickly than on other films. With Superman Returns I struggled a lot. I guess it’s either my history with the X-Men universe or I have some kind of knack for this particular story.
There is a lot to be both happy and wary of in that paragraph. I love quantum physics, multiverse theory and studying up on all the math and thought behind it, but I’ll be the first to tell you that when I start talking to people who aren’t as familiar with it as I am, their eyes glass over and they nod their head as if I’m talking in a completely foreign language, and as far as they’re concerned, I am. If Bryan Singer tries to utilize string and multiverse theory into Days of Future Past, I really think he will alienate a good chunk of the audience, and the movie will suffer due to making it overly complex.
What gives me hope, is when he says to make your rules and stick with them. The worst thing a director or writer can do is present a story, give the viewer a ton of facts and information, and then pull the rug out at the end in an attempt to be smart. I’m not talking about a twist ending here; handled properly, those can be one of the most powerful tools a filmmaker or author can use. No, an example of what I mean is the end of the movie Inception (spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it). When Leo DiCaprio’s character spins the top at the end, and the movie faded to black before we got to see if it was going to fall or spin in perpetuity, I felt cheated. Perhaps Nolan did it in a hope to foster dialogue and the popularity of the movie through word of mouth, but I found it to be pretentious. This was also a perfect example of a taking an idea and making it much more complex than it needed to be in an attempt to be smart, a fact not lost on South Park.
Don’t get me wrong, I still really liked Inception, and I ‘got’ it, but there have been multiple instances where I’ve spent a good hour explaining it to those who didn’t, and that’s not something a movie should be striving for.
Whatever decision Singer makes, I’m still excited to see this movie, and I’m really looking forward to what he has in store for us, and even if he does something stupid with the time travel aspect, I don’t see myself hulking out with nerd rage and turning into Comic Book Guy. I just really hope he takes a page from Back To the Future and not Inception.