Synchronic

This film is decent, and I love "time travel" concept films in general, but there are few scenes that made no sense in the "no person would do that" kind of way, or contained too many "coincidences", which heavily impacted my ability to suspend disbelief for the remainder of it (the scenes in question happening about 1/2 way thru the film). I haven't seen anyone else complain about this yet, so I'll rant about it here: WHY did the lead protagonist use his DOG to test if he could bring back living things? No one would do that. No one. Not if they loved their pet. He would have gone to a pet store and bought a mouse, or a snake, or anything. He wouldn't use his dog! Also, why does this drug that seemingly randomly places people in the past (depending on where you are standing...okay?), always place them within moments of mortal danger? No one is ever just dropped in a random field, no, they are placed inches from death. A frozen Ice Age tundra with nothing for miles...but a caveman is nearby, or a 16th century swamp...with a conquistador feet away, etc., etc. This film would have you believe in the far past everyone was constantly within 7 minutes of being killed. It was all just a little "too much" for me and took me out of it. And no one would take their darn dog!!

Why is it that when theres a movie with an original idea or script people complain and hate about it, because of this toxicity future writers and directors might not want to take the next step to do original ideas. Yes, the movie is not a masterpiece and sometimes it feels a bit rushed ( when Anthony M. Starts discovering how it works ) but overall it has a great concept, great actors and emotion. Just watch it and ignore the bad reviews.

I hadn't even heard about this 2019 movie titled "Synchronic" before now in 2021, as I had the chance to sit down and watch it. I read the synopsis for the movie and it sounded like it could be something worthwhile watching. So I gave the movie a chance. And yeah, "Synchronic" definitely was watchable, but it wasn't an impressive movie. The storyline was just way too generic and predictable. It felt like writer Justin Benson was opting for the easiest way for constructing a storyline for the movie. Everything was just so linear and running on auto-pilot. So I can't really claim to have been blown away by the storyline told in "Synchronic". Actually I would say that the movie's directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead set up a whole lot of things that had potential, but ultimately they failed to bring them to fruition, and it just felt half-hearted. There definitely was potential to be found in the movie, but it was just wasted as nothing felt thoroughly explored, explained or exposed. The acting in the movie was good, but the actors and actresses just didn't have an overwhelming amount of material to work with, so it felt like it was semi-hindered performances. My rating of "Synchronic" lands on a very bland and mediocre five out of ten stars. The movie is good enough for a single viewing, if you enjoy linear sci-fi movies. But the contents of the storyline just were far too feeble to support more than a single viewing. "Synchronic" came and went without leaving much of any ripples in the fabric of time and space.

It was good then it wasn't; then it was good and then..., classic problem for american sci fi, DRAMA! it lost its focus; could have been an amazing time travel movie but the writing/direction kept creeping back to married life and emotional family crap! it would have been better to omit the whole family and add a "missing" girlfriend. I find too many USA sci fi are dumbed down, over explained, convenient, meaningless messages of our future crap and this movie is a prime example of that! The acting is great and Anthony could have held the movie alone if written for one lead instead of 2. Doran accent kept slipping back, why can't he have his native tongue for this or any movie? I recommend this sci fi for its unique adventure but I limit myself from saying it was good, because it could have been amazing.

It was not good, but it was almost kind of watchable (from a far, drunk, or maybe even dead). The idea was probably okay-ish for non sci-fi connoisseurs, but sci-fi fans will definitely find it absurd. The characters are again, poorly written, you can't connect with them since they don't connect with each other either. It feels like the protagonist wants to save his friend's daughter just out of the blue, and the only connection you've seen between the daughter and the protagonist is a depthless conversation that he cut short. Maybe there where more, but I swear I spent more time thinking about interesting things, so maybe I missed it... I really didn't care about that girl, in fact it could have been the protagonist's plumber, it would have had the same impact. I'm always amazed that with the amount of talent out there, this kind of movie can still see the light of the day. You feel no passion and no talent, I don't know the guys who made that film, but they're certainly not getting on my "to follow" list.

The movie was good until the lead started taking the drug going into the past and recording everything. From that spot on the movie became a complete bore fest.

This is a decent movie. And that's unfortunate because the concept here is really cool and I think with better writing and less bland and uninspired directing/cinematography, this could have turned out to be a modern sci-fi/thriller classic. The acting from the two leads, Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan is definitely solid, especially Mackie. However unlike Mackie's character, I didn't find Dornan's to be particularly interesting nor compelling, which is disappointing considering that his character has an important connection to the heart of the story. The visual effects are pretty great but they could have really popped more if supported by directing and cinematography that didn't look and feel as bland as it was at times. Synchronic also has some serious issues with pacing scattered throughout the runtime which was very hard not to notice, and at times the consistency of tone just wasn't quite there. At times it's a very dark and bleak watch, then there will be scenes that are quite funny but it just didn't work as well as it sounds like it would due to the vast contrasts. To sum it up, it's a decent movie that is quite enjoyable and gripping enough to make you care somewhat. It's just a shame that it's not what it could have been.

This was a lame attempt at a trippy dark thriller with a uninspired premise that never takes off. It's one of those movies you struggle to care about and find hard to take seriously. Plot centers around two paramedics who keep finding overdose victims taking the same DMT-derivative pill, leading one of them to eventually "test" them on himself, which magically transport him into different pasts based on which square inch of his room he is standing on. Yes- this is a movie about pills that physically transport people into the past. Gimmicky? Sure. But in theory this could have been made into a heady, smart sci-fi movie if the script/world building were good enough. Much of the dialogue was empty and boring; the first half of the plot is a melodrama with unnatural sounding and forced conversation. The main paramedic weaves in and out of a series of rescues in which the directors don't even try have him do proper protocol (they make a bunch of dumb, obvious errors in judgement no real EMT would do). Then we see glimpses of his poorly directed personal life in which he has boring conversations with depressed drug addicts, drinks beer to pass the time, and fights with his best friend and wife who weirdly appear in and out of the movie like afterthoughts. It attempts establish dramatic and deep scenes but they come across like cardboard. There's even randomly inserted dumb 2020-woke dialogue that had nothing to do with the scenes or what these characters would say to each other in real life ("Dude you can't drive the ambulance down that district, a black guy driving around there? Would be more dangerous than half our calls!") The second half of the plot is the paramedic "testing" the drug by doing it a bunch of times and getting thrown in catoonish-time periods where rednecks and ghosts and wild animals instantly attack him. Then the only decent part happens- he goes on a somewhat ingesting journey to find and and rescue a friend who got stuck in a past timeline. In general if I had to praise it for something, the directors seemed to have some cool moments fleshed out in their head (the space sequences, the great editing transitions) but these were not enough to make up for a empty story and repetitive formulaic bleak characters with dialogue that sounds like it's fresh off the Amazon TV factory for another random genre show.

This was a highly original film with a great concept. Unfortunately, every aspect of the production fell quite short of the mark. Jamie Dornan seemed a bit bewildered and never seemed to be able to deliver his lines believably, but this was fine since the script was just awful. None of the characters were believable and their dialogue was stilted and unnatural. Low budget shouldn't mean low quality; this should just be an opportunity to get creative and do more with less. Sadly...they managed to do less with less. The sole exception was the development of Anthony Mackie's character, Steve. He came across as genuine, even if the circumstances of the story were bizarre: ( In the Antebellum South, people didn't look or act as they were portrayed here, for starters. Blue-eyed White folk didn't live in Louisiana during the Ice Age and Louisiana was NOT an Arctic wasteland populated by wandering mammoths ). The other characters were all throw-aways and I could care less what happened to any of them. I would like to see this concept redone with better actors, delivering better lines and with much more attention to detail. This was disappointing. There was one thing nagging me after I watched the film and I just now realised what it was: whatever happened to that damned shaggy dog, because I DID care what happened to it.

If you are a fan of Benson and Moorhead's previous work, you will most likely enjoy this feature too as they maintain their same storytelling style that smoothly combines fantasy, horror and comedy. And with a larger budget this time, they're able express their mind-bending stories to a greater level. Specifically, the score and cinematography are great throughout the film and exceptional at some points. Also, both Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan deliver fantastic performances of two best friends who are struggling with their own personal obstacles. The story itself is unique in a general sense. But within the realms of the sub-genre that it plays into, it can seem somewhat typical if you follow those types of films. However, the approach taken to portray this story is unique. For me, this separated it from other films of similar narratives and it kept me engaged with the story and the characters.