Predestination (2015)

Powerful

hyped garbage

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Everything about this movie, every second of it, is perfection and pure pleasure. If only I could go back in time to watch this movie again for a first time...

I was so confused with the first half of this movie. I thought it was meant to be a sci-fi time travel thriller. But we get this biographical story for a large part of the running time. It's engaging, but makes you wonder - where is all this leading? What is this movie even about? Is this the right disc I inserted?Ultimately, I don't think it has any one clear message or point. But it's thought-provoking. It asks a lot of interesting "what if" questions. There are plenty of surprises and twists. It raises moral questions about the costs when trying to save lives. And about doing things which cause pain but knowing that you have to do them anyway. One underlying thread is the eternal question of the chicken and the egg and of male vs. female.The movie doesn't really make sense when deeply scrutinised. But it doesn't have to. The plot holds together, but it's unrealistic. But that's okay. It's abstract. It's about pondering these made-up ideas. It takes hypothetical time travel scenarios to their logical extreme. It could've been more concrete and had more of a connection to some kind of purposeful series of events, but it's works for what it is.The acting and directing are good. I like the tone overall. It's an easy movie to relax into, not trying too hard to entertain or preach or blow you away. It just takes you in with a fascinating story which raises a lot of questions. I can't remember the music, meaning it probably did its job without being either terrible or great.So I recommend this movie to people who like intricate stories with well-developed characters. However, it doesn't really lead anywhere profound. It's more about the journey itself and some general themes about existence, choice and identity. It's more of an interesting dream than a realistic story which can be taken seriously. And it's flawed and maybe even a little self-indulgent. But at least it's pretty unique and well made.

Mind-blowing story. One of the best i ever saw. Skip the trailer. Go watch the movie. Thank me later.

Major disappointment. This is one of those movies which has great potential but where the "engine" blows apart at the start line. It almost seems "nonsense" was the major topic, rejecting all forms of "logic". For starters its completely unoriginal in that it seeks to show that "time" is circular, that one cannot change the future (where haven't we seen that before?) even given time travel. In this regard I thought 12 Monkeys was the best one to showcase this, compared to which Predestination comes off as a sad joke.Its good until about the first half before falling apart and stops making any form of sense.The barkeep gets "John" to tell his story in order to confirm its the fizzle bomber (to-be). Why the barkeep doesn't just kill the future fizzle bomber right there is utterly nonsensical as he then proceeds to helping in "creating" the bomber. This is the first element in the plot which fails since the Barkeep's only reason for existence at that point is to stop the fizzle bomber.John's storytelling ends on the utter and complete pain and misery felt since the man she (Jane) loved disappeared and how he (John) would love to kill that person, without any doubt or contrition, as a spectator you can almost sense the lust for blood and destruction. And when given the chance to take his/her revenge and realizing that the man who disappeared and caused all that grief was her future male-self, instead of breaking the chain of events, John willingly and knowlingly indulges in history's most amoral love story, and further even has sex with herself and procreates (again, fully knowing of the consequences, ie, the future that unfolds).The barkeep kidnaps Jane and John's "self-cloned" baby for reasons unknown, its a needed element in the plot, but it doesn't have any actual justification. At that point the barkeep doesn't know about his 'true' identity yet and has thus no attachment to the baby from what seems two other people.And finally, when the movie does by chance almost manage to get itself back on its feet and towards a good ending, it fails again. When the Barkeep meets his future self and realizes he's the fizzle bomber, instead of again breaking the chain (by committing suicide), he just gives in to 'destiny' and just kills his future self and starts. It also fails to explain why one would need to bomb many to avoid future bigger disasters, in the context of time-travel whereby the Barkeep could find out the single culprit and take him out with a single bullet. We understand that constant time-jumping turns him into a deranged lunatic but still. And then, the final touch, remembering who he was before his facial reconstruction which was meant to tie everything together, fails miserably. Its completely unnecessary and only goes to the disadvantage of the possible appreciation of this movie.I will never watch another movie from the Spierig Brothers and I'm really starting to doubt Ethan Hawke's choice of movies to star in.In conclusion I'd say they tried to do something, it had great potential but they invariably crapped on it big time. I'd give it 0 star if I could, highly unrecommended and worth a re-do.