13/30
Haunted by her father’s disappearance 30 years earlier, Stella returns to her hometown to take care of her ailing mother. One night, her father contacts her through an old radio. Stella must travel through time to bring him back by activating Taklee Genesis. This film has many enjoyable moments if not taken too seriously. It is a sci-fi mystery based on a time travel story that combines elements of drama, comedy, horror and fantasy. At times it felt like the director had a catalog of movie scenes from which a random element would be chosen and included in the film. As a result, the audience gets to see a crazy assemblage of aliens, dinosaurs, spaceships, zombies, kaiju and many other things that one would not expect. As a result, it feels like a more generic version of Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One. As with many time travel films, plot holes are hard to avoid. This film has a great number of them, often downplayed in the dialogue with expressions such as It’s Alright, Don’t Worry or Everything will be Okay. While the cast seemed to be trying to perform to the best of their abilities, the acting remains another weakness of this film. The English parent at the beginning spoke as if he was recording a listening comprehension chapter in English for elementary school. The mother didn’t even shed a tear when Velan disappeared. The funniest character of all was Mordin, the silent survivor who would save the day when everyone else despaired. Overall, our score for Taklee Genesis is a solid seven out of ten. We watched the original version with English subtitles in a theater.