Wes's Grade: B-Entertainingly crazy "Predestination" is sci-fi wonkiness at its best
Time travel has always been the ultimate paradox, a riddle without an answer that movie makers have been trying to conquer for, well, ages. Australian filmmakers and identical twin brothers Michael and Peter Spierig ("Daybreakers") attempt to go there once more in the twisted but enjoyable sci-fi thriller "Predestination," currently in limited release. The movie chronicles the life of a Temporal Agent (Ethan Hawke) sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to prevent future killers from committing their crimes. Now, on his final assignment, the Agent must stop the one criminal (Sarah Snook) that has eluded him throughout time and prevent a devastating attack in which thousands of lives will be lost. Co-directed, produced and written by the Spierig brothers and based on a 1958 short story called "All You Zombies" by Robert Heinlein, the science-fiction film is well-acted and occasionally moving, though the confusing, often weird script is a little all over the map in the final act. Hawke is solid as the time-traveling agent with a highly unusual mission, though it's unknown Australian actress Snook who is so convincing and even touching in a gender-bending, mind-bending breakout performance that she is the movie's most memorable character (honestly, she looks like a young DiCaprio and sounds like Jodie Foster). The stable, focused first act of "Predestination" is best before the narrative goes a little awry under a multitude of wonky plot twists that I can't even begin to explain, except to say that remarkably, through the craziness of it all, it was an enjoyable, if not exhausting, experience. The visuals are decent yet seemingly low-rent (the time travel contraption is basically an old violin case with a briefcase lock), but good enough not to overwhelm the senses. Trying to figure out the story is enough for a brainfreeze for anyone who views the strange but strangely entertaining "Predestination, a movie that sci-fi and time-travel enthusiasts will get a kick out of. If you don't belong in either of those categories, stick with something a little more straightforward, which is just about any other movie in current release.
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