Whew, boy. Where to start?
I suppose you need to know what this movie is.
A Time-Travel Comedy With Equal Commitment to Character and Theory
Tim Travers & the Time Travelers Paradox is an ambitious sci-fi comedy. The titular character is a self-obsessed, misanthropic mad scientist who creates a time machine. His goal? To kill his younger self and observe the consequences. (Why? That doesn’t matter. The “why” never matters here.) What follows is multiple versions of the character, like an infinite spawn point, and they get into some wacky adventures.
This is an audacious experiment in time manipulation that’s clearly well-researched, and the team has a lot of fun with the premise. But at the end of the day, this film tests the limits of logic, humor, and perhaps even the audience’s patience.
Tim Travers & the Time Travelers Paradox is a comedy that ventures into the realms of time travel with an original concept, bold choices, and a particularly impressive cast. Nerdy mainstays Felicia Day and Joel McHale pop up, as well as some great cameos from Keith David and Danny Trejo. The film expands the original short film into a feature, a great feat for any filmmaker.
Tim Travers takes big swings in its narrative and comedic style. The premise itself, I’m sure, was tantalizing on the page. A mad scientist trying to kill his younger self to see what happens is a delightfully absurd starting point, setting the stage for a cascade of time-traveling antics. That inciting incident promises a lot of fun, and for a while, the movie delivers on it with gusto. The sight of multiple Tim Traverses causing chaos was fun (and the special effects are particularly impressive). So if you love zany humor, this is for you.
However, as the film progresses, the originality is the strength that also becomes its weakness. The issue is that the first two acts lean heavily on the schtick—mad scientist time travels only one minute back in time, creates duplicates of himself, and hijinks ensue. But those hijinks, unfortunately, get one note pretty quickly, and a repeated joke for around an hour with little-to-no substantial character development or deeper narrative to follow turns a 90-minute feature a bit of a slog. The film begins to feel like a sketch stretched too thin.
It’s around the midpoint (after a prolonged Tim Travers orgy scene) that one Tim among them starts to stand out as a more sensitive version of the character, falling in love with another one of the Tims. Yes, you might think, here is a protagonist to root for. Not to say a main character has to be likable, but this development is easier for an audience to grasp and makes the story more compelling. We understand what this Tim wants, while it’s not clear what the other Tims are doing with the time machine. Plus, it’s super cute to watch characters fall for each other. (Spoiler alert, but this thread doesn’t last very long.)
An Audacious and Commendable Misfire
Things also get more interesting in the final act, but this is where writer/director Stimson Snead seems to start looking for a thematic thread, and it’s too late to matter. Again, we do get some big swings here and some ambitious ideas, but the filmmaker doesn’t seem to know where to go with the story as it becomes something else, or when to stop. There were four or five places where a cut to black may have been appropriate.
Despite its pacing and thematic focus issues, the film’s ambition is extremely commendable. You love to see a team go for it, and here, they managed to transform a concept from a short film into a feature that looks great. The editing is tight, it’s shot well, and they clearly spent some money on locations and sets that are visually impressive. The performances and story ultimately feel strained by the film’s demands.
Tim Travers & the Time Travelers Paradox is a film with lots of potential and a unique premise that sets it apart in the sci-fi comedy genre. Its originality deserves all the praise, and there are moments of genuine humor and creativity. I’m excited to see what Snead does next!
Find more deadCenter 2024 coverage at The Cinematropolis.
