Predestination

An irresistibly sexy flick during which I felt extreme anticipation for a carefully concealed and emotional point that would further confirm its cleverness. Instead, however, it becomes an endless loop in which everything possible is overwrought and it thus remains “only” a sexy flick that’s nicely paced and spectacularly shot with an interesting story. (01/19/2024)

Sitting at the bar with a shorter haircut telling her story, Sarah Snook looks like a young DiCaprio in the 'pre-Titanic' era, and not only does she look it, she gives a similarly fantastic performance. The entire first hour, its narrative, offers one of the most interesting passages the film world has delivered in the last year. Unfortunately, though, when the cards are laid on the table, the only thing left to play with are the temporal paradoxes so beautifully parodied in the Back to the Future trilogy. It's a great shame because a lot of potential was wasted. (01/05/2015)

Here even the word “paradox” falls short… In other time-travel films, time paradoxes are obstacles that the filmmakers try to overcome to no avail, and which fully manifest once the viewer begins to question the logic of the story, but in Predestination, the paradox is the alpha and the omega of the story. The creators carefully build it, almost trying to make it as paradoxical as possible. (11/25/2014)

The bar conversation is so brilliant you forget you're watching a sci-fi about time travel. Then the action starts, and if you have already seen a few films like this, you'll start to get an idea of what the brothers will try to pull on you at the end. I could have been annoyed at them maybe even more, but the fact that they actually keep it pretty low-key the whole time and everything is dealt with in a rather non-violent way with clever dialogues makes me go quite high with my rating in the end. (07/08/2015)

What came first; eggs, chicken or rooster? School through play or in other words an introduction to the world of time paradoxes in illustrative practice, in which the creators do not make the viewer feel like an idiot and very soon leave the game to present a big point, because they know that you know anyway; after all... You have seen the name, right? The only problem is that the whole smartly well-thought and described "circle paradox" (or Novik's principle of self-consistency, if you want) denies itself (!mild spoilers follow!) by those stupid newspaper clippings. Because if in the past, there will be newspaper articles from the future that never happened, then all the unchanging predestination of the above paradoxes in the personal line is kind of upside down, right? (11/24/2014)

The timing remains on a minimalist plane for an incredibly long time. It plays on dialogues, the power of the gaze, and Sarah Snook's fascinating performance. And given how Ethan Hawke revels in conversations, the rest of the running time logically begins to flag despite its unrelenting tension. Which doesn't matter as much as it might seem – of course, only if the viewer is able to engage in the game the screenplay presents. Many betrayals can be sensed from the opening scene, but the barrage of twists that Michael and Peter Spierig start throwing in towards the end truly takes your breath away. Perhaps the next viewing will reveal if this predestined violin case is really an all-encompassing appetizer that pleasantly unsettles with its blend of unconventional romance, uncompromising sci-fi, and unusual editing – or if it gets tangled up in the constantly escalating series of plot twists. (01/06/2015)

Overall impression: 35%. (10/16/2017)

Excellently directed time travel movie with more twist than a corkscrew. The cast is fairly unknown, Sarah Snook was an ingenious idea. A picture that stays one step in front of you, even if you believe that it isn’t. If possible, don’t try to find anything out about this movie. Don’t even read the summary. What came first? The chicken or the egg? (01/11/2015)

A film that will make your head spin with its temporal paradoxes and atypical sequence of scenes. But I’m not sure how much of this was the intention of the people behind the film and how much was purely failed experimentation. But the beginning has everything, gripping immersion, the camera raids, the dark filters – an atmosphere like in Watchmen. The middle is better thanks to Sarah Snook, who steals all for herself. But the revealing ending is chaotic already. After it's over, it leaves some uncomfortable question marks here and there, and that's not good. (06/08/2016)

It's driving me crazy. This whole film is a paradox, its plot was probably never written... And yet it was filmed... Or wasn't it? Wow... The first fifty minutes are a great spectacle and so much emotion is hard to see in science fiction (I remembered Gattaca), but the rest, which gradually leads to the long-awaited and very blatantly hinted at point, unfortunately has to layer one "shocking" paradox on top of another in order to cover it up. The result is a time-traveling science fiction stew that leaves you with a great desire to see it again and a great fear that it will be even worse the second time around. Three and a half. (09/28/2015)

A sci-fi story full of temporal paradoxes, whose highlight is the first half marked by a retrospective narrative of an extraordinary human destiny. If the whole film were as gripping and atmospheric as this opening passage, which gave me pleasant chills just by the beautifully matched shots of the faces of the two discussing characters, it would be an absolute and unprecedented hit. But the last thirty minutes not only made my head too muddled with all the time shifts, but also completely disrupted the existing harmony of the narrative, which up until then had made me purr with unconcealed bliss. It's as if the Spierigs wanted to convey an awful lot, but while I bought and believed it at the beginning, by the end I was barely listening. Great shame. 70% (07/08/2015)

Time travel is a rewarding but also tricky subject, filmmakers must avoid losing themselves in the intricate time paradoxes and labyrinths, which the Spierig brothers have fortunately managed to do with Predestination (based on a short story by Robert A. Heinlein). Anyone who has already watched something will have some an inkling from the beginning in which direction the film will develop, and how the constellation of figures will roughly work, yet I was carried along on the time jumps until the very, and to some extent not very surprising, conclusion. Predestination manages, for the most part, to entertain and engage the viewer while artfully creating a "looped" egg-chicken triangle. A weaker four stars! PS: "Testosterone" Sarah Snook could travel back in time and double for a young DiCaprio on the spot. (04/06/2021)

And again another excellent sci-fi, where the creators thought about what they want to convey and how they want to convey it. Ethan Hawke proves to be a great actor. I like how he managed to play different versions of his character. It perfectly fits the whole concept. This is a sci-fi without tricks, but with great ideas that can be appreciated. (12/01/2014)

An Australian blast about time travel paradoxes. I was able to predict some of the twists (other times I wasn’t even close). The conclusion was as crushing as being run over by a steamroller, though, the only difference being that I'd gladly watch Predestination again. Ethan Hawke and his second great role this year, Sarah Snook definitely a discovery of the year. This movie takes the word paradox to a whole new level. (01/17/2015)