ARQ (2016)

ARQ (2016)

4/10

Starring

Robbie Amell

Rachael Taylor

Shaun Benson

Gray Powell

Directed by Tony Elliot

The movie feels half-baked and delivers an exhausting Groundhog Day-style scenario. The biggest challenge is the first act—it’s dull and uneventful, and then imagine that same dullness repeating over and over again. Personally, I think the movie could have been more interesting and worth watching if they nailed the intro. The first act doesn’t last long enough to deliver a punch of intrigue or thrill. Instead, we get straightforward events unfolding in a chaotic, almost random way. Then, we see the repercussions of small changes play out similarly to the first loop, with our supposed protagonist trying to outsmart time.

The movie is set in a future where humanity is suffering from food shortages and a deteriorating atmosphere. Humans live in isolation, struggling to protect their food rations from thieves. A man named Renton wakes up next to his former lover, Hannah. Soon after, three men break into his bedroom, capture them, and tie them to chairs. They demand Renton reveal where he’s hidden his rations, but after a series of events, he’s killed—only to wake up and relive the same day all over again.

Every time he’s killed, he wakes up to the same day. Eventually, he figures out why they’re stuck in this time loop: they’re reliving a home invasion gone wrong. Now, he’s racing against time to break the loop and escape the consequences of his past actions.

The disappointment in this movie is that it states its own problem: “You can’t expect a different outcome by repeating the same actions over and over again.” Ironically, the writers seem to forget that watching someone repeat the same dumb mistakes can be boring and exhausting. Instead of learning from his mistakes, the protagonist often repeats the same actions, only tweaking small details. The writers made him so naïve and overly trusting that it’s hard to believe he thinks these minor changes will make a difference. How the director thought this would be fun to watch is beyond me.

Imagine figuring out the intentions of the people around you and what they’re capable of—twice over—and still trusting them to make critical decisions that could change the outcome, even though they’ve already failed in similar situations. By the time the movie gets to its deeper secrets, you’re already too exhausted to care.

This is a sci-fi movie about the future that just fails to entertain. Do yourself a favor and skip this one on Netflix.