THE TIME VORTEX and the Good College Try

THE TIME VORTEX (Blu-ray)

2025 / 81 min

Rising Sun Media

Available at MovieZyng

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😼

Not every filmmaker has millions of dollars, cutting edge technology and top tier actors at their disposal. Sometimes all they’re armed with is an interesting premise, and if executed right, it might be all they need. Primer, Coherence and The History of Time Travel are great recent examples of sci-fi mindbenders that cost nearly nothing to pull off.

Similarly, The Time Vortex features a no-name cast whose performances can generously be described as adequate. The overall production design appears to be based on locations writer-director George Kaplan had convenient access to. Technical aspects (including visual effects, sound and overall camerawork) are a notch-or-two above what you could probably cook-up with a good cell phone. It’s a movie more enamored with the complexities of its story than anything else.

As such, The Time Vortex is marginally successful. Nathan Dubrowski (Alex Kraft) is a quantum physics grad student who accidently discovers that his current project is capable of zapping him into seven different parallel universes. But in each one, colleague/love interest Inaya Gupta (Rabbani Kaur) is either murdered by jealous janitor boyfriend Carter (Bryon Barron) or about to be. After consulting his professor, Dr. Pelican (Michael Sullivan), Nathan sets out to save her before these timelines start collapsing.

"For starters, I wouldn't have gone with yellow."

The concept is initially intriguing, but grows increasingly muddled as it plays out, exacerbated by Pelican’s expository gobbledegook. Unlike the labyrinthine story turns in Coherence, which still ended up making perfect sense by the end, The Time Vortex often struggles with the clarity of its own premise. I love a good, perplexing sci-fi puzzle as much as the next guy, as long as my undivided attention is rewarded with a picture where the pieces all fit. In that respect, this one falls a couple of pieces short.

Still, it’s a good college try, and at no point do we question Kaplan’s dedication to his ideas. However, as anyone who's ever attended college knows, even your best effort can sometimes result in a C, which is ultimately the grade that The Time Vortex earns. But even though the film is not quite the satisfying mindbender it’s obviously striving to be, there are a few neat ideas floating around in there.