Last night I watched this indie film with a very promising plot and a regular execution. I must begin this article by mentioning I have watched several movies/series about seeing the future/time traveling and some of them are quite the masterpieces, such as the movie Predestination and the Dark series. Other good movies have been Timecrimes and Primer.
Volition isn't as good as any of those. The story is about a man who somehow is able to see glimpses of his future, most often his immediate future like a few seconds or minutes into the future. He is already used to this and takes advantage of this ability. One of the things I didn't like is that someone with this ability wouldn't be so poor.
The character doesn't have too much money and there are a few scenes where a thug is intimidating him because he hasn't paid his rent. If he could see his future, he would have figured out a way to earn a lot of money with this ability. He is not homeless or extremely poor but his socioeconomic situation is a bit vulnerable, which didn't make sense to me.
Even if the glimpses into the future happened at random times, he could go to a casino, for example, wait for a glimpse and bet. He earns a living doing small crimes and one major plot point involves a deal with diamonds from Africa and a crime lord that has worked with him in the past. He shouldn't be working with that type of people in order to make money. He should be leveraging his ability instead, away from toxic and dangerous people.
This type of plot makes it easy for the writer to add twists and this movie certainly has some but they will hardly be real surprises if you have watched other films of the same genre. Nevertheless, it was fun and entertaining enough despite the fact I didn't bring anything new.
If you want to watch an entertaining movie even though it is far from being top-notch in its genre, then Volition would be a good choice. I would recommend watching the films mentioned in the first paragraph.
The best
- The film can be entertaining.
- It has a twisted plot, but nothing surprising after watching masterpieces such as Dark or Predestination. I admit it is not entirely fair to compare an indie film with major productions.
The worst
- Some parts of the plot were disappointing.
- Some scenes had awkward acting.
More information: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6385952/ Review: AA In numbers: 6.5/10