Filmmaker Mia Trachinger takes us into the near future to find a small number of human mutants living a life where the past, present and future co-exist, causing them the inability to differentiate one from the other, so they wander around aimlessly, unable to really make heads or tails of what they need to be doing or what’s going on around them. One of these lost souls is Eva, and we join her on her “adventure” as she wanders the streets committing petty crimes, often with her pseudo-boyfriend Marcus in tow. Eva knows that she will kill Marcus sometime down the road through constant flashes of the future and so they try to figure a way to avoid this seemingly unavoidable event.
Rather than unfold as a fluffy sci-fi thriller, “Reversion” instead focuses on the resulting amorality of a being living in a non-linear timeline. It also gives us a look at what kind of life this would make…and it does that a little too well. It’s a bad deal when midway into the film you just want someone to come in and briefly explain what the hell it is that’s going on. This movie needs a Winston Zeddemore. It’s never really clear what Eva is doing or where she’s trying to go or why – true this is part of the point of the movie, but that doesn’t mean that it’s something that an audience is going to want to sit through. If the characters were interesting I’d be able to put aside my indifference and ride along with this frustrating mystery, but everyone’s pretty much the same apathetic loser, speaking mostly in questions that never have any answers. I don’t think there was a single conversation in this film that was even halfway engaging. So being that there is no connect between the characters and audience, all one has to hold on to is simply trying to figure out what’s going on and more importantly why you should care. Satisfaction never comes.
If the whole goal of this film is to alienate its audience, then another few stars can be added to its review rating because it does that very well.
