Volition (2019)

 

Even though "Volition" starts with a handicap due to a low indie movie budget, which is noticeable in pretty much everything, from production design to casting, it manages to stay at a decent level, enough to give it a chance.

The story is somehow close to the probably more known "Next", inspired itself from a short story by P. K. Dick. James is a guy who experiences flashes of what the future brings. If in "Next" this was for the "next 2 minutes", in "Volition" the gift is more generous, but also not that well defined - the visions don't have a specific time setting and are also intertwined. It's the type of movie that constructs itself as a puzzle, returning often into its own previous development. The plot starts with a vision showing James his own death, after he gets hired by some shady character to find a buyer for a pouch of stolen diamonds. After we advance a bit, we're presented with a first twist, but such a bad one in respect to credibility that I'm gonna spoil it - James also gets "time travel" powers - physically speaking, not only in his mind. After you manage to get over the way this happens (let's not spoil everything), the script slowly redeems itself by tying together quite well all sorts of events in the story, which suddenly looks more complex than it initially seemed to be.

Unfortunately... when you're comfortable with the low-budget feeling, also accepted the dumb way to time-travel, when the actors don't look anymore like amateurs, and when you could actually say that the movie has some deeper meaning carefully put together... the last 30 seconds destroy the entire script. All I can say is that if you're looking for a happy-end, it delivers. But it could have done it differently. Well, one more spoiler, can't help it...

Rating: 2.5 out of 5