- Actors: Yang Mi, Wallace Huo, King Shih-Chieh
- Director: Chang
- Film Format: Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen
- Language: Mandarin Chinese (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1)
- Subtitles: English
- Region: Region A/1
- Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
- Rated: Not Rated
- Studio: Well Go USA
- Release Date: February 6, 2018
- Run Time: 106 minutes
The appeal of
time travel films often comes from attempting to dissect the complexity of the
various timelines and how they affect each other. These films are often equally
exciting and intelligent, making them a staple of the science fiction genre.
While Reset has a premise that is
promising, it devolves into a film more interesting in the action sequences
than internal logic, and accomplishes this by creating its own rules along the
way.
Set in the near
future, Reset follows the scientific
experimentations leading to the invention of a device that is meant to bridge
the world between alternate timelines. This is somehow used interchangeably
with the idea of time travel, which is something of a plot hole, but matters
little when the chase sequences begin. Knowing that scientist Xia Tian (Yang
Mi) has access to the groundbreaking technology, a villain named Cui Hu
(Wallace Huo) kidnaps her son as a bargaining chip. She complies and steals the
technology needed to replicate time travel/alternate timeline travel, but it
isn’t enough to save her son. Desperate to right this wrong, Xia Tian travels
back in time to try again.
Predictably, it
takes more than one time to get things right, and before long there are
multiple versions of Xia Tian existing in the same timeline. While the decision
to have multiple dead children as the catalyst for the repeat time travel is
somewhat bold, the remainder of Reset is
unfortunately bland and predictable. Rather than dealing with the logic of
having multiple versions of the same character in the same timeline with even
the same depth of the Back to the Future
franchise, Reset simply makes up its
own rules as it goes along. There is a loophole allowing for the extraneous
duplicates to be removed, and the film can instead spend all of its time
dedicated to mindless action sequences.
Fans of action
movies may appreciate the Taken premise
with a time travel twist, but there isn’t much to offer true science fiction
fans. It is a film full of car chases and mindless spectacle, but little
beneath the surface thrills. While most time travel movies are enjoyable
because of the mind-bending twists, Reset
is all about exciting surface thrills without any depth. There is also a lack
of comedic relief, which makes sense considering the number of timelines that
feature dead children.
The Blu-ray
release of Reset is a logical choice
considering the heavy reliance on special effects, but the high definition is
the only reason for the upgrade. There are no special features on the disc.
Entertainment Value:
6/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 5/10
Historical
Significance: 3/10
Special Features: 0/10
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