ARQ (2016)

ARQ: Directed by Tony Elliott. With Robbie Amell, Rachael Taylor, Shaun Benson, Gray Powell. Trapped in a lab and stuck in a time loop, a disoriented couple fends off masked raiders while harboring a new energy source that could save humanity.

“This is going to be somewhat of a difficult review as my rating is based on hypotheticals… let me explain that:u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis movie is very familiar in the sense that the u0026quot;groundhog dayu0026quot; concept has been beaten to death, then you wake up and itu0026#39;s beaten to death, then you wake, etc… however I felt ARQ did an amazing job of realizing this, and ushered us into the story line of continuous time-loops relatively fast and efficient, while still keeping me intrigued to the background story taking place. There is a lot of information and history left to the imagination which will definitely turn viewers away, though I personally found quite refreshing. They stuck to the main story line without jam packing a compendium of background knowledge into the film. The acting was great, the set was limited to a house which really created an intimate environment for the viewer, and the film pulled off a cliché story while maintaining a certain level of uniqueness. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is where the hypotheticals come in to play: If this was the pilot episode for a new TV series setting up a story line for an entire season (one in which the time-loop was resolved early and didnu0026#39;t play-out all season) then this would be flipping fantastic, and would have every viewer intrigued and ready to watch the next episode. As you would expect in a really great pilot episode, the ending left me smiling while simultaneously giving the finger to my TV screen. If a second episode was out, no way Iu0026#39;d be choosing to write this instead of finding out what comes next. However, this wasnu0026#39;t a pilot episode, it was a movie. Which kind of changes my tune a bit, and leaves me still giving the finger to my TV, though without the accompaniment of a smile. I really hope they somehow expand on this with a sequel, or turn it into a TV show, but those are hypotheticals. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI still choose to give this a higher rating, because it could be the beginning of something awesomely awesome. If I were you, Iu0026#39;d give it a watch and see for yourself… Hereu0026#39;s to OPTIMISM!!”