Movie Review – Parallels (2015)

Director: Christopher Leone

Stars: Mark Hapka, Jessica Rothe, Eric Jungmann, Constance Wu, Yorgo Constantine, Michael Monks, Davi Jay

Parallels is a movie in which…wait, a movie? Oh, hang on, it’s listed on Netflix as a movie when in fact it’s actually a pilot for a television series that has been morphed into a standalone movie by Fox Digital Studios.

HELLO WHY ON EARTH DID YOU THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

The premise is that siblings Ronan (Hapka) and Beatrix (Rothe) get a mysterious phone call from their estranged father telling them to meet him at a building. They enter, only to find themselves sent to a parallel earth. They discover that their father has been hopping between dimensions, an they get a quick tutorial in the art of world-hopping by Polly (Wu). This has a great premise and although the acting isn’t amazing I did end up caring about the characters. In the film the two alternate earths that are visited aren’t that much (visually) different from our own, but if it had been explored properly the only limits would have been imagination…and money.

The story is actually really good but all the while I was thinking that it would make more sense as a tv show rather than a movie, allowing more time to be spent exploring the different worlds. There were also other hints, like strange people were hunting them, Polly was acting suspiciously in some scenes, oh yeah, and the ENDING IS LEFT ON A COMPLETE CLIFFHANGER.

The person who greenlit this and allowed the ending to stay the way it was is an idiot. I mean, I felt really bad because honestly I loved this movie and I wanted to see what happened, but it ends with nothing resolved and so it puts me in a difficult position. I enjoy alternate earth things and I think this should be watched by a lot of people because most of it is great, but then it ends with nothing but questions and I actually yelled at the television. I couldn’t believe that someone had allowed this to get out. And I don’t blame the actors or the director because I’m sure they’re just as frustrated as anyone who watches this, and it’s a shame that Netflix judges this to be a film because it will give people a misconception about what they’re getting themselves into.

Maybe they should have a new section called failed pilots that will tease you.

My word, seriously, I’m so annoyed because I wanted to see where the story went and what else the characters had in store. I guess at least there’s a parallel universe where it got made into a series and somewhere there’s a parallel me raving about it.