Movie Review: Déjà Vu (2006)
You see it again, when you've seen it all before
Summary 🎥
Agent Carlin (Denzel Washington) races against the clock to capture a terrorist using secret government technology and to save the life of a victim who’s caught in the plot.
Will Agent Carlin be able to save the citizens of New Orleans, or will this terror be another case of Dèjà Vu?
Thoughts 🧐
Dèjà Vu (2006) is an underrated sci-fi movie.
When discussing top sci-fi films, this movie is hardly ever mentioned. I’m not sure if the timing of this film suffered from the same genre marketing issues as Fallen (1998), but it deserves better. It starts off as just another detective who-done-it and sprawls into a time travel fight against fate. There isn’t a moment that felt like a lull as the pacing was spot on. The science was toned down, but enough was left to get the gist of the film.
The special effects are similar to those of Enemy of the State (1998).
It has the same general vibe as a guy in a chair with infinite zoom ability. In Dèjà Vu, the government just upgraded the system so agents can look through walls. Once you notice this style of movie tech, you’ll see it in several films. Even the time travel scene itself is reminiscent of that in 12 Monkeys (1995) or Looper (2012). Does this take away from the film much? Not at all.
Time travel logic is a controversial point of this film.
According to Wikipedia and other sources, screenwriters Terry Rossio and Bill Marsilii felt that key plot information was omitted from the film. With missing information, there were plot holes that would never be directly addressed. The time travel itself is said to be watered down so that the action would be more prominent. These inconsistencies would also diminish the chemistry between Agent Carlin and his romantic interest Claire (Paula Patton).
🚫 SPOILER: There is a discussion about the ending. If you want to avoid any reference to it, skip to the verdict section. 🚫
The film never explicitly gets into how many times Agent Carlin has tried to save Claire.
It could be one time or a thousand, we have no idea. In the original screenplay, there is supposedly more detail on causal loops and other time travel studies that would clarify these points. Without these extra details, we wonder what happened to different iterations of the characters. The other agents alluded to the possibility of multiple branch timelines but didn’t say if one timeline is destroyed if a new branch exists. Dèjà Vu could have added a small scene, like Looper, that clarifies some of the time travel logic.
Verdict ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dèjà Vu (2006) is a fun time travel film that still holds up today.
It’s one of the three sci-fi films Denzel Washington stars in. The cast does well, and there is enough time-travel logic to keep you interested. This is a fine addition to other time viewing and time travel movies like Paycheck (2003) and Looper (2012).
If you have déjà vu while watching, just know that in another timeline, you enjoyed this movie.