Millennium (1989)

Movie Info

The future…where your rank is determined by how tall your hair is…

Bill Smith (Kris Kristofferson) is a crash investigator with the NTSB called in to investigate the crash of two planes in Minneapolis.  When he encounters a strange woman named Louise Baltimore (Cheryl Ladd), he learns that there might be even more to the wreck than meets the eye.  Louise comes from the future where humanity has become infertile and trips into the past have created timequakes that plague the dying population.  Louise finds herself falling in love with Bill as she is in a race to stop a dangerous paradox that could destroy time itself.

Directed by Michael Anderson, Millennium is a sci-fi fantasy time travel movie.  The film is based on John Varley’s 1977 short story “Air Raid” which in 1983 was developed into the novel Millennium.  The film was met with largely negative reviews.

You’re taking orders from a lady who fell out of Star Trek: Insurrection?

When I was young (pre-internet), it was always exciting to get a movie magazine because it was one of the few ways you could read about upcoming movies.  I remember having a Starlog with Millennium as a feature and poring over it simply because it was there…even seeing Millennium as a kid however, I realized it wasn’t very good.

Millennium has potential, but it is primarily a garbled mess in dealing with time-travel and paradoxes.  With a smart movie like Back to the Future treading on the same stuff, the dark & broody Millennium has big footsteps to follow in.  The movie isn’t that fun and the weaving storyline is more boring than interesting…it also feels pretty slim in the content since much of the second half of the film is just a retelling of the first half of the movie from Louise’s perspective.

The cast also is left behind by the plot.  The characters really don’t get a chance to develop and the side characters like Dr. Mayer (Daniel J. Travanti) feel shoehorned into the plot…though they are extremely important.  I like the “future” cast, but it is also underdeveloped and undercooked.

I could have been a contender…

The visuals for the movie are kind of strong for 1989.  The movie looks pretty good and a step above some of the cheesier sci-fi films.  I like some of the special effects, but the story doesn’t back them up enough.  It seems like a lot of work to go back into the past via time portals just to steal people from crashing planes.

I actually don’t see why Millennium hasn’t caused some ripples in the fandom.  I could see people latching on to this small film simply because some of the ideas of the film are sound and I do like some of the special effects and set designs.  The movie however is based on a short story that feels like a short story and needs more meat (and a better ending).  Millennium is generic sci-fi that probably was better on the written page…don’t bother with this entry when there are greater sci-fi movies that can be seen.