‘Yesterday After Tomorrow’ Netflix Movie Review - A Tedious Sci-Fi Comedy

A sci-fi movie needs more than just an idea to attract the audience. The filmmaker needs to convert the idea into an appealing script. The script then needs to be transformed into a fascinating cinematic experience. It doesn't matter if the idea is nothing but a cliché as long as the images are potent. Yesterday After Tomorrow, directed by Abdulghani Alsaigh and written by Omar Ashmouni, does not have an original bone in its body. It's about two sons meeting their parents by traveling through time. They open a door in 2023 and enter the year 2003. Yesterday After Tomorrow - terrible title - name-drops Back to the Future and Hot Tub Time Machine in an attempt to show that it's aware of its unoriginality. It's done for humor, but you don't find yourself laughing.

The only funny thing in this film is the constant bickering between Ma'an (Ismail Alhassan) and Mazen (Ahmed Saddam). When the two brothers realize they are in 2003 and Ma'an explains the Butterfly Effect (or call it Lizard Tail Effect) to Mazen, the latter gets all confused and impatient and ends up making fun of their situation. "Believe me, the portal will open. It's only a matter of time. And we need to find out who's responsible for this," says Mazen. "Who do you mean?" asks Ma'an. "Whoever stepped on the lizard," replies Mazen. Rakan (Abdulaziz Bernawi), Mazen's friend, is used as comic relief, though he only gets one good line when he mentions he used to sniff glue and has now quit.

Alsaigh is very literal-minded. He doesn't display any creativity. The portal emits a cheap blue glow, and when the characters cross it, you don't see their point of view or what they observe while going through it. This is a sign of directorial incuriosity. Alsaigh is tightly tethered to the words of the script. He depicts the events unimaginatively. What's worse is that he fails to imbue any sense of tension or drama into the narrative. Mazen's desire to talk to his dad comes across as a wish of a whining kid. You don't feel his pain or his craving to connect with a person he loved and lost permanently.

As Ma'an, Alhassan, with an almost inflexible body movement, behaves like a stereotypical nerd. It makes sense that he is well-versed in the rules of science fiction. He immediately figures out he and his brother have arrived in a parallel universe and later draws the conclusion that the past, present, and future are linear. Ma'an stops Mazen from revealing the truth to their father, Hashem (Naif Aldaferi), so that they don't end up altering the future events. Still, after roaming around the city in a taxi, eating food at a restaurant, and talking to a mobile shop owner, the brothers end up telling Hashem everything. They don't come up with any other alternative. This only tells you how creatively bankrupt the whole production is. The brothers roam the city so the movie can take up more time.

Then, there are so many holes in the story that they can serve as a portal to the realm of banality. Sanaa (Lana Komsany) realizes that the portal can only be opened if the surrounding area is water-filled. But when Ma'an and Mazen go through the portal, the ground is not covered with water. It takes time for Ma'an and Mazen to materialize in the past. Sanaa, however, materializes instantly when she enters the portal. How did this happen? Yesterday After Tomorrow doesn't give you an answer. It's not even interested in clarifying these things. The filmmakers merely provide us with a thin drama barely held together with some message regarding family that is so tedious it leaves you yawning.

Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times