Star Trek: Generations (1994) has this one little moment that – for better or for worse – has always kept me from truly appreciating it.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, Generations is the film that Paramount Pictures crafted chiefly to be a “passing of the torch” from the classic era of Star Trek to TV’s Next Generation. To accomplish this, screenwriters Rick Berman, Ronald D. Moore, and Brannon Braga crafted a preamble focused on what audiences were led to believe would be the last adventure of Starfleet’s legendary Captain James T. Kirk. As bigger than life heroes always do on the silver screen, he went out saving the ship but – in the process – seemingly fell to a force vastly greater than he’d ever encountered before. It was called The Nexus, and it was something that transcended space and time.
This is where it gets a bit tricky for me.
In order to weave a compelling tale, Science Fiction and Fantasy stories do have to sometimes play fast and loose with the facts as conceived. Naturally, when you’re dealing with a phenomenon like The Nexus – something that’s a bit more magical than it is factual – then it helps to couch the supporting circumstances as close to reality as is possible so as to avoid having viewers ask too many questions about its functionality. Therein lay the problem for me because – in a short sequence – Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott announces that – according to his instruments – victims interacting with The Nexus had “their life signs phasing in and out of the space-time continuum.”
So, what was supposed to be a bit of a throwaway line establishing only how Kirk and company knew that the crew of a nearby ship were in danger ended up intellectually hijacking the film’s entire premise for me. Was I supposed to believe that a Federation starship had an instrument that measured not just the space-time continuum but also how individuals cooperated with it? How in the name of Gene Roddenberry would a scientist have invented and built such a gauge, and why in the name of all that is sacred and holy would that scientist have thought to place such a measure on the bridge of a starship? The existence of a device alone suggests that these people had quite possibly supplanted all the known laws of reality, and – having been a Trek enthusiast for decades – I knew nothing was further from the truth.
I bring this up because 2024’s Omni Loop offers a similar piece of scientific crackpottery. Written and directed by Bernardo Britto, the SciFi/Fantasy tells the story of a woman who is clinically diagnosed with a black hole growing inside of her. (Yes. You read that right.) Of course, it’s a terminal condition (duh), but it’s a conclusion delivered and handled as if it were entirely as commonplace as the seasonal flu. Knowing this isn’t the case, my mind immediately leapt into overdrive, and I began trying to fathom exactly how, when, where, and why modern science thought to study the existence of black holes not out there in the cosmos far and wide but, instead, trapped inside the breast of your average adult female.
Thankfully, I was eventually able to roll with the idea, and I’m glad I did. What emerges isn’t exactly what might be a winning tale of personal enlightenment for everyone, but it is very good in places. Despite the presence of a gravity sucking singularity, let’s just say that the picture’s heart was in the right place.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, Generations is the film that Paramount Pictures crafted chiefly to be a “passing of the torch” from the classic era of Star Trek to TV’s Next Generation. To accomplish this, screenwriters Rick Berman, Ronald D. Moore, and Brannon Braga crafted a preamble focused on what audiences were led to believe would be the last adventure of Starfleet’s legendary Captain James T. Kirk. As bigger than life heroes always do on the silver screen, he went out saving the ship but – in the process – seemingly fell to a force vastly greater than he’d ever encountered before. It was called The Nexus, and it was something that transcended space and time.
This is where it gets a bit tricky for me.
In order to weave a compelling tale, Science Fiction and Fantasy stories do have to sometimes play fast and loose with the facts as conceived. Naturally, when you’re dealing with a phenomenon like The Nexus – something that’s a bit more magical than it is factual – then it helps to couch the supporting circumstances as close to reality as is possible so as to avoid having viewers ask too many questions about its functionality. Therein lay the problem for me because – in a short sequence – Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott announces that – according to his instruments – victims interacting with The Nexus had “their life signs phasing in and out of the space-time continuum.”
So, what was supposed to be a bit of a throwaway line establishing only how Kirk and company knew that the crew of a nearby ship were in danger ended up intellectually hijacking the film’s entire premise for me. Was I supposed to believe that a Federation starship had an instrument that measured not just the space-time continuum but also how individuals cooperated with it? How in the name of Gene Roddenberry would a scientist have invented and built such a gauge, and why in the name of all that is sacred and holy would that scientist have thought to place such a measure on the bridge of a starship? The existence of a device alone suggests that these people had quite possibly supplanted all the known laws of reality, and – having been a Trek enthusiast for decades – I knew nothing was further from the truth.
I bring this up because 2024’s Omni Loop offers a similar piece of scientific crackpottery. Written and directed by Bernardo Britto, the SciFi/Fantasy tells the story of a woman who is clinically diagnosed with a black hole growing inside of her. (Yes. You read that right.) Of course, it’s a terminal condition (duh), but it’s a conclusion delivered and handled as if it were entirely as commonplace as the seasonal flu. Knowing this isn’t the case, my mind immediately leapt into overdrive, and I began trying to fathom exactly how, when, where, and why modern science thought to study the existence of black holes not out there in the cosmos far and wide but, instead, trapped inside the breast of your average adult female.
Thankfully, I was eventually able to roll with the idea, and I’m glad I did. What emerges isn’t exactly what might be a winning tale of personal enlightenment for everyone, but it is very good in places. Despite the presence of a gravity sucking singularity, let’s just say that the picture’s heart was in the right place.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A woman from Miami, Florida decides to solve time travel in order to go back and be the person she always intended to.”
A wise man once suggested that life is best lived in the moment. When you spend time searching for greater meaning, then you run the risk of missing a good deal of what makes an experience singularly interesting all on its own. Regrets might begin to pile up, and none of us should want to meet his or her maker with such considerations weighing down our mortal souls.
Former researcher and present author Zoya Lowe (Mary-Louise Parker) – along with her professional partner husband Donald (Carlos Jacott) – lived a life trying to provide answers to those who’d come looking through her written works, textbooks, and more. Though she hasn’t quite reached the level of personal success she once believed she was capable of, Lowe persevered the way a good worker does. Now that she’s been given that fateful ‘end of life counseling’ each and every one of us must certainly hear – the one wherein a person learns there are only a few days of life remaining – she finally asks what it all means and decides to do something about it.
However, the truth is that Lowe has already lived a life in pursuits of answers: the problem is that she’s been asking all of the wrong questions.
When she was but twelve years old, the young girl was gifted with a prescription bottle bearing her name that’s been filled with pills that – when ingested – magically allow a person to travel back in time five days. Because such trips return the user to a point wherein no pill has been taken, the girl virtually maintains an endless supply of this miraculous medicine. Eventually, we learn that Lowe has used it at different points in her life trying to correct events that she feels went awry, though it would seem that she’s still arrived at her end stage with little to nothing to show for the efforts. Though the script never clarifies the cause of her dire medical circumstance, a reasonable person might conclude that messing with the laws of time and space comes with a price; and perhaps the growing black hole threatening to swallow her whole is the consequence of tempting fate.
Like Bill Murray spends an inconceivable number of attempts reliving Groundhog Day (1993), Lowe, too, traffics in like-minded territory. The audience is spirited along her personal vision quest, watching as she tries against all odds to crack the science that gave her this special ability to beat the clock believing there must be a way to, perhaps, start everything over and do things differently. Eventually, she joins forces with a young research aide – Paula (Ayo Edebiri) – who shares in the enthusiasm to learn the ultimate ‘life hack’; and it’s their relationship that gives Omni Loop a great deal of its best moments.
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A woman from Miami, Florida decides to solve time travel in order to go back and be the person she always intended to.”
A wise man once suggested that life is best lived in the moment. When you spend time searching for greater meaning, then you run the risk of missing a good deal of what makes an experience singularly interesting all on its own. Regrets might begin to pile up, and none of us should want to meet his or her maker with such considerations weighing down our mortal souls.
Former researcher and present author Zoya Lowe (Mary-Louise Parker) – along with her professional partner husband Donald (Carlos Jacott) – lived a life trying to provide answers to those who’d come looking through her written works, textbooks, and more. Though she hasn’t quite reached the level of personal success she once believed she was capable of, Lowe persevered the way a good worker does. Now that she’s been given that fateful ‘end of life counseling’ each and every one of us must certainly hear – the one wherein a person learns there are only a few days of life remaining – she finally asks what it all means and decides to do something about it.
However, the truth is that Lowe has already lived a life in pursuits of answers: the problem is that she’s been asking all of the wrong questions.
When she was but twelve years old, the young girl was gifted with a prescription bottle bearing her name that’s been filled with pills that – when ingested – magically allow a person to travel back in time five days. Because such trips return the user to a point wherein no pill has been taken, the girl virtually maintains an endless supply of this miraculous medicine. Eventually, we learn that Lowe has used it at different points in her life trying to correct events that she feels went awry, though it would seem that she’s still arrived at her end stage with little to nothing to show for the efforts. Though the script never clarifies the cause of her dire medical circumstance, a reasonable person might conclude that messing with the laws of time and space comes with a price; and perhaps the growing black hole threatening to swallow her whole is the consequence of tempting fate.
Like Bill Murray spends an inconceivable number of attempts reliving Groundhog Day (1993), Lowe, too, traffics in like-minded territory. The audience is spirited along her personal vision quest, watching as she tries against all odds to crack the science that gave her this special ability to beat the clock believing there must be a way to, perhaps, start everything over and do things differently. Eventually, she joins forces with a young research aide – Paula (Ayo Edebiri) – who shares in the enthusiasm to learn the ultimate ‘life hack’; and it’s their relationship that gives Omni Loop a great deal of its best moments.
Still, Loop feels surprisingly hollow at times to the point wherein I’m not convinced Britto brought all of its pieces to the completed whole. The story at several points strongly suggests that vastly more was going on at the cosmic level than the director would have you superficially believe. In fact, I began to wonder if Lowe might've emerged as a better person had she been put on this journey by another party, and I’m happy to explain.
It isn’t until after Lowe’s Sisyphean trial is fully established that she meets Paula. Literally, the two collide at a nursing home (our lead’s mother is a resident of the place); and the young woman carries with her one of the author’s earlier textbooks. Their encounter would be otherwise unspectacular except for the fact that Lowe states that this is the first time in all of her hundreds if not thousands of iterations of living and reliving these specific five days in which Paula appeared. Are we to accept that such an appearance – which never happened before – was mere chance? Or did someone manipulate it? (Don’t answer that now, folks, as there’s more.)
Once Paula and Lowe join forces, the research aide takes the author to the local community college where she has a key to a lab which grants them access to just the equipment they need to begin their investigation of substance-fueled time travel. Here, again, Lowe comes face-to-face with another specialist we learn is key to her journey: Professor Duselberg (Harris Yulin) – one of her former collegiate sponsors – is spending his golden years conveniently in a post wherein he can now both challenge her to best instincts as well as provide a key piece of information necessary to fulfill the final leg of her personal journey. Again, are we to accept this as the luck of the draw, or is there someone working behind the scenes? (Again: don’t answer that. Yet. But get ready.)
Eventually, Lowe decides that her love of a former partner – Mark (Eddie Cahill) – is the answer that she seeks; and it’s here that Duselberg was able to point her in the right direction. To her disappointment, she learns that the man has tragically passed away but managed to secure and hold on to all of the research she’d previously amassed regarding time travel. Though she has no means to achieve closure on matters of the heart, she’s thankful to have her journals again because she firmly believes the answers are in there. Once more – and perhaps definitively, at this point – we see the suggestion that someone somewhere in all of the universe has put her on this path … and (now you can safely answer) this is where it’s pretty clear that someone is herself.
Sadly, I don’t think we needed nearly 120 minutes for such a rather obvious reveal.
Had the kind-hearted culprit been some other person – say Mark had survived in some reality and had planted this evidence to put her back on track to find himself even though he had now passed over, or perhaps even Paula from the future who finally cracked the puzzle and went back in time to tie such loose ends up – then all of this might’ve resonated as a journey a bit more strongly. When the shortest distance between two points is a line, Britto chooses instead to take the audience into a corn maze wherein we end at the exact same place we started; and that feels … well … artificial. In other words, this isn’t so much traveling in a line as it is standing at and achieving the same spot despite all of the mileage; and I’m questioning if all of it was purposefully necessary.
It isn’t until after Lowe’s Sisyphean trial is fully established that she meets Paula. Literally, the two collide at a nursing home (our lead’s mother is a resident of the place); and the young woman carries with her one of the author’s earlier textbooks. Their encounter would be otherwise unspectacular except for the fact that Lowe states that this is the first time in all of her hundreds if not thousands of iterations of living and reliving these specific five days in which Paula appeared. Are we to accept that such an appearance – which never happened before – was mere chance? Or did someone manipulate it? (Don’t answer that now, folks, as there’s more.)
Once Paula and Lowe join forces, the research aide takes the author to the local community college where she has a key to a lab which grants them access to just the equipment they need to begin their investigation of substance-fueled time travel. Here, again, Lowe comes face-to-face with another specialist we learn is key to her journey: Professor Duselberg (Harris Yulin) – one of her former collegiate sponsors – is spending his golden years conveniently in a post wherein he can now both challenge her to best instincts as well as provide a key piece of information necessary to fulfill the final leg of her personal journey. Again, are we to accept this as the luck of the draw, or is there someone working behind the scenes? (Again: don’t answer that. Yet. But get ready.)
Eventually, Lowe decides that her love of a former partner – Mark (Eddie Cahill) – is the answer that she seeks; and it’s here that Duselberg was able to point her in the right direction. To her disappointment, she learns that the man has tragically passed away but managed to secure and hold on to all of the research she’d previously amassed regarding time travel. Though she has no means to achieve closure on matters of the heart, she’s thankful to have her journals again because she firmly believes the answers are in there. Once more – and perhaps definitively, at this point – we see the suggestion that someone somewhere in all of the universe has put her on this path … and (now you can safely answer) this is where it’s pretty clear that someone is herself.
Sadly, I don’t think we needed nearly 120 minutes for such a rather obvious reveal.
Had the kind-hearted culprit been some other person – say Mark had survived in some reality and had planted this evidence to put her back on track to find himself even though he had now passed over, or perhaps even Paula from the future who finally cracked the puzzle and went back in time to tie such loose ends up – then all of this might’ve resonated as a journey a bit more strongly. When the shortest distance between two points is a line, Britto chooses instead to take the audience into a corn maze wherein we end at the exact same place we started; and that feels … well … artificial. In other words, this isn’t so much traveling in a line as it is standing at and achieving the same spot despite all of the mileage; and I’m questioning if all of it was purposefully necessary.
Britto also utilizes another metaphor to underscore that some of us might not be destined to achieve so much as a footnote in the history books: Paula introduces Lowe to ‘the nanoscopic man,’ a subject who volunteered for reduction to microscopic levels apparently for no better reason than science figured out a way to accomplish such a thing. Sadly, the process went awry, leaving this now unseen person in a state of perpetually miniaturization but still with the ability to communicate via technology. (Our leading ladies use him to analyze the magic pills at the atomic level.) Like this man, it’s suggested that we’re all on the path to obscurity, a concept that was dealt with more transcendentally in 1957’s The Incredible Shrinking Man. There, such a state resulted in bliss. Here, it really only underscores our quintessential uselessness when confronting cosmic forces bigger and more complex than we are.
The problem with a film like Omni Loop is that one’s assessment of it is ultimately owed to the key factor of whether or not the viewer interprets our time traveler’s lesson learned as authentic or not; and, frankly, I didn’t. In other words, the narrative payoff didn’t match or exceed the required investment.
Zoya Lowe takes what could be an endlessly circuitous route to essentially arrive at a point that I think a great many of us probably already expected: there’s no outrunning fate. No matter how well Parker’s work as our leading lady is, that fact alone – the ‘how did she not see this coming’ reality or the ‘haven’t we been here before’ effect – will likely produce mixed results at best. As a person, she’s rather contemptible. She seems to loathe her husband, her daughter, and her son-in-law. Why, she spends the bulk of her personal story running away from her family, those the rest of us would be thankful to share our final moments with. To her, they’re expendable if not downright replaceable. She even chases down a long-lost love in her quest to find meaning, and it’s only after she learns that he’s dead and gone that she inevitably realizes that maybe contentment starts with living within one’s means instead of embracing a potentially hollow dream.
Of course, a great deal of her motivation is tied to her circumstances. There’s no denying that Lowe might not be of the right mind; as such, it might be easy to see the how and the why of her plight to not so much withdraw as it is to escape what she sees as a bitter final chapter. My point is that living one’s best life and living one’s best end are not necessarily synonymous; and this suggests to me that this scientist needed more grounding in humanity. They call them ‘hollow pursuits’ for a reason. While I do appreciate that she learned something in those last days lived on repeat for what could’ve been a billion times, was that simple truth really that difficult to learn for one of the supposed best and brightest?
The problem with a film like Omni Loop is that one’s assessment of it is ultimately owed to the key factor of whether or not the viewer interprets our time traveler’s lesson learned as authentic or not; and, frankly, I didn’t. In other words, the narrative payoff didn’t match or exceed the required investment.
Zoya Lowe takes what could be an endlessly circuitous route to essentially arrive at a point that I think a great many of us probably already expected: there’s no outrunning fate. No matter how well Parker’s work as our leading lady is, that fact alone – the ‘how did she not see this coming’ reality or the ‘haven’t we been here before’ effect – will likely produce mixed results at best. As a person, she’s rather contemptible. She seems to loathe her husband, her daughter, and her son-in-law. Why, she spends the bulk of her personal story running away from her family, those the rest of us would be thankful to share our final moments with. To her, they’re expendable if not downright replaceable. She even chases down a long-lost love in her quest to find meaning, and it’s only after she learns that he’s dead and gone that she inevitably realizes that maybe contentment starts with living within one’s means instead of embracing a potentially hollow dream.
Of course, a great deal of her motivation is tied to her circumstances. There’s no denying that Lowe might not be of the right mind; as such, it might be easy to see the how and the why of her plight to not so much withdraw as it is to escape what she sees as a bitter final chapter. My point is that living one’s best life and living one’s best end are not necessarily synonymous; and this suggests to me that this scientist needed more grounding in humanity. They call them ‘hollow pursuits’ for a reason. While I do appreciate that she learned something in those last days lived on repeat for what could’ve been a billion times, was that simple truth really that difficult to learn for one of the supposed best and brightest?
Perhaps if the character had started out a bit more obviously cynically jaded or more worn down from the effects of her prolonged journey, her epiphany – that the ones closest to us do matter most – could’ve had a bit more meaning once reached. Yet, it didn’t, so I didn’t feel as strongly as I should have in spite of the heart-tugging twist or two delivered expertly in the end. Good moments will always be good moments, especially when they’re brought to life by an actress as accomplished as Parker … but truly great stories are increasingly difficult to find.
Omni Loop (2024) was produced by 2AM, Killer Films, and Lou Filmproduction. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been handled by the fine folks at Warner Archive. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found the accompanying sights and sounds to be quite good from start-to-finish. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Alas, what a big, big, big miss as the disc boasts absolutely nothing. A massive disappointment for this guy as I definitely would’ve liked to have had more.
Recommended.
Once again, I may’ve ‘overthunk’ it all, but that’s the risks one takes with stories like Omni Loop (2024). Some of us look for meaning in places where none is intended – Lowe shows us that isn’t exactly time well spent – and the reward for such pursuits rarely if ever is divine existence. Of course, this is the movies; and that’s a place wherein almost everyone these days expects a happy ending even when none is possible. If it’s a loop you want, then you definitely have one here, though I can’t help but wonder how many feel a bit disenfranchised with the destination.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Warner Archive provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Omni Loop (2024) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
Omni Loop (2024) was produced by 2AM, Killer Films, and Lou Filmproduction. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been handled by the fine folks at Warner Archive. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found the accompanying sights and sounds to be quite good from start-to-finish. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Alas, what a big, big, big miss as the disc boasts absolutely nothing. A massive disappointment for this guy as I definitely would’ve liked to have had more.
Recommended.
Once again, I may’ve ‘overthunk’ it all, but that’s the risks one takes with stories like Omni Loop (2024). Some of us look for meaning in places where none is intended – Lowe shows us that isn’t exactly time well spent – and the reward for such pursuits rarely if ever is divine existence. Of course, this is the movies; and that’s a place wherein almost everyone these days expects a happy ending even when none is possible. If it’s a loop you want, then you definitely have one here, though I can’t help but wonder how many feel a bit disenfranchised with the destination.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Warner Archive provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Omni Loop (2024) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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