Escape From the 21st Century Is a Street Fighter II Time Travel Movie With a Twist

Escape From the 21st Century is the gorgeous, energetic, and wholly unpredictable emotion kid of Scott Pilgrim, The Terminator, and a John Hughes movie. Set connected an Earth-like satellite mode retired successful the galaxy, 3 teenagers get the quality to clip question 20 years into the future. But this isn’t your accepted benignant of clip travel. When they jump, their teenage bodies spell limp successful 1999 and that consciousness goes into their older selves successful 2019. Hence the title.

At first, Escape is played for humor. It leans into however it’s weird that these 40-year-old men present don’t cognize what’s going connected and enactment similar clueless teenagers. Quickly, though, things get a spot much serious. The trio, champion friends astatine 1 time, nary longer support successful interaction successful the future. Even so, their lives are linked successful precise important ways, truthful the teenage versions of their older selves research that, yet uncovering a crippled that puts some timelines successful danger.

Because it’s acceptable successful a not-quite-our reality, everything astir Escape From the 21st Century is heightened. Everyone is an fantabulous martial artist. People leap successful dilatory motion. Drugs person antithetic effects. It creates a satellite we’re hopeless to larn much about, but besides wholly chill with astir thing happening in.

The friends besides person a fantastic dynamic. Chengyong (played by Yang Song and Zhuozhao Li), is the person portion Zha (Ruoyun Zhang and Yichen Chen), and Paopao (Leon Lee and Quixuan Kang) are conscionable blessed to beryllium successful his presence. At slightest successful 1999, that is. That dynamic shifts drastically successful 2019 and, again, creates tensions and questions for everyone to answer. Plus, arsenic tends to beryllium the lawsuit with young boys, there’s a miss successful the mediate of it all, Yang Yi (Yanmanzi Zhu and Fanding Ma).

Visually, writer-director Yang Li uses tons of precocious contrasts interspersed with agleam colors to support the movie lively. He adjacent throws immoderate animation into the live-action enactment to showcase the powers of the characters. The video crippled Street Fighter II plays an important portion successful the communicative and the game’s classical tone, style, and look permeate pockets of the movie.

The astir fascinating happening astir Escape from the 21st Century though is that the happening that’s benignant of atrocious astir it is besides what’s astonishing astir it. In galore ways, it’s a tonal mess. Things spell from goofy and playful astatine 1 point, to aggravated and acheronian successful another. But Li dilatory finds a cleanable equilibrium betwixt the two, astir similar a idiosyncratic connected a equilibrium beam who loses their footing but rights themselves earlier hitting the ground. The effect is simply a movie that you don’t deliberation is going to beryllium peculiarly affectional oregon almighty beyond its amusive idea, but successful the end, truly delivers.

Escape from the 21st Century is simply a blast. It’s messy and it’s weird, but it’s truthful earnest and well-made that it coalesces successful a genuinely beauteous way. The movie precocious played astatine Fantastic Fest 2024. It has U.S. distribution, but not a merchandise date.

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