This film was obviously doing an X-men thing without having to buy the rights to the famous superhero team. They just threw the time traveling stuff as a bonus. What we get could have worked, but they apparently did not work with the script much as it sort of never really goes anywhere or explains anything. Maybe this thing was supposed to be a pilot for a television show, but it literally tells the viewers as little as possible on its way to its tepid conclusion.

The story, we see some stuff and then a man and a woman walking about and not looking too good. Three years later, Urkel named Roland here draws bad pictures that another man somehow is able to figure out who they are. He contacts a man who exhibits telekinetic powers. Then he finds a woman with the ability to see ever so briefly into the future and then a guy with pyro-kinetic powers. And thus the Y-men are born to combat all those who would deny the next step in human evolution, or something, it really makes no sense as there are two organizations and by the end of the movie I still didn't know what either ones purpose was...

We get a pretty strange cast as Levar Burton is the bad guy, doesn't really work. Malcolm McDowell as a sort of bad guy and Daniel Baldwin as a rather unlikable hero...well that is not fair, not too many likable characters in this film at all and that is probably more due to the crummy script which seemed like they wanted to do something cool, but could not figure how to bring it all home.

So, totally not a good movie as it seems like it wanted to be more, but failed to do so. Not sure if they planned for this to be a series as so many things are left vague, but then again the film ends with everything sort of being done. I just think they were trying to do an X-men film as they have so many elements one finds in their comics, but they were doing it on the cheap.

Am not sure what this film was about: memory loss, time travel, special abilities, gifted children, government conspiracy ... or something else? The dialogue doesn't help. Neither does the way it is filmed, grainy and over exposed. Basically it is a bit boring. There are good actors like LeVar Burton and Malcolm McDowell and Trevor Goddard but they are not served well by the script. Underwhelming.

Directed by Barry Samson. Starring Daniel Baldwin, Stacy Haiduk, T.K. Carter, LeVar Burton, Malcolm McDowell, Richard Herd, Page Mosley, David Netter, Trevor Goddard, Tom Poster. (R)

Time travelers with superpowers are hunted by the host of "Reading Rainbow" in this D-grade sci-fi thriller. Baldwin (who couldn't look more like his "30 Rock"-era brother, Alec, even with an assist from deepfake tech) mumbles and mutters his way through the film without a lick of charisma or earnestness; as for Burton, he trades in Geordi's visor for a cowboy hat and looks exactly as threatening with it on as you'd expect. The story tries for twists and turns by presenting the action in a non-linear fashion, but it just makes a muddle of all the goings-on; not even McDowell's hammy villain (which he can do in his sleep) can liven things up. What little action can be found is generic and poorly directed/edited. There are the kernels for a decent genre potboiler here, but don't waste your time scouring this wasteland of entertainment to find them.

17/100