If you'd like to be surprised by the Norman film, I don't recommend you to watch the trailer, because it gives away too much of the plot. It also makes the story look like it has many action scenes, and that is misleading.
Norman, movie (2019) - Watch the trailer on YouTube
video © Norman the Film LLC
Article updated: 2021.06.23
The Norman (2019) is a sci-fi film. The movie was reviewed by Kadmon.
Product: Norman, movie (2019)
Original title: Norman
Series: -
Setting: Earth / future Earth
Product type: Film, Genre: science fiction,, Features: science fiction, time travel, Style: ?
Release: Premiere: 2019.04.28 (Richmond International Film Festival), Release: 2021.02.02
Reviewer: Kadmon, Type: Male, 40s, Preferences: Immersive, logical story, consistent setting, prefers surprises to spoilers, prefers establishing elements before referencing them
Watched: very recent (2021.02), first time
Rating: Bad (1 out of 3 points), Enjoyment: Bad (1 out of 3 points)
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This is my review of Norman, a sci-fi movie from 2019. It's about a scientist brooding on his miserable life, when he gets an inspiration to build a time machine. The Norman film is not very interesting, I don't recommend it to anyone.
Norman, movie (2019)
image © Norman the Film LLC
"Set in the near future, Norman is a feature-length sci-fi film about a scientist who discovers time travel with the help of his A.I. companion. After becoming trapped and isolated in the past, life both then and in the future seem lost. An unexpected encounter sparks hope, and with limited time and resources, Norman must find a way home before it’s too late."
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Review (spoiler-free) - Norman, movie (2019)
I've run into Norman when I was looking to watch something. The advertisement made it look interesting. I didn't watch the trailer.
Norman is about a scientist brooding on his miserable life, when he gets an inspiration to build a time machine.
The film is a mess. It starts very slowly. Then it slows down, and becomes boring. Sometimes we see the same scene repeated to really hammer it into the viewer. Sometimes explanations are lacking. Sometimes they explain trivial things in detail. I have to admit that I couldn't predict the next steps where the story would lead, but on the other hand, I didn't really care.
The cinematography is okay, the movie is watchable. They know how to hold a camera straight. The vistas are not very interesting. The special effects look good.
The audio is not perfect, but at least the music is loud enough to hide that.
The characters are not very interesting, nor well established. As there are only a couple of characters in the whole story, this is unfortunate. The actors are okay. The girl (Melissa Crouterfield) is cute, and good to watch.
The music is okay, although repetitive.
Norman is a sci-fi movie you can watch in the background - it doesn't require a lot of attention, and you'll have plenty of time when nothing happens.
My experience
I was not satisfied with Norman (2019). It was boring.
Rating: Bad (1 out of 3 points). Norman lacks a proper story.
Enjoyment: Bad (1 out of 3 points). Norman is boring.
Rewatchability: Low. I don't think even the most avid fans would want to watch it multiple times.
Chance of watching it again: Nope.
Chance of watching a sequel: Maybe, but I'd watch the trailer and read reviews about it.
Norman, movie (2019)
image © Norman the Film LLC
Will you enjoy this?
If you like slow moving mystery movies, you might like Norman.
If you prefer action movies, you'll be bored by this.
If you like technological research stories, you might like Norman.
If you can get through the first half hour of the movie still interested, you can stay, as it won't get worse.
Watching for plot points
If you are really interested in technological research stories, you might find some interesting moments if you watch the Norman movie for the plot points.
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Norman, movie (2021)
image © Norman the Film LLC
Review with spoilers - Norman, movie (2019)
I didn't like the Norman movie.
Cover
The cover of the movie is okay. It doesn't say anything about the story, but it also doesn't spoil the movie.
The trailer
The trailer immediately starts with spoilers, and it makes it look like it's full of action scenes. It's probably good in making the movie look more interesting, but it's misleading.
If you prefer spoilers, it's a great trailer for the Norman film. If you prefer to avoid spoilers, it will ruin the movie for you.
Promise of the first scene
We are going to see some American Civil War action? Or historical re-enactors? Or something like that.
Execution: In the very end we get some connection to the first scene, but the whole movie is about something else entirely.
Plot summary / Synopsis
We see American Civil War era soldiers fighting in a forest.
Then we see a guy (Stephen Birge as Norman), struggling with some problem, while not leaving his house for some years. He gives up, and contemplates on taking a pill (probably intending suicide).
Then we see the guy and scientists, probably in a flashback, as he is being prepared. He enters a portal, and gets to a forest.
We are back to him with the pill in his hand, when the doorbell rings, his food delivery arrived. When he gets to the door, he sees the delivery girl (Melissa Crouterfield as Jennifer) who is so good looking, that he faints. While he is out, he is shown in being different environments (summer forest, winter forest, desert).
He wakes up, and the girl is still there, helping him. He sends the girl away. Even when she is gone, he can't stop thinking about her, so he puts the suicide on hold. The room starts to shake, and the pill falls into the sink. He decides to continue his work on trying to get back to the future. He switches on his futuristic computer (ANI), to help him. The computer calculates that a few days later there will be a window in time he could use to travel.
He remembers that he is not allowed to interact with people, as that would change what happens with them. These changes make his head hurt, and he sees visions of different environments.
We learn that his computer helped him to get his house, and created a bank account for him.
We see his past, in the future. His parents die, and he decides to create a time machine. He works on it with his computer, and although he is about to give up, he finally makes it.
In the present, he also finishes his time machine, and goes through it. He arrives in the future, but something happened, and the facility is empty. When he leaves the building, he gets shot. A militia captures him, and wants to kill him, but a commando arrives and helps his escape. Back in the facility, he finds out that there was a catastrophy when he left, due to his time jump, so they had to evacuate the whole area. His computer copies itself to the computer of the facility so it could operate it without further help. The computer reveals to him that he is predestined to live in the past, as he will get together with the delivery girl.
He gets back to the past. Somebody knocks on the door.
The setting
It's the future of our own Earth. In 2085, the guy was able to build a time machine. It looks like he has some kind of foundation, who created a facility to house the time machine.
When he arrives in contemporary Earth, he is able to build another one, using the technology of the time.
When he uses the time machine for the first time to send a human through, it causes some kind of disruption that leads to a catastrophe, although the specifics of that are not shown.
Norman, movie (2019)
image © Norman the Film LLC
Time travel
There are specific times that allow for time travel. The computer can calculate when these windows open.
The time traveller faints every time he interacts with the events of the past. This is an interesting disadvantage. When he faints, the time traveller has visions of different environments - or he may be actually taking part in these events, it's unclear.
The message of the story
Probably "it doesn't matter what you do, you'll feel miserable, even if you complete your main goal". Or "no matter how good your intentions are, you'll mess up everything, to make the life of others miserable". Something along these line of thought. (Edit: According to the writer, it's "if your problems come from your personality, no matter where you try to escape, the problems will always follow you". So, it's pretty close.)
The structure of the story
There's the main storyline of Norman that is mostly played in sequence, and there are multiple flashbacks, showing the past of the main character. It has the usual arc of the dramatic structure - beginning, action, a quick resolution -, although it's not very clear.
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Things I liked
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How does it compare to the other works of the creators?
I haven't seen anything else from the makers (James Banks & Joel Guelzo). This was their first feature film, but this start is not very promising.
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Norman, movie (2019)
image © Norman the Film LLC
Analysis of the story - Norman, movie (2019)
I didn't like the story, there were many problems that prevented me from enjoying Norman.
Problematic elements
The main problem is the lack of real story. No matter how would it be recut or even reshot, there's no much there to use.
There's a guy who wants to build a time machine. He builds it, and go through it to the past. There he finds out that he cannot interact with the people, because that makes him pass out. He builds a time machine to travel back to the future. There he finds out that his travel caused a catastrophe, so he decides to travel back to the past to fix things. He travels back to the past, to the point when he left. And then the movie ends.
We don't get to see how he fixes those things. We don't get a resolution of any kind about an improved future.
He isn't further back in the past, where he could change his actions when he arrives for the first time. He still can't interact with the present, so he won't really be able to change anything. He doesn't even have his computer to help him.
In the beginning, we get a montage of the days of the protagonist, before he gives up. The problem is, that I don't care. I didn't learn anything about him, his personality, even his goals are only stated when he gave up his work. If this has been presented earlier, it might have worked better.
The lack of dialog without any other indications makes it hard to understand what is happening. Especially as most of the story is built on the thoughts of the protagonist that are not shown.
The computer creates a new identity for him, with a bank account and a new home. Then, after the computer creates this, he immediately switches it off, and he won't switches it on in the next couple of years. How does he know where is his new home? How does he know his identifiers from the new identity? He should have waited for a while before switching it off.
How come that his personal computer is more powerful than the computer mainframe of the time travel facility? If it has better software, it could have been copied even before the first time jump, to avoid the problems.
His computer moves itself to the computer of the facility, itself of copying itself. I'm pretty sure that even in the future, a software will be able to get copied without being deleted from the original.
It's stupid that the computer realises later what it means that it has found a photo of the protagonist in the past. It's pretty easy to understand it, it shouldn't take an advanced computer years to process it.
Unanswered questions
- Why did he switch off the computer? Did he really want to make his work this hard?
- What happened in the future when he travelled back?
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Possibilities of improvement
A tighter cut might help the story, so it wouldn't become boring. It's about twice as long as it should be. Some scenes are shown twice. Some scenes are unnecessary.
- Civil War: Cut the civil war scene from the beginning, it's just distracting. Also, it happens in a forest, and as we see plenty of forests in different times, identifying them is confusing enough even without this forest scene.
- Vibrating room: Cut the scene. It doesn't make much sense, and it won't come up any time later, so it won't be missed. (Edit: I've read it that the whole idea for this story came to the writers mind due to this vibrating room event happening to him, but it still isn't explained properly in the movie itself.)
- The shootout scene: This is not very convincing, it would be probably better to leave it out.
- The copied computer: Let's just make it so that he has to leave the computer so that will operate the facility. That way he loses it, and it doesn't clash with how technology works.
How it could have been better?
If the message the writer wanted to tell is "if your problems come from your personality, no matter where you try to escape, the problems will always follow you", then the story should have revolved around that. We should see him in the future, making his life miserable. Then see him after the time travel, making his life miserable. Then we should see some event (for example, seeing how others deal with the problems he can't overcome) that changes his mind. And we should get a glimpse of his future, where he is not miserable any more. It's an easy structure to follow.
As watching him work in silence doesn't really tell the audience what his problems and inner thoughts are, maybe talking to the computer from the beginning could solve this problem. The computer should also psycho-analyse him, for the sake of the audience.
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Norman, movie (2019)
image © Norman the Film LLC
Uses for the film - Norman, movie (2019)
Plot
- Somebody uses a time machine to go back in time, but he is stuck in the past.
- Time travel causes long lasting problems in the area where the time machine is used.
Scenes
- The scenes in the facility could be used to show a science experiment.
- The scenes in the basement could be used to show a basement dwelling scientist.
Scenario ideas - Role-playing game scenario ideas
- I don't think the role of time-travellers who cannot interact with the past would be interesting to play. However, the time-travelling hermit could be inserted into any kind of games. One of the locals doesn't leave his home, orders food instead of going to the market, but otherwise he is totally harmless and doesn't raise any suspicion. If the team is into criminal activities, they might break into his house, as he has to have lots of money to be able to buy all that stuff. If they are heroes or vigilantes, they might see some burglars sneaking into his house, so they have to enter to defend the hermit. When they meet the hermit, he faints, and they can't keep conversations, as he has a painful headache every time he says something. There's no money inside, but he has a device that allows him to get the right amount of money for the deliveries. This can be an advanced computer in a contemporary setting, or some kind of gennie in a fantasy world. There are also plans of a time machine in the house, or maybe even a fully built device.
Scenario ideas - Wargame scenario ideas
- There are two armed teams. One of them captured a person they want to kill. The other team arrives who want to interrogate that person, so they have to rescue him. The scenario starts with the second team interrupting the execution.
Choose a playing area size that allows the arriving team to be able to shoot at the center of the area, even if they do that with a modifier due to the distance.
Place the prisoner at the center of the area, hiding under or behind some scenery.
Place the members of the capturing team around the center of the playing area, at least one move away from the prisoner, in a way that none of them has direct line of sight to the prisoner.
Then place the members of the arriving team anywhere on the playing area, at the maximum distance from the center that still allows them to shoot at the center. If their weapons allow them to shoot anywhere, put them at the edge of the playing area.
The capturing team has to fight their way through the arriving team to get away. They also know that the prisoner is important to the other team, so they can kill him to foil their plans.
The prisoner intends to run away, and doesn't want to get captured. At the end of every round, the prisoner moves towards the nearest edge of the playing area, away from the members of either teams. If the prisoner can choose between two different ways of exit, the player who wins the contesting dice roll decides which way the prisoner chooses.
The capturing team wins if they kill the prisoner, or at least half of them survives after defeating the arriving team, or half of them leaves the area.
The arriving team wins if they capture the prisoner, or if they kill more than half of the capturing team.
It's a draw if the prisoner escapes, but at least half of both team is alive or left the area.- Armed prisoner variant: The prisoner found a ranged weapon. If his way is obstructed by the combatants, so he is not able to move, he can shoot at them.
Miniatures - 1/50-1/60 (28-32mm scale)
Civilians: Human-sized human civilians.
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Similar stories - Norman, movie (2019)
Short stories
Ray Bradbury: A Sound of Thunder (2005): Time travellers accidentally change the past, changing the future.
Movies
12 Monkeys (1995): A man goes back to the past to get help for the future, but in turn, he just destroys the world.
Archive (2020): Long stretches of nothing happening. If Ex Machine is similar, so is Archive.
A Sound of Thunder (2005): Time travellers accidentally change the past, changing the future (destroying reality). Based on A Sound of Thunder.
Back to the Future (1985): A time travelling man changes things in the past, changing the future (removing himself from the timeline).
Ex Machina (2014): Long stretches of nothing happening. I'm not entirely sure about the similarities, but a reviewer recommended it as a similar story.
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Frequently asked questions - Norman, movie (2019)
Is Norman film based on a book or comics?
No, Norman is not based on either books or comics.
Is there a post credit scene in Norman?
No, as far as I remember, there's no post credit scene in Norman.
Where can I watch Norman online? Is Norman available on Netflix? Is Norman on Amazon?
As of 2022.10.11, Norman is available on Amazon Prime Video and Vudu.
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Resources - Norman, movie (2019)
Official
Norman the Film: Official website.
Kickstarter: NORMAN - A Joel Guelzo Film: The crowdfunding project of the film.
Information
IMDB: Norman (IV) (2019): Database article.
Letterboxd: Norman 2021: Database article.
Creation
Christopher Boone (for No Film School): Writer/Director Joel Guelzo Pours 2 1/2 Years into Sci-Fi Feature 'Norman': Interview with the writer.Ł
Simon Foster (for Film Ink): Joel Guelzo: I Have To Make This Work: Interview with the writer.§
Reviews with no spoilers - Norman film (2019)
Mark Cole (for Rivets on the Poster): Norman (2020): Review article of the Norman film with minor spoilers.§
World Entertainment: Norman 2021 - Review: Short review video of the Norman movie with minor spoilers.Ł
Reviews with spoilers - Norman film (2019)
: Review article of the Norman movie, with spoilers. Includes a very detailed plot summary.
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Buying the product - Norman, movie (2019)
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Have you seen the Norman film? How do you like the movie? Would you recommend it to others? Do you know reviews or resources you'd like to add? What further thoughts do you have about it? Tell your opinion in the comments!
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