Well, this one had potential … until multiple years of delay and the recent announcement that it was going straight to streaming.
Andrew Stanton’s “In the Blink of an Eye” had a weirdly subdued premiere last night at Sundance — only seven reviews published so far, all pans (Variety,THR, RogerEbert (2/4) IndieWire (D), Deadline, JoBlo (5/10), The Daily Beast). On Letterboxd, the curve does not look good.
Just as concerning, there’s barely been any promo for this film, which is set for release in four weeks, but a brief search led me to an unannounced 30-second teaser that had been uploaded two days ago as a YouTube story.
Last month, after reporting that the film was being dumped in February, skipping theaters and going straight to HULU, I wondered: how bad can it be? The film certainly wasn’t made for cheap.
‘Blink of an Eye’ is an ambitious big-studio movie, aiming to explore the entire history of the world and tackle the nature of life, love, hope, and connection. The story opens with the Big Bang and then unfolds across three interwoven timelines: 45,000 years ago during humanity’s early days, the present in America, and a spacecraft journey roughly 200 years in the future.
The film, which began principal photography in March 2023, stars Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, Daveed Diggs, Jorge Vargas, Tanaya Beatty, and Skywalker Hughes.
Stanton, the Oscar-winning filmmaker known for Pixar classics “WALL-E” and “Finding Nemo,” directs “In the Blink of an Eye.” Although Stanton is primarily known for his Pixar creations, his live-action debut was 2012’s “John Carter,” which became one of the biggest box-office bombs in movie history. Reviews were equally harsh. A series of “John Carter” sequels were canceled after Disney lost close to $200M on the original film.
“In the Blink of an Eye” hits Hulu streaming on February 27.