When We First Met is cliche to the point that it seems intentional

When We First Met is cliche to the point that it seems intentional

Lazing around and watching Netflix movies has always kind of been my thing. I get home from school on Friday, put on my pajamas, and watch movies until I pass out. When We First Met is one of the few movies I’ve watched that have left me unsure of my feelings on it.

There isn’t much variety in the scenes. The entirety of the movie is about a guy named Noah going back in time because he’s completely infatuated with a girl named Avery (Alexandra Daddario) he met on Halloween three years previously. As he time travels to Halloween night in 2014, he attempts to turn himself into the perfect guy so that when he returns to Nov 1, 2017 Avery will be in love with him rather than her current fiance Ethan (Robbie Amell).

The acting was exceptional for what the actors were given. I appreciated Shelley Hennig’s supporting role as Avery’s best friend Carrie who loved doing wedding photos, but I happen to also have a bias towards her for being in the single show I watched religiously in middle school, Teen Wolf. Robbie Amell’s character was rarely present throughout the movie. Former Vine star Andrew Bachelor — who goes by King Bach — has a cameo as Noah’s womanizing best friend Max. And the bare minimum I had expected from DeVine was humorous lines, which, thankfully, were present.

My mixed feelings on the whole movie mainly stem from the plot being undeniably cheesy, but that’s also why the movie was funny. I could have predicted the end of the movie within the first ten minutes, but the cliche scenes that are riddled with humor brought in by actor Adam DeVine make the time between the beginning and the end at least a little entertaining. I had a hard time understanding whether or not the movie was intentionally cliche for the purpose of being funny, or if screenwriter John Whittington did it unintentionally.

Although the movie has the same exact plot as almost every other rom-com in existence, I was still able to find entertainment in Noah’s constant struggle to get the supposed girl of his dreams while also acting like a complete stalker as he continues to accidentally let slip things about Avery that he hasn’t learned yet. For instance, the first time he time travels, Noah doesn’t realize he’s done so until he has already spilled everything to Carrie and Max and officially classified himself as a creep. Once he comes to terms with the feat of time traveling, he proceeds to go home, dress up in a suit, and then go to the Halloween party he met Avery at. Throughout the party, as he talks to Avery, Noah predicts everything that comes out of her mouth and every event that occurs. At the end of the night, he does get to his goal of kissing Avery, but that is preceded by Carrie recognizing him and beating him to the ground with a small, potted tree.

The cinematography is unsurprisingly great, as the movie seems to contain very little special effects or CGI. The only points in the movie that are obviously given special effects are the small scenes in which Noah sits in a photo booth that doubles as a time machine.

The movie is entertaining, and I got a few good laughs out of it, but it’s really nothing special. I would recommend it if you were bored and wanted a “background movie” while you scrolled through your social media.