“Reminiscence” is a film that tries too hard to be good.

Released on Aug. 20, at first glance, this film looks promising with amazing talents in front and behind the camera. With actors like Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, and “Westworld” producer, and director, Lisa Joy, this film should have been great. But it lacked to capture its greater ambitions with a dry story that keeps you checking the runtime wondering if the story decides to move on.

Jackman’s main character, Nick, fought in a border war with Mexico that is led on by the changing climate, and while this war is hinted at multiple times in the film, you never see flashbacks from the war, letting the audience imagine how brutal it was.

At points, the story would drag with dry dilogy and repetitive and unlikable charters. Nick Banister is a Navy veteran from the Mexico Border war who later became a detective and learned how to dig up people’s memories from the Tank, a technology that lets you project previous memories. Nick later retired from the force to become a businessman to profit off the Tank. He later becomes addicted to his memories from the Tank, a memory of a lost lover that later develops into a mystery of who his lover truly was with many twists and turns that all end up to nothing. The correctors hide vital information from each other that only exists to keep a long runtime that overall hurts the film a lot.

There are some questionable lines of dialogue in parts of the movie mostly coming from the side character Emily played by “Westworld” actress, Thandiwe Newton. Her added dialogue seems too non-diegetic in a way you can tell it was added in during the editing stage.

One of the more positive things about this film is the soundtrack that comes from composer Ramin Djawadi, who worked on “Pacific Rim” and “Game of Thrones” previously. He’s an amazing composer, and his great work shows here with his bass guitar and has been called on to work on Marvel’s new “Eternals” film set to release later this year.

Another great thing about this film is its dystopian world-building in a future that could and most likely will possibly happen to us.

This world-building is greatly enhanced by the story’s location in Miami, so you can see how only in the next few decades, this is what the world will look like. We are sent to Miami nearly two decades from now and see sections of the city completely flooded and others walled off from the increasing waves.

With all of these amazing talents and amazing world-building, it unfortunately doesn’t make the story any better.

Overall, I would say that I would not remember this film, and I don’t believe I will come back to it after it leaves HBO Max. If you like sci-fi films, I would give this film a try and immerse yourself in this dystopia, but, if you find it troubling to stay tuned in during a film, I recommend you skip this one. If you are looking to seek a good sci-fi mystery film look to “Bladerunner” and its sequel “Bladerunner 2049.”