Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried in a scene from the thriller “In Time.” The film comes out Oct. 28th. (Photo Courtesy of New Regency Pictures)

In Justin Timberlake’s newest film “In Time,” Timberlake plays Will Salas, a poor laborer who lives in the futuristic slum vaguely titled “Zone 12.” In Salas’ world, people stop aging once they are 25 years old and instead of money, time is used as currency.

Everything someone does, like buying a cup of coffee or boar

ding a bus, costs that person a fraction of his or her life span.

Tracking the subject’s lifespan is an ominous green-glowing clock implanted within the person’s wrist and once the clock fades to zero, the person simply stops living.

However, like every currency throughout mankind’s history, some have more than others. In Salas’ “Zone 12,” people live day to day, often times waking up with only 24 hours on their wrists and earning their life by doing a day’s worth of hard labor.

While in the utopia “Zone 4,” time is abundant. People there move at a slower pace, taking long lunches, never running and always carefree; after all, when you live in a world ruled by time, and you have centuries to waste, why would you ever hurry?

After saving a man’s life with more than a century on his wrist, Salas is given the man’s time with one request from the wealthy stranger — don’t waste it.

From there the pace of “In Time’s” drastically quickens, particularly when Salas loses his mother, played by Olivia Wilde, after she runs out of time. Her death gives Salas a motive to change the way his world once and for all.

With more than a century to kill, Salas takes off for Zone 4 hoping to avenge his mother’s death. There he meets Amanda Seyfried’s character, Sylvia Weis. Daughter to the richest man in “In Time’s,” Phillipe Weis, Sylvia is bored with her over-controlled life and wishes for something exciting. Hasn’t she learned anything from the movies? You’ve got to be careful what you wish for.

Hoping to take back the century that Will received from the wealthy stranger and bring balance back to fragile market of time is Raymond Leon, played by Cillian Murphy. Leon is a 50 year veteran of the police force. The one thing he find most important in life is making sure that stolen time gets returned.

Determined to find Salas and his time-clock, Leon raids a lavish party Sylvia’s father threw that Salas happened to get an invitation to. Leon’s raid is successful as the officer is able to capture Salas and drain his life span to a meager two hours, just enough for booking and processing.

In a cleverly choreographed fight scene, Will is able to escape the officers all the while abducting Sylvia as partner in crime/hostage of sorts.

The rest of “In Time,” follows Salas and Sylvia as they evade the police and band together to bring down a world that runs on seconds.

Written, directed and produced by Andrew Niccol, “In Time” is certainly a labor of love. Niccol’s script is so riddled with clichés and commonalities that the feature film seems like a prolonged cell-phone commercial.

The premise behind the film is solid and the ideology attached to it is certainly relevant (if this movie was shot in present day, Salas and Sylvia would most definitely be Occupy Wall Street protestors), however when the talented cast is fed lines written by a fourth grader, the story strips itself of any seriousness it might have possessed.

The lame storytelling was even enough to make the usually stellar actress, Amanda Seyfried, somehow seem bad. With a haircut resembling Vogue’s Ann Wintour, Seyfried came off as stale and seemingly plastic.

Timberlake on the other hand, didn’t do half bad. With the public yearning for the artist to once again start making music, Timberlake strengthens his case as a serious actor. However, Timberlake certainly needs to work on his fake-cry, in the scene in which his mother dies, Timberlake’s crocodile tears are so melodramatic that it’s almost impossible not to laugh.

As a whole, “In Time” is a film, like many others, with a great premise but a flawed execution. Certainly a stab at the 1 percent, the film is as much of a political statement as it is a lifeless action movie. Niccol underestimated his cast and certainly underdeveloped his script and in return, delivered a film that lacks any compelling story at all.

Perhaps the advice from the wealthy stranger in the beginning of the film applies best to the film as a whole — don’t waste your time.