Hey folks, Harry here with the a look at TIME MACHINE, the latest adaptation, this one by Simon Wells and Dreamworks. Upon seeing THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, I again became interested in seeing this film and hoping for the best with it. I like Guy Pearce quite a bit in that period film, and I look forward to seeing him in this. Now Nimblefoot below has zero exposure to the original book or the George Pal film. I recommend that Nimblefoot and all the rest of you that have yet to see George Pal's film, click here for The Time Machine Regular Edition DVD, or for the giant box set of The Time Machine - Limited Edition DVD. Finally, you can not call yourself a geek if you have never read H.G. Wells' original book, this is where you can get that: The Time Machine Paperback! These are not necessary to enjoy the upcoming film, in fact reading or seeing them may change your feelings about the current film quite a bit, BUT... whether before or after you owe it to yourself to see the brilliant original and to read one of the finest science fiction novels ever written. Now here's Nimble's review...
Hey Harry,
This is Nimblefoot again. I sent you the very first test screening review of BLADE 2 a few months back and I'm here now with a quick look at next month's sci-fi adventure THE TIME MACHINE. The review starts below... but there are some spoilers.
I managed to catch an advanced screening of THE TIME MACHINE yesterday courtesy of the Los Angeles Comic Book and Sci-Fi Convention. Now I have never read the original story by H.G. Wells or seen the 1960 version by George Pal so I'm not sure if all of the elements have remained true to the source material. I did, however, find the movie to be an entertaining bit of sci-fi escapism. It begins in the year 1899 as Dr. Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce), a brilliant scientist, is hurrying out the door to meet up with his lovely girlfriend Emma. The two of them find each other in the park that evening and decide to take a romantic stroll together... and that's when tragedy strikes. A mugger comes out of the shadows and holds them at gunpoint. He tries to rob them both (moments after Alexander has proposed to Emma) and there is a struggle. Emma is shot and killed in the process and the mugger escapes into the night leaving Alexander shaken an! d horrified.
Four years later, Alexander is still heart broken and haunted by the memory of that tragic night. He uses his scientific knowledge to create a Time Machine that can allow him to travel into the past and future. He returns to the night that Emma was killed and does his best to avoid the outcome but a very different chain of events causes Emma's death. Fueled by his desire to know why he can't change the past, Alex goes into the Time Machine and sets a course for the future, determined to find the answers when science has advanced.
He gets a glimpse of the future in the year 2030 when massive skyscrapers fill the landscape, underground cities are in development on the moon and the New York Public Library's information center is a holographic representation of Orlando Jones (a surprisingly funny character). Alexander then reappears in the year 2037 only to find that the moon is collapsing due to a major screw-up with the demolitions for a Lunar colony and now the earth is being destroyed by its own orbit. An accident happens and Alexander is knocked out cold, accidentally hitting the lever on the Machine and travelling 800,000 years into the future.
When he regains consciousness he discovers that the world is a very different place since he last saw it. Very different. I will stop right about here since there is no need to spoil the entire movie for you. The film gets into some very bleak territory and becomes a hell of a lot darker that I expected. The only major problem was that the movie was too short, everything came and went so fast that we really didn't have enough time to connect with most of the characters and even less time to absorb the main villain whose appearance must have lasted a little under ten minutes. Aside from that I thought the movie was solid fun. I really enjoyed it (more for it's technical wonders and beautiful film score) as a decent sci-fi romp with some great special effects. Trust me, the 'time travel' effects are awesome.
As far as acting, Guy Pearce does his best impression of Johnny Depp's Ichabod Crane and Jeremy Irons gets creepy evil as the albino Uber 'Moorlock' (a race of creatures who hunt and feed on humans). There is even a decent performance from pop singer Samantha Mumba who plays Mara, a member of a peaceful tribe of primitive humans called the Eloi. Plus, those Moorlocks are a scary bunch who run on all fours at warp speed, attack you with blow darts and lay the smackdown on Guy Pearce. Cool stuff. This movie reminded me very much of STARGATE, a very enjoyable, not quite classic sci-fi adventure. At least this movie's got Moorlocks. FEAR THE MOORLOCKS!!!
-Nimblefoot
