The Time Machine (2002) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
"No one can change the past." "You're wrong. I will change it.
Starring Guy Pearce, Samantha Mumba, Mark Addy, Omero Mumba, Jeremy Irons, Orlando Jones. Directed by Simon Wells. Rated PG-13.
The Time Machine falls into the category of solid, good-but-not-great sci-fi; it's a fast, entertaining movie that throws around some interesting ideas while showing us some very nifty special effects. With so many movies in this genre being content to simply hurl graphics and noise at us (remember 13 Ghosts? Whaddya mean, no?), we should be grateful for a movie with a classic, sweeping plot that has stories within stories. It touches on some things that could fill entire separate movies, and yet it doesn't feel rushed.
The film is based on the classic H.G. Wells novel of the same name and, most interestingly, it was directed by Simon Wells, H.G.'s great-grandson. It's about a college professor (Guy Pearce) who's obviously some sort of weird genius, though no one seems to know what sort; he is perpetually preoccupied with his off-the-wall theories about time travel and relativity (Einstein is eventually credited in an offhand manner; curious how a movie about time uses the man as comic relief). He is also absent-minded and forgetful, though he does remember that he is supposed to meet his fiancee to propose to her. While taking their romantic stroll through the park, they are accosted by a mugger who attempts to take the new engagement ring; when the flabbergasted girl resists, she is shot.
So the conflict is in place: Professor Alexander Hartdegen will build a machine that will allow him to travel back in time and change the fate of his beloved. He becomes a recluse, evoking the concern of his loyal friend (Mark Addy) as well as his crotchety-but-loving housekeeper (Phyllida Law). Before they become bewildered enough to go rummaging through his office, he completes the project and goes back to the time before his fiancee's death and proceeds to change the way the evening progresses, only to watch her die in a different, more gruesome manner.
Now Hartdegen decides to travel into the future to find out why he couldn't change the past. He doesn't intend to go very far, but an accident sends him 800,000 years forward, where he discovers that a disaster has occured (in a haunting masterstroke, the film has man shatter the moon in an accident while attempting to build lunar luxury resorts) and that evolution has since taken two distinct paths. The gentle Elois live on the surface of the earth and are hunted by the malevolent Morlocks who live below.
The Time Machine is a fun ride, albeit with a few clunky scenes mixed in among the spectacular set pieces. I was nearly lifted out of my chair during the extended sequence in which the Doctor gets in his time machine and takes off; for a brief moment, Wells channels the stuff great science-fiction is made of, the sense of wonder that permeates the films we wind up remembering.
He never quite replicates the triumph of those three minutes, but sometimes he comes close. Jeremy Irons shows up as the lead Morlock, eliciting a hearty chuckle from every moviebuff in the audience wondering what has happened to his career (fans will recall that his last role was that of the villain in Dungeons and Dragons). Every time the moon breaking was mentioned, I found myself singularly fascinated; I wanted to see an entire movie simply about the moon breaking apart. The chase and fight scenes are less interesting, though Wells occasionally stages them with some flair.
The Time Machine is always thinking. Once you bring yourself to accept the existence of the mysterious title device, there's little else that presents a plausibility problem. This is a movie both efficient and vast, both ambitious and conventional, both funny and believable.
Grade: B+
Up Next: Wendigo
Copyright 2002 Eugene Novikov
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