With all the advertising for this film there really wasn't a LOT of people in the theatre tonight when I finally got to see the new film version of H.G. Wells 'The Time Machine' (we saw the actual time machine prop and many design and behind the scenes pics last AUGUST of 2001 at the San Diego ComiCon), and anyone who ignored those ads missed out; this movie was a lot of fun and had some very engaging themes and ideas to boot. While it may fall short a tad on some levels it still had some great sci fi ideals seasoned in here and there, and the themes running through it were strong. It is typical of modern blockbusters in its adventure, but then it also has touching moments of reflection (Alexandre, the time traveler's, "what if" moment where he 'puts aside' designs for the Time Machine to be with a family) or startling imagery that is either beautiful (the Eloi homes) or disturbing (the cracked moon). And it all begins with some gorgeous and insightful victoriana. The morlocks, which looked all-too CGI in the trailers were instead mostly quite creepy Stan Winston animatronics, and Jeremy Irons as the ubermorlock was cold and freaky. The themes that carry along in the film are pushed home by a wonderful score, Guy Pearce is cool as always, Samantha Mumba is hot, and Simon Wells (H.G.'s great grandson) direction is visually driven by the design and effects work. There are some cool George Pal (Original TM film version director, as well as War or The Worlds) nods, and some interesting ideas and characters, notably the Computer Librarian Hologram, as played by Orlando Jones, who reflects on 800,000 years of solitude to a man who simply zipped right through it in his machine. You almost wish you could have seen more of the machine, or the travels, or the characters here and there, but for what this version is trying to be, I think it works throughout, and that H.G. would be proud.
Review of The Time Machine
