THE TIME MACHINE
A competent but uninspired remake of the classic H.G. Wells novel.
By Steve Biodrowski
This remake of the H.G. Wells novel (previously filmed by George Pal in 1960) pushes the story more into the arena of a typical multiplex action movie: Alexander Hartdegen (played by Guy Pearce) is not interested in learning about the future of mankind; he wants to learn how to change the past, so that he can prevent the death of his fiance. This necessitates a long, tragic, but mostly bathetic opening act just to get the character to the point where he builds his machine (the film and the book star with the unnamed Time Traveler unveiling his invention to his friends).
Once the time traveling starts, the film is reasonably entertaining, and there are even some nice new touches (jumping through various eras of the future, Hartdegen keeps running into a library hologram -- an undying form of artificial intelligence that recognizes him).
On the other hand, some of the changes have less to do with futuristic speculation and more to do with Hollywood perceptions of contemporary taste. Thus, the futuristic Eloi are no longer the apathetic examples of de-evolution they once were; instead, they are really cool nature people who seem to live at one with the Earth, like some idealized version of a '60s commune.
The Morlocks, of course, are not computer-generated monstrosities that engage in the obligatory cinematic action sequences, leaping about with the usual lack of momentum and inertia seen in CGI effects sequences. Also, the script invents a sort of "Uber-Morlock" (played by Jeremy Irons) who emerges like a caricature of a Bond villain -- the evil genius behind the lethal thugs. His presence is the ultimate plot device: he obviously exists to explain why Hartdegen's time traveling rescue missions have all gone bust (somehow, instead of de-evolving along with the rest of his species, this particular Morlock has attained an intellectual level where he understands the nature of the old "Time Travel Paradox" -- i.e., if Hartdegen succeeds in going back in time and saving his fiance, then he will have no reason to build the time machine and go back to save her; if he doesn't go back and save her, then she will die, etc, etc).
The movie is of interest to trivia buffs because it was directed by Simon Wells, a descendant of the original author. Still, the George Pal film remains the classic cinematic version of the story; even if it is not quite a masterpiece, it is a solid piece of fanciful entertainment. The remake has solid production values, and if one forgives the "improvements" to the story and forgets about the previous film and the original novel, it is a watchable piece of entertainment -- competent but uninspired.
