Subject: Review: Time Machine, The (2002)

From: Karina Montgomery <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 18:34:38 -0000

Time Machine, The

Matinee

Directed by the grandson of the book's author, H.G. Wells, this Time 
Machine is naturally benefited by the current technology both in 
presentation and in supposition.  Guy Pearce looks like death warmed 
over in the scenes when he should be the most lovable, but besides 
that, I really enjoyed this film.  If you don't know the story, maybe 
the title will give you a clue:  a man invents a time machine and 
uses it.  In the classic tale, however, he goes maybe 100 years ahead 
in our future and then, accidentally, 800,000 years into the future 
and discovers a new world right where jolly old England used to be. 
In it, humans have divided into extreme sub-species.  Mayhem, etc. 
It's amazingly  forward-thinking of Mr. Wells to have written this in 
1899, and even more forward thinking to properly update it with 
modern technological know-how.

Orlando Jones, as an our-near-future interactive library database, 
provides much of the audience touchstone for the film as well as 
summarizing the important plot points for the unread audiences. With 
one barnyard sound effect he sums up the whole Eloi/Morlock issue and 
gave me the most memorable moment in the film.  He is obviously an 
artistic improvement on HG's 1899 edition, but I think that venerable 
old author would have loved him.  Amusingly, the film apes its own 
origins with no shame, including making reference to itself in the 
library.  Sexy Irish hip hop star Samantha Mumba (she has a song on 
the Legally Blonde soundtrack, bizarrely) plays one of the fetching 
Eloi.  Normally reliable Jeremy Irons is head Morlock, and it is 
regrettably in his demesne that the film starts to break down for me.

However, the effects are naturally spectacular.  The beautiful 
cliff-dwellings of the Eloi and their Amazonian flavor lend them a 
more human, less stupid feel than that in the novel.  The Morlocks 
are both more horrible and more recognizably human than they come 
across in the book, which I think serves the story well.  The 
delicate issue of the time-space continuum is handled visually and 
neatly, and overall does not skip modern theory, using contemporary 
cinematic language cribbed from Star Trek but totally appropriate for 
the translation of this beloved Victorian work.  Hey, whatever gets 
the kids reading, right?  Pearce becomes more handsome as he becomes 
more alive when challenged in this brave new world; his departure 
from his 1899 life is welcome, so unpleasant a character as he was 
becoming.

I won't lie to you and say that this is a totally faithful retelling; 
the ending is cleaned up a little bit, the Traveller makes a 
different choice at the end, and a few other minor details.  But the 
spirit of the book (OK, except for the end choice made by the 
Traveler, thereby kind of blowing the theme off) is there.  Check it 
out.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery.  Please feel free to forward
but just credit the reviewer in the text.  Thanks. 
[email-masked]
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