Film Review: The Time Machine

Because the original 60s adaptation of The Time Machine was a long wait in my Netflix queue, I decided to watch the 2002 adaptation instead.  This version starred Guy Pearce as the Time Traveler (or Alex), Sienna Guillory, Samantha Mumba, and Jeremy Irons.

There are many changes made to the story in this film.  The main character has a name now - Alex - and he's a professor in America who's seems rather shy and nerdy but is in love with beautiful Emma and just after he proposes to her and she accepts, something terrible happens and she dies.  Now Alex is moved to make the time machine to go back and prevent Emma's death which as it turns out, he can not because she ends up dying another way.  Alex travels into the future to try and find out why you can't change the past and then comes across the Eloi and Morlocks.

The movie gives a completely different character arc to the time traveller and a completely new twist on the Eloi and Morlocks.  The Eloi are still the Morlock's prey but the Eloi are more human and the Morlock's are considerably less human - downright scary actually.  They are crazy powerful and some have developed psychic powers.  The evolution of the Morlocks and the Eloi are a little shrouded in mystery, and I missed having that sense of scientific logic behind their development.  There's really not much in the way of real logic in this story though.  There's quite a few plot holes, and it's rather cheesy and cliche too.  The plot is very predictable, even though it only takes elements from the original book.  It's entertaining at times because of the action, and the creepiness of the Morlocks, and I thought the time elapse effects and how they showed time travel was really cool, but overall as a film, I can't say I was very impressed with this one.