“The Time Machine” returns to the big screen the ever-popular pastime of vicarious time travel. This adaptation of H.G. Wells’s 19th century science-fiction novel of the same name (as well as a 1960s movie by George Pal) and directed by H.G.’s great grandson, Simon Wells, takes the audience on a fast-paced journey that will ultimately leave the viewer unfulfilled if he or she expects much beyond the standard action-adventure sci-fi movie.
In keeping with its topic, the film’s action always seems to be one step ahead of its storyline, too preoccupied with its venture to become an explosive, fast-paced blockbuster to pay much heed to the more subtle makings of what has the potential to be a truly compelling film. For example, the intended climactic unveiling of the weakly anticipated time machine fails to achieve the impact it strives to produce because the film has fixated the audience’s attention on a less than riveting romance between the protagonist, Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce), and the archetypal love interest, Emma (Sienna Guillory). This is unfortunate because a more thorough elucidation most likely would have been of interest to viewers less easily enamored with variations on a cliché love story.
Emma is little more than a stock character, charming and beautiful, yes, but ultimately pretty dull and uninspiring. But that’s OK, because she dies halfway through her first scene. And if that’s not enough, again two scenes later (after Alexander travels back in time to attempt, unsuccessfully, to alter her fate). The melodramatic death scene is of little consequence to an audience having had inadequate time or reason to develop much feeling or compassion for the character. The more sadistic movie-goer might even find the second death —by-horse-and-buggy — to verge on humorous.
The blame does not rest entirely upon the lack of character development, however. Pearce’s character emanates a detached but often disengaged air which, while it was effective in “Memento,” creates a distancing effect with the audience in a movie that requires a solid connection with the protagonist in order to give the viewer the most authentic experience of the fantasy world of time travel.
Abandoning all hopes of being able to change the past, Alexander decides to travel into the future in search of what neither the past nor present can fulfill. He voyages to the year 2030, arriving at a society which may have been believably futuristic during H.G. Well’s time, but is a little too implausibly advanced for modern audiences 28 years shy of realizing such a world. Decked out in futuristic garb maybe a generation shy of “the Jetsons,” people whiz by a giant screen advertising “Lunar Leisure Living.” (That’s right, moon colonies)
After an encounter with Vox (Orlando Jones), a computerized hologram and boastful “compendium of all human knowledge,” who provides a much needed comic interlude, Alexander voyages 7 years forward to encounter an apocalyptic vision as pieces of the moon (as a result of a mishap on the lunar colonies) come crashing to Earth. He retreats to the time machine, but is knocked unconscious in the process and wakes to halt the machine in the year 802701.
The world in which he arrives is an unexpected departure from the technologically superior society of 2030. Society has returned to a completely natural state, inhabited by the benevolent Eloi people. Alexander establishes a rapport with the beautiful Mara (Samantha Mumba), the only Eloi fluent in English, who serves as his liaison in a relationship somewhat reminiscent of (Disney’s) Pochahontas and John Smith.
Alexander soon discovers that this world is not as idyllic as he originally presumed. The Eloi are hunted by a parallel but ferocious species of monsters who dwell in a subterranean world beneath that of the Eloi, the race of the Morlocks. The intense hunting scene by these sub-humans, accompanied by less than convincing computerized special effects, propels the film into an X-Files- like dimension. Predictably, Mara is captured, and Alexander promptly transforms from eccentric professor to Indiana Jones as he descends to the Morlock’s lair to rescue his damsel-in-distress. The remainder of the film is your standard formula action-adventure flick complete with Alexander’s showdown with the Star Wars Emperor Palpatine-like Morlock leader (Jeremy Irons).
Whereas the film falls short in plot and character development, it excels on the production end in its scrupulous attention to detail. From the costumes to the design to the skillful depiction of the passage of time (vines growing, skirts in a shop window growing shorter) to the elaborate mathematical theorems scrawled across Alexander’s chalkboard (a mathematician was hired to record authentic theorems) to the complex Eloi language developed specifically for the film, to the intricacy of the actual time machine itself, the film is at least impressive and occasionally awe-inspiring from a production standpoint. The majestic score also picks up slack where the script is, at times, lacking in its ability to propel the plot forward.
“The Time Machine” explores the provocative and fascinating subject of time travel and has the potential to offer a fresh perspective on an intriguing topic (especially as an adaptation). The major new angle that it does adopt — the addition of the love interes — is conversely safe and discounts the ability of the subject matter to stand on its own in holding the audience’s attention. The topic is wide open to an original, provocative challenge to pre-held conceptions about one of the basic tenets of our existence. Instead, the film resigns itself to a stock product of its genre. Simon Wells may just as well have left the story-telling to great-grandad.
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