The Time Machine 1960 and 2002
The Time Machine (1960)
The Time Machine was released in 1960, directed by George Pal, and starred Rod Taylor as George the time traveler; Alan Young as George's friend David Filby, and also as his son James Filby in the future; and Yvette Mimieux as Weena one of the Eloi from the future. The film also features the voice of Paul Frees as the voice of the Rings. The Time Machine was released by MGM, on a budget of around $829,000 and made about $2.6 million in the box office. Though the film was met with mixed reviews.
Based on the popular 1895 novella by H.G. Wells, this film is about a man named George who theorizes that people can move in the 4th dimension, being the dimension of time. His friends and collogues think that he is crazy, and that movement in time is impossible. George though is tired of wars killing peoples, and hopes that by going into the future he can find a time when mankind has gotten beyond wars. He goes from New Years Eve in 1899, at the dawning of a new century, to the first world war, and then jumps further to the future seeing the second world war, and then watches humanity destroy it self in a nuclear war, and goes far far into the future to year 802701 and finds that humanity has split into two races, the peaceful Eloi who live a life of leisure on the surface of the planet, and the Morlocks who live under the surface of the planet, then he finds out the grim reality of the Eloi and the Morlocks.
I love this film, I think it is a great blend of action and adventure and science fiction, but also has wonderful dramatic elements as well. The casting is great, I love Rod Taylor as George, he conveys this sad frustration with humanity and it's war-like tendencies, and he goes into the future with hopes of finding a time where humanity has gotten past it's warlike ways. He is a likeable character, and helped to draw me into the story, through my sense of empathy for the character. I also really enjoyed Yvette Mimieux as Weena, she plays so well this simple minded peaceful Eloi, who have lost all sense of empathy for other people, and they have lost all will to fight, as everything that they need is provided to them, and they have no reason for labour or government. One review I read of the film, she was described as a "doll", and honestly I feel like that is a great description of her, she is a doll both her her precious beauty and cuteness, but also in her simple mindedness, almost empty headedness. Also it is a bit of a bonus to see Alan Young, who I grew up knowing as Scrooge McDuck from Duck Tales, and also hearing the voice of Paul Frees, who I knew from childhood favourite animated films like The Hobbit and The Last Unicorn. I feel like this is a great classic science fiction film, with both amazing special effects, and a decent and enjoyable story. Though yes there is a significant deviation from the original book, I feel like it was a great science fiction film of its time.
The Time Machine (1960) Trailer
The Time Machine (2002)
The Time Machine was released in 2002, and was directed by Simon Wells (great grandson of H.G. Wells), and Gore Verbinski was uncredited as the assistant director. The film stars Guy Pierce as Alexander Hertdegen the time traveler; Samantha Mumba as Mara an Eloi from the future, and her real-life brother Omero Mumba plays her in-film brother Kalen; Orlando Jones appears as the NY Library's Holographic Artificial Intelligence librarian named Vox-411; and Mark Addy plays Alexander's friend David Filby. The film also features appearances by Jeremy Irons as Uber-Morlock, leader of the Morlocks; and a cameo by Alan Young from the 1960 film as a flower shop clerk. The film was released by Film Works (North America), and Warner Bros (Internationally), on a budget of about $80 million, and grossed about $123 million in the box office. The film received mostly mixed to negative reviews from the critics, and holds a low score on online film review sites like Rotten Tomatoes.
This version of the Time Machine adds in a love story in the beginning of the film, and the loss of Alexander's love the reason that he creates the time machine, as an attempt to go back in time to change the past, to stop her from dying, which he realizes that isn't possible, so he instead goes into the future as an attempt to discover if the past can be changed, but through drastic irresponsibility of future humans, the moon explodes causing the catastrophic events that lead to the end of the world as we know it, and Alexander gets knocked out causing him to leap forward in time to the year of 802701, where the Eloi live on the surface and the monstrous Morlocks live below the surface. There Alexander meets Mara and Kalen a Eloi brother and sister, who he helps and becomes attached to.
Like the 1960 film deviated from the book, this film deviates even more from the book, and from the1960 version of the film. This film seems to try very hard to be a romance, which it fails to do in my opinion. The Eloi in this film are not the helpless mindless creatures that they are in the 1960 version, in this version they know that the Morlocks hunt them, and they accept that fact, but they are not quite as empty headed and careless as they were in the last film, I think which makes them feel less like livestock like they did in the previous film, and more like real humans, and I feel like that works for this film. The Morlocks are less human, and look more like Orcs from Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings, and they have more animalistic movements to them. Some of the special effects are well done, and look quite good, for example the looks of New York City in the past is really well done, and the creature effects of the Morlocks looks quite good. However the Morlocks, rather than being the dominate race, that does all of the work, and keeps the Eloi fed and clothed as mere livestock, are instead controlled by the Uber-Morlock, through mind-control, making them more of the weaker race, who rely on the control of the Uber-Morlock. I think this film tries to be original in some of it's changes, but I think overall it just gets muddled and lost, and I think that it fails to be anything more than an entertaining film. Watch this film for some fun action, some beautiful characters, and some nice special effects, but if you are looking for an intellectual thought provoking science fiction film, then I think that there are much better films you can choose. Do I like this film?, well yes I do, however is it a good film?, no it really isn't by any definition a good film. That being said I really do enjoy this film and have fun re-watching it, I have seen much better films based on H.G. Wells books, but I have also seen much worse. So don't pass up this film, just don't set your expectations too high, and you might enjoy it.
This version of the Time Machine adds in a love story in the beginning of the film, and the loss of Alexander's love the reason that he creates the time machine, as an attempt to go back in time to change the past, to stop her from dying, which he realizes that isn't possible, so he instead goes into the future as an attempt to discover if the past can be changed, but through drastic irresponsibility of future humans, the moon explodes causing the catastrophic events that lead to the end of the world as we know it, and Alexander gets knocked out causing him to leap forward in time to the year of 802701, where the Eloi live on the surface and the monstrous Morlocks live below the surface. There Alexander meets Mara and Kalen a Eloi brother and sister, who he helps and becomes attached to.
Like the 1960 film deviated from the book, this film deviates even more from the book, and from the1960 version of the film. This film seems to try very hard to be a romance, which it fails to do in my opinion. The Eloi in this film are not the helpless mindless creatures that they are in the 1960 version, in this version they know that the Morlocks hunt them, and they accept that fact, but they are not quite as empty headed and careless as they were in the last film, I think which makes them feel less like livestock like they did in the previous film, and more like real humans, and I feel like that works for this film. The Morlocks are less human, and look more like Orcs from Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings, and they have more animalistic movements to them. Some of the special effects are well done, and look quite good, for example the looks of New York City in the past is really well done, and the creature effects of the Morlocks looks quite good. However the Morlocks, rather than being the dominate race, that does all of the work, and keeps the Eloi fed and clothed as mere livestock, are instead controlled by the Uber-Morlock, through mind-control, making them more of the weaker race, who rely on the control of the Uber-Morlock. I think this film tries to be original in some of it's changes, but I think overall it just gets muddled and lost, and I think that it fails to be anything more than an entertaining film. Watch this film for some fun action, some beautiful characters, and some nice special effects, but if you are looking for an intellectual thought provoking science fiction film, then I think that there are much better films you can choose. Do I like this film?, well yes I do, however is it a good film?, no it really isn't by any definition a good film. That being said I really do enjoy this film and have fun re-watching it, I have seen much better films based on H.G. Wells books, but I have also seen much worse. So don't pass up this film, just don't set your expectations too high, and you might enjoy it.
The Time Machine (2002) Trailer
Comments
Post a Comment