Australian import Guy Pearce has played some challenging and superbly acted roles. Who could forget Lenny from Memento, or Detective Ed Exley from L.A. Confidential? Even his latest role in The Count Of Monte Cristo showcased the talent that movie audiences have come to expect. But Pearce has finally done it: He’s made a bad film, The Time Machine.
The Time Machine, the newest rendition of the H.G. Wells’ classic book, stars Pearce, Samantha Mumba in her film debut, The Full Monty’s Mark Addy and classic villainous actor Jeremy Irons. And- if you’re ready for a bit of trivia- the director of the film, Simon Wells, is the great-grandson of H.G. Wells himself.
The movie starts off innocently enough, with scientist and inventor Alexander Hartdegen (Pearce) hard at work in his office. Later that night Alexander is about to ask his love Emma (Sienna Guillory) to marry him, but tragically, a mugger kills her while trying to rob them.
The movie then jumps ahead four years, and Alexander has built a time machine. The film never tells how he has built the machine; heck, it never even shows him repairing the thing. For a science fiction film, where’s the science? But somehow the movie trudges along, and Alexander journeys back in time.
In the past, Alexander meets up with Emma again, and this time they go an alternative route, but yet again she gets killed and it becomes almost comical. So the now accomplished inventor decides to travel into the future to find out how to change the past-this before the movie turns into a homage to Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day.
The future is different, and of course there are plenty of jokes thrown in to make us laugh at ourselves, jokes that Wells would never have known. Unable to find his answer at this time, Alexander goes further and further into the future, finally reaching 800,000 years later. The world seems to have reverted into a time before civilization, is actually pretty good-looking and the ozone layer still exists.
Injured in his journey, Alexander is aided by the stunning Mara (Mumba), who ironically is the only native person who can speak English. Alexander finds out that the world has been divided by a horrible accident. Some people live below ground and some above, the hunter and the hunted.
Alexander is above ground and hangs with the hunted. The hunters are deformed animals that look like rejects from The Planet of the Apes. The leader of the apes is Irons, proving the point that scary British guys make the best villains.
Keeping with the whole Hollywood tradition, Alexander has some choices to make when the apes take his new girlfriend. Since Chuck Heston is busy with politics, Alexander must somehow come to the rescue.
The greatest thing about The Time Machine is that really, there is no time machine, which prevents one from watching this movie again and again. H.G. is probably turning over in his grave. I would hate to be at the Wells’ house for Thanksgiving this year after viewing this film.
Two things do save this film from falling below the never-see line of movie watching. The first is Pearce.
Yes, he chooses a bad film, but he is still a good actor and does his best to salvage The Time Machine. The second is the riveting special effects. They start out slowly, but go full-blown by the end. The parts where Alexander is traveling are the best because the years visually pass before our eyes. Overall, The Time Machine disappoints and fails to answer questions about time travel. In fact, Back to The Future answers more questions than this film. But the special effects are nifty, and Pearce’s performance is worthwhile so you might just want to check it out. Grade: C
