Time Machine, The

• USA • 2002 • 96m •

• Directed by: Simon Wells. • Starring: Guy Pearce, Mark Addy, Phyllida Law, Sienna Guillory, Laura Kirk, Josh Stamberg, John W. Momrow, Max Baker, Jeffrey M. Meyer, Jeremy Irons, Alan Young, Myndy Crist, Connie Ray. • Music by: Klaus Badelt.

Scientist and inventor Alexander Hartdegen is determined to prove that time travel is possible. His determination is turned to desperation by a personal tragedy that now drives him to want to change the past. Testing his theories with a time machine of his own invention, Hartdegen is hurtled 800,000 years into the future, where he discovers that mankind has divided into the hunter and the hunted.

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Teaser

1:13

Trailer #1

2:25

Trailer #2

1:56

TV Spot #01

0:31

Review:

Had I been comatose and in need of intravenous film material to sustain my life system, then perhaps this over indulgent celluloid semi-acceptable vehicle may have sufficed. But I am not, Monday to Thursday at least, comatose, nor am I sufficiently lacking in social awareness to ignore the gross and hideous offences committed by this film in the form of racial and ethnic stereotyping.

I won't recount the entire `Time Machine' story (for fear that someone may hurl me into a time machine and transport me back to last night and force me to watch it again) lest to sum briefly: bumbling academic Professor invents time travel machine (spurred by traumatic event, leading to his profound existential questioning which could only be answered by travelling to another time), travels forward in time, goes a bit too far, and finds the planet and the human race to have undergone vast evolutionary changes. He encounters two separate races of people, and finds himself embroiled in a battle for survival between the Eloi and the Morlock.

Popular interpretations of the evolutionary division of the races in this novel has centred on the analogy of class structure - the 'under-class' which exists to provide for and service the 'over-class' (literally living above the land), and indeed there have been numerous Marxist reconstructions highlighting the ruling class and proletariat analogies. Lets leave that there, for this is neither that time nor the place for such discussion. What does need to be said is that these points are maintained in the film to some recognisable degree, but not to the effect that was created in the original film.

One race is being hunted and eaten by the other, and this apparently is the 'way' it is. Enter our 'Great White Hunter', and enter the end of anything resembling sense. The Eloi (above dwellers) are played by actors who would not look out of place on an international fashion catwalk. Every shot of these people in the film consisted of beauty, vanity, and sheer stupid, ignorant bliss. But here is the real catch: it is obvious to anyone watching the film with more than a soupçon of cerebral activity, that this group of humans are obviously of non-white ethnic origin. They might be south Asians, south Americans, Maoris from New Zealand (and strangely they have, over 800 000 years retained body art, but lost the English language), its not clear. Whatever ethnic origin they appear to be, they are characterised by stupidity, fecklessness and ignorance. Until, that is, our fearless professor arrives on the scene. He is the `uberman'. Not only is he intelligent, but also brave and strong, and has a survival instinct. Oh, and he is white. He and he alone can lead this people out of the darkness and into the light of progression and development. Does this sound familiar? It does to me. It sounds rather like the Christian missionary project of the last 1500 years or more, where the 'heathen' dwelling in the darkness of sinful idol worship must be taught the ways of the developed, Christian world. And even if one takes away the religious connotations, one is still left with the implications of the historical legacy of huge and devastating imperial and colonial decimation - both physical and ideological. The covert implications are clear - almost overt actually - it takes a race of morally, physically and intellectually superior people to lead this community of idiots to develop and take further steps on the evolutionary scale. I may be accused of 'racialising' the subject, but in reality, am simply holding up a mirror that reflects the ideological crime already committed. I am shocked and disappointed that what could have turned out to be an insightful venture into class divides, played through the vision of fantasy, turned out to be yet another insult to audiences the world over.

When will this stop? I would fear that it is too late to stop, but there are directors and writers in this arena who will find a way out of this stereotyping temptation and it is they who will lead the ignorant into the light of multi-racial awareness.

While I would concede that the special effects are 'special', the characterisation is poor. Guy Pearce tries his best as a bumbling professor unwilling hero, but one never feels any empathy or sympathy for his predicament. Similarly his relationships with his fiancé and friend are empty of feeling and emotion, and unfortunately one couldn't care less what happens to anyone in the film.

Whilst it's only the 21st century in our world, a few hundred thousand years off from the Morlock and Eloi, we have our own ideological battles to fight and they are being fought in the arena of film, against a backdrop of big budget finance and profit.

Review by hkeval from the Internet Movie Database.