The Time Machine [M]

Teacher and scientist, Alexander Hartdegen is easily distracted when it comes to new gadgets and mechanical treats. But then he meets Emma, and decides to propose. However, on the night of his proposal, a tragic accident occurs and poor Alexander finds himself asking that timeless, plaguing question: what if? So he builds a time machine to go back and change the past, but in doing so he discovers a few things that will both shock and enlighten him in his quest for an answer. 

Based on the novel by H. G. Wells, The Time Machine is one of the more noble and inspiring time travel stories to grace our screens. Filled with action, adventure, romance, and a few truths, it’s both a rollicking and thought-provoking look at what happens when we try to control the uncontrollable. 

Teacher and scientist, Alexander Hartdegen is easily distracted when it comes to new gadgets and mechanical treats. But then he meets Emma, falls in love, and decides to propose. However, on the night of his proposal, a tragic accident occurs and poor Alexander finds himself asking that timeless and plaguing question: what it? So he builds a time machine to travel back and change the past, but in doing so he discovers a few things that will both shock and enlighten him on his quest to find an answer. 

Unlike Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Back to the Future, which both use time travel to create great sequences of comedy as well as demonstrate the gravitas and danger of taking control of our own destinies, The Time Machine was a much more noble, dramatic, and more thought-provoking insight into what potentially can happen when heroes meddle with time. What begins as a simple goal to change one event in the past, quickly escalates into a desperate attempt to save what can be saved of the future. 

The dazzling special effects that are used to bring to life a technically advanced stage of human evolution and then a more primitive one, greatly depict the central message of how mankind will eventually become too drunk on our own sense of intelligence and power, and end up destroying ourselves. It’s been said time and time again for years and years and it’s only with cool special effects, created by our own genius, that can set our minds whirring to start processing the message. Go figure. 

Starring Guy Pearce, who was irresistible in that dapper period of history, Samantha Mumba, Mark Addy, Sienna Guillory, Phyllida Law, Omero Mumba, Orlando Jones, and Jeremy Irons, The Time Machine was a both a rollicking and a thought-provoking sci-fi flick that’s packed with action, adventure, gadgets, amazing special effects, romance, and truth. It’s definitely a film that’s worth watching, even just once, because it visually pleases you as well as causes your mind to really think.