Review of The Time Machine (2002) by Dawdlingpoet — 26 Nov 2021

I found this to be a very entertaining movie, its got a good amount of special effects and some of the futuristic jungle type landscape scenery is quite stunning, I felt that its a shame my TV is quite small (20") as im sure it would benefit from being watched on a larger screen.

This is one of those movies that is quite absorbing and so its a good bit of escapism I feel. There is a sense of it being a bit silly and unrealistic I suppose but of course its fiction based and its really quite engrossing. I'll admit now that I missed the first 20 minutes or so of the movie, it was shown on TV recently and I didn't realise until I was about to switch the TV off for the night and then saw it being played on a channel and realised that it was a movie I hadn't seen before and that interested me, so I set it up to record the rest of it hoping I could make head or tail of it but im glad that I did because having seen it, I definitely did enjoy it. It is quite interesting how it depicts the future in different times being very, well, different and the concept behind it is interesting. Of course its based on H G Wells' novel which isn't one I've read personally but I have heard of, so I can only really comment on the movie itself. I'm sure there are people who will disagree on the movie being faithful to the book or whatnot but for what it is, I thought it was a good movie as it was both entertaining and it made me think. It is mainly an entertaining movie, however I feel that there is a serious message there as well, which some might find a bit cheesy I suppose but personally I enjoyed it and was glad that I'd seen it. Perhaps I'm a bit biased as I'll admit I have been fascinated by the whole topic of time travel and as a kid movies such as the popular Back to the Future trilogy were big favourites of mine, though this movie is rather different with the times being travelled to and the depictions of life then being more extreme.

If the special effects had anything of a budget feel to them, I'd likely have a different opinion of this movie, the script I'd imagine was one that would be rather surreal and difficult to fully capture on screen without quite a strong dependency on modern CGI techniques but as I say, the special effects really don't disappoint and there is also a good balance between high action scenes and more I suppose philosophical scenes.

At the end of the day, you'll likely think that the movie is a little far-fetched but it doesn't matter because its entertaining and it certainly passes the time. I did feel that towards the end, it went perhaps a little too sci-fi and that might put some people off as well but it is mainly an entertaining movie and it is quite thrilling as well in points and it does that well, so overall im pretty impressed, although there's something about it that makes me feel that it doesn't quite deserve the full five star rating, I feel that its somehow a bit too 'Hollywood', there's something rather cheesy about it and the sci fi aspect of far-fetchedness (I just made that up lol) may well put some people off. Its not perfect but its definitely good.

Yes I'd recommend it. Its a diverting movie with good special effects and action scenes and it certainly passes the time. Its quite imaginative and the performances aren't too bad either, so yes, if this interests you then by all means, check it out.