Under the lens takes a deep look at films by focusing in on one or two particular areas of the picture that helped to define it for better or for worse. Spoilers will be included in this review.
The Time Machine is a sci-fi thriller from director Simon Wells (The great-grandson of original novel author H.G Wells) and stars Guy Pearce, Mark Addy, Jeremy Irons, and Samantha Mumba. It follows the adventures of a 19th-century inventor who hoping to alter the events of the past instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds humankind divided into two warring races and discovers he may be humanity’s last hope.
Under The Lens: Musical Score and “What If”
Musical Score: This picture has a truly breathtaking musical score, composed by Klaus Badelt, who is well known for such scores as Pirates of the Caribbean, Prince of Egypt, and Gladiator. The score for The Time Machine is rich, emotional, and plays to the undercurrent of emotion that we all carry with us. A score for a motion picture is meant to guide our emotions as we watch a scene, Badelt masterfully weaves his notes into each scene and makes us feel what is going on and also feel the yearning and longing that the traveler is also feeling. The score then collides past and future melodies into one with the final scene that leaves one feeling both happy and sad at the same moment.
What If: The picture is not really about time machines, but about man’s preoccupation with the idea of “What If”. When a tragedy occurs or something that we can’t control the first thing we as humans think is “What If?”, the death of the traveler’s love, is what propels him to create the time machine, in the first place. He wants to control what if and make it a reality. When he is confronted with the impossibility of saving her, he goes further into the future to find the answers he seeks. In the end, he discovers that he can only alter the future not the past, and he embraces the what-if of what is to come.
Highlights
Jeremy Irons turned in a great performance as the Über-Morlock, the philosophically minded leader of the Morlock tribe, bored, intelligent and lonely. Irons brings this all out in a short but memorable scene.
The creature designs were fantastic, with a mix of practical and CGI, a highlight was the Uber-Morlock and his extended brain that went down his back.
The picture overcame the future language barrier of the tribes in the future by integrating English in a very creative way that did not feel out of place.
Something to think about
Have you ever been haunted by the question of “What If?” in your life?
Conclusion
Overall The Time Machine is a very entertaining picture that manages to adapt the source novel while also interjecting its own ideas and sub-plots. With good performances by Guy Pearce and Mark Addy, it manages to inject a philosophical sub current and ends the picture on a truly emotional and tearjerking moment. The only issue is that the picture has a brisk runtime of 95 minutes and while it flows well and does not feel rushed per se, the world it creates is a very rich and fascinating one. A world that could have been better fleshed out with an extra 30-45 minutes of screentime. The Time Machine is an enjoyable thrill ride that makes you think and also will leave you feeling the emotion of its story long after the credits roll.
