The Time Machine

aaronfransen

Jedi Master
Okay, the funny part of this review is that my father doesn't agree with me; he thinks Hollywood should stop trying to remake old movies because "the original is the best."

Normally I would agree with him, but in this case I don't. The original "The Time Machine" closely followed the novel, which in my opinion was not one of H.G. Well's greater works anyways.

The 2002 movie (watching it again because it's still one of my favourites) starring Guy Pierce is spectacular. Directed by Simon Wells (who I understand had done some animation directing, this being his first live action pic, and is the grandson or great grandson of H.G. himself) it's a completely fleshed out version of the original story. While preserving the essential elements, it provides far better character motivation in a more believable story.

Sienna Guillory does an amazing job of making you care for her character, for the three minutes she's on screen, and her death becomes a far more believable driver for the rest of the story than the original.

The acting is good (Guy Pierce is always great, but the rest aside from Sienna were "good"), but I'll be the first to admit I'm a sucker for a movie with a good soundtrack, and the music in this movie is some of the best out there, with a theme I can hum over and over (and frequently do, sadly).

The third act falls down a bit, but it's not a fatal flaw by any stretch (parts of it were directed by Gore Verbinski due to Simon having a nervous breakdown during filming...makes me not want to enter the film industry!).

Now, we can talk about the relevance to modern society due to the psychopathic/unemotional nature of Jeremy Irons' (always great as well) character, but I think the story itself is abstract enough that nobody's going to draw that line without having it done for them.

Generally I give a movie's rating based on their "re-watchability", and this one is a four and a half out of five. (For comparison's sake, "Love, Actually" is probably a 4.9 or 5 out of 5, "Star Wars" is 4.8, "Superman: The Movie" is 4.7...etc...)

Just my two bits!
 
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