The Time Machine
2002 · Directed by Simon Wells
Original language: English
- science fiction
- adventure
- action
The story
Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th-century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds mankind divided into two warring races.
What it’s like
Brass gears, glowing crystal and sepia-tinted Victorian interiors give way to a future that looks like a sun-bleached, overgrown ruin, all wide landscapes and bright, hazy daylight. The 2002 film leans on saturated CGI vistas, a sweeping orchestral score with swelling strings, and a steampunk-flavoured machine whose brass and glass feel tactile on screen. The mood is adventurous and wistful, a pulpy, big-hearted spectacle with an undercurrent of loss, and it suits a Saturday afternoon or an easy family movie night. Its pacing is brisk, with action sequences, a few chase scenes and a romantic thread between the inventor and a woman he meets in the future, and the emotional arc follows a grieving man learning that some things cannot be undone. Violence is moderate and mostly cartoonish: creature attacks, scuffles and some peril, with no gore and little that lingers. It is for viewers who enjoy old-fashioned science-fiction adventure, lush period-style design and a gentle, hopeful ending.
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