Movie Review - The Time Machine (2002)

I just finished watching "The Time Machine" from 2002.  IMDB Post  I remember watching the original version of this movie when I was a child.  Fond memories of that movie were primarily what made me want to watch this version of the film.

In the beginning of the film we see our protagonist Alexander Hartdegen getting ready to go our for the evening.  He is meeting his girlfriend Emma in the park where he proposes marriage to her.  Of course this proposal is cut short by a mugger who ends up accidentally killing Emma.

This of course drives Alexander into a fit of madness in which he designs the time machine so he can go back in time and save Emma.

I'll leave the details a bit fuzzy here on purpose as not to completely ruin the film for you.  Lets just say he realizes that you can't change the past, so he looks for answers in the future.  The future he finds is actually rather quite similar to our present, with a few extra gadgets.

I was very impressed by this film on every aspect.  The story was perhaps the best known part of the film has been redone on many major aspects but still holds the major message of the original movie.  The visual effects are top notch, as I have said before they allow you to suspend your disbelief and simply watch the film and follow the story.  Crappy effects have a rather negative effect on story as a whole, since you keep laughing at the bad special effects and not paying attention to the story line.

The acting was amazing as well, some of the best I have seen in my recent movie watching experiences.  The dialog was very natural and never felt forced or cheesy, which I like.  The stunts were very well done too.  You see people jumping outrageous lengths and heights but it never looks fake.  You just simply believe that it just happened and they filmed it.

I was actually very surprised that IMDB rated this movie so poorly.  While I'm sure it wasn't a box office success it was however a great story.  I suppose that the classics are sometimes the best.

If you have not yet seen this movie I would highly suggest it to you.  I'm sure that you are not as big of Sci-Fi geek as I am but it really is a good movie even if you don't particularly like Sci-Fi movies.  Hey even my wife liked it, and she is very particular with which movies she watches.

For my Steampunk friends the Time Machine is one very giant Steampunk machine indeed.  Leather seat wrapped in metal and gears.  When this thing starts to move it is a piece of art in motion, enjoy that.

So to the voting, I give this movie five out of five smiley Mike heads.

Trust me and just watch it, if you don't I will find you and give you a verbal smack down.

As always thanks for reading, feel free to share your experiences with this movie.  If you think I rated it too high let me know.  If you want to troll me and my blog feel free I'll probably delete your comment but at least I'll have my first comment then.