(released 2002)

The 2002 version of  ”The Time Machine” was loosely adapted from the classic book of the same name by H.G. Wells. (It is important to state that there was another great version released in 1960). It was produced and directed, respectively, by Walter Parkes and Simon Wells and stars Guy Pearce, Samantha Mumba, Jeremy Irons, Mark Addy, Sienna Guillory, Phyllida Law, Alan Young and Orlando Jones. It was nominated for Best Makeup at the 75th Academy Awards.

This version of  ”The Time Machine” takes place in New York City where Guy Pearce plays a young teacher / inventor named Dr. Alexander Hartdegen at Columbia University. Alexander becomes obsessed with time travel and changing the past when his fiancee is killed by a mugger.

He builds his time machine but is unable to change the past and prevent the death of his fiancee. He travels further and further into the future and witnesses how much the world he knew had changed. He witnesses the destruction of the moon and a humanity in crisis. He travels 800,000 years in the future and meets a people who live simply but live in fear. Alexander notices that there are no older people.  One of the Eloie named Mara asks Alexander to take her brother Kalen back with him. This society of 800,000 years in the future is by no means utopia.

Just like in the book Alexander discovers that this future society is divided into two groups. The passive Eloi, who live on the surface in the sunshine and the Morlocks who live below ground and feed off the Eloi. Alexander teaches the Eloi that they have to fight the Morlocks in order to be free. It is important to note that Alexander goes even further in the future and sees that the Morlocks have devastated the world. (In the book by H.G. Wells the evolution into this society is better described where the wealthy class evolve into the Eloi and the working class evolve into the Morlocks).

The Morlocks´ attempt to breed passive Eloi eventually fails as is always the case in history. History has shown us that empires built on slavery in a warfare model never seem to last.

This is a great version of a true litterary classic and it is no wonder it turned out so good. The only flaw was the familiar script pattern of discussing paradoxes in a time travel movie. This movie is not immune to this as the Uber-Morlock played by Jeremy Irons explains that Alexander cannot change the past for such and such a reason. Any movie with the concept of time travel must stop trying to explain how time works and discussing paradoxes among the different theories on the mechanics of time.

Note: In short, if you want to look at time as a mathematical equation there are linear and non-linear components to the equation of time. Just like the real and imaginary number line in math. That is to say that every event is influenced by a linear time stream, or more precisely a previous event, and a non-linear time stream, or more precisely an event that has happened/will happen at anytime but the recent past. So manipulating time (can be)/(is) done with technologies or other methods. However,  accurate predictions of the future is a completely different matter and is  limited by the scope of the  intellect, which in our case is very narrow. Important characteristics of time to keep in mind are that the time field is not homogeneous throughout space (even small distances of space)and depends on many factors such as gravitational fields, electromagnetic fields, plasma fields, the state of matter and the speed of matter to name a few. That is basically time in a nutshell and all other theories and paradoxes are just nonsense and babble. (For example Einstien´s twin paradox is nonsense because the time field is not homogeneous across all space or even small distances.) (Excerpt from I2Q “Theories On Time and Reality In The Context of Senses”) 

Otherwise this is a very good movie with a great story and beautiful scenes of the past and future. It has a fantastic ending that is reminiscient of the 1960 version. This is a must see and own.

I2Q

(Commentary by  www.ink2quill.com )

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