In George Pal's version of the H.G. Wells classic, Rod Taylor stars as George, a young scientist fascinated with the concept of time travel. On December 31, 1899, George seats himself in his jerry-built time machine and thrusts himself forward into 1917. A dyed-in-the-wool pacifist, George is distressed to see that World War I is raging all about him. He moves past the 1920s and 1930s into the 1940s, only to be confronted by another, even more terrible war. Next he stops in 1966, just as London
is destroyed in a nuclear explosion. Retreating to his Time Machine, George is sealed in his cellar by molten lava. By the time he and his machine manage to escape their tomb, the year is 802,701. Looking around, George observes a seemingly idyllic world populated by gentle people. But he also notices that the citizens of the future, known as "Elois," behave more like mindless sheep than human beings. Befriending the lovely Weena (Yvette Mimieux), George learns to his dismay that humankind has forgotten all that it has learned through the centuries, preferring instead to frolic endlessly under the sun. Plot holes and inconsistencies abound in The Time Machine, but the film's true selling points was its Oscar-winning special effects; in this respect, producer-director Pal succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Another plus: the haunting musical score by Russell Garcia. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Seen today, The Time Machine remains a reasonably elaborate affair, with impressive production values and fine special effects (even if these are somewhat dated,
This smashing science-fiction adaptation of H.G. Wells's famous novel has more creativity in every frame than most latter-day rip-offs have in their entirety.
This Sci-Fi classic used to be a childhood favorite of mine, when it comes to scary movies, and it's still fantastic now. Starting out slowly, but so very atmospheric it soon dives into a time traveling adventure, where the future does not look very bright for mankind. Going by the wars of the 20th century H.G. Wells
and this film adaption of his classic novel see a bit of a reboot for humans 10.000 years in the future. That's as fascinating as gloomy as outlook but makes for an exciting, frustrating, pessimistic but not entirely hopeless adventure with Rod Taylor as convincing hero.
I'd like to re-watch this movie someday, I got bored with the beginning and didn't watch the whole movie, but I've heard good things about it, so I'll try watching it again.
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