Star Rating:

Time Machine

Actors: Orlando Jones, Mark Addy, Sienna Guillory, Omera Mumba

Release Date: Monday 30th November -0001

Running time: 96 minutes minutes

Based on H.G. Wells' book of the same name and directed by the author's great grandson, Simon Wells, this latest adaptation of The Time Machine is a pondering, lumbering film that is devoid of any sense of urgency, danger or excitement. Guy Pearce plays Professor Alexander Hartdegen, an eccentric academic who loses the love of his life in a tragic accident. Driven by his grief, Hartdegen invents a time machine, which he believes will allow him to restore the natural order of things. Unfortunately fate deals him another cruel hand and Hartdegen propels himself into the future where he gets involved with Mara (Mumba) and her younger brother, Kalen (Omera Mumba). Bland and inoffensive, Simon Wells' version of The Time Machine is so insipid that one wonders why the studio financing the film felt the need to dust off the material once again. Never quite capturing the imagination, the narrative plods along with little invested in the emotional make-up of the characters or the predicament that they find themselves in. The performances are fine, but lack dimension, leaving one wondering what the whole point actually was.