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Time Machine, The
Warner Bros. /DreamWorks Distribution L.L.C.


6.0

based on 33 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 34 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence

Starring Guy Pearce, Mark Addy, Jeremy Irons, Yancey Arias, Philip Bosco, Phyllida Law, and Samantha Mumba

A film version of the visionary novel by H.G. Wells in which a man in the 1890's builds a time machine that sends him into the future.

GENRE(S):	Sci-fi
WRITTEN BY:	John Logan David Duncan (earlier screenplay) H.G. Wells (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Simon Wells
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 23, 2002 Video: July 23, 2002 Theatrical: March 8, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	96 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The film, in its early going, also has a nice light humor about it, and an engaging, albeit tragic, love story.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

For the most part, it's imaginatively staged and consistently entertaining.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

Delivers a thoughtful what-if for the heart as well as the mind.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

A revisiting of George Pal's 1960 adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel. Pal's take on the book was visually delightful and occasionally clever; this one is always workmanlike and mainly pedestrian.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Machine makes its look-to-the-future-not-the-past message as clear as a Grammy acceptance speech, but as an exploration of regret and the elusive quality of time, it falls well short of "Memento," another film starring a sad-eyed Pearce.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

The Time Machine is, for the most part, a handsome, pleasant entertainment.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Amazingly stilted before accelerating into its exciting finish.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

As old-fashioned movie fun, this isn't bad, even -- especially? -- when it skirts the edge of silliness, and it's better than the 1960 George Pal version.

USA Today Mike Clark

Drab as it is, the movie is not impossible to endure -- in part because the concept has a timeless appeal.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Most of Wells' details are there, and so is the basic premise, but the soul of the thing -- the point -- is missing.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The Time Machine is stupid -- too stupid for the impressive special effects or the competently directed action sequences to wash away the bitter taste.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's a movie that robs the story of its politics and point and never really matches the charm of the '60s film.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

In the new film, it's personal tragedy that provokes the journey, not social upheaval or even scientific curiosity -- which, predictably, makes for a story that's at once more familiar and less interesting.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The last 40 minutes descend further and further into nonsense, until we're in an underground grotto where Jeremy Irons plays a furry, cannibalistic albino with psychic powers and super-strength.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

If Welles was unhappy at the prospect of the human race splitting in two, he probably wouldn't be too crazy with his great-grandson's movie splitting up in pretty much the same way.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Deliberately quaint and old-fashioned, a once-over-slightly exercise in nostalgic wonder directed by the British-born great-grandson of H.G. Wells, who treats the spirit of his ancestor's novel with literal-minded fealty.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Weirdly disjointed and uncertain as to tone.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

The best thing about the new film of H.G. Wells's The Time Machine is the machine.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

There's something wrong with a time-travel movie that allows an audience's interest to drift so that we have time to worry over where he's parked, and whether he remembered to take his key.

Slate David Edelstein

The film has no spirit of inquiry -- no spirit at all, really.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

They STILL didn't get it right this TIME.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

This uninviting and pallid version, starring Guy Pearce, is intent on grinding all the sharp edges off the original story, in effect making the movie childproof, so no one can get hurt touching it.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Breaks down when it gets to the distant future, which in this case isn't a good place to be stranded.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

The film's two saving graces are the time machine itself -- a gorgeous, whirling array of burnished copper and blazing light -- and the CGI-created rise and fall of New York City.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The movie gives us a time machine that resembles a twin-engined Mixmaster and a script that was tossed together inside one.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Wells' vision of the distant future is cartoonishly simplistic without the subtext of British class consciousness that informed the novel.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

So tedious it's almost worth watching to see just how bad acting, inadequate direction and most important, a criminally crass and unimaginative screenplay can make so little out of a proven idea.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A witless recycling of the H.G. Wells story from 1895, with the absurdity intact but the wonderment missing.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

While there are some glittery bits in it, the film is frustrating, cluttered, inelegant and garish.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Joyless and largely witless sci-fi fantasy.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

If you want a movie time trip, the 1960 version is a far smoother ride.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

If it's remembered at all, it will be as a time capsule of early-21st-century blockbuster cowardice and redundancy.

Film Threat Chris Gore

I’m getting fed up with classic films being remade or ruined by being turned into “Special Editions” that are less than special.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 34 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pat C. gave it a2:
Took all the intrigue out of time travel.

cbd d. gave it a4:
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Fun to watch, but the acting was about the same quality as Barney, the kids' show, and the plot has holes that are miles wide. Some good effects. The last 1/3 is especially lame. Anybody know what Jeremey Irons said in the climax scene????? I replayed it 5 times and still couldn't understand him.

Steve gave it an 8:
I've watched this movie about 3 times now and I still enjoy it. It's fun, creative and has great special effects.

Wesley R. gave it a 10:
To a small part of humanity, a time machine could be sacred. The departure angle of the remake was stronger then the 1960's, not to mention that the machine looked so much more realistic with the spherical lighteffects and spinning lighthouse lenzes. What the 1960 lacks in effects, more then makes up with its charm, Rod's driven performance and Yvette's "Eloian" innocence. Both movies, were like Wells; ahead of their time. And both movies agree; if the world comes to an end; it' might be our own fault; that message is selden seen in others of its kind. Also, it was nice to see some Morlocks without a zipper running down their spine.

Draco B. gave it a 5:
Visually = 8 Screenplay = 4 Acting = 3 Watch it again? = 3

Benjamin C. gave it a 6:
This movie could have been a lot better. First the things I liked: Spcial effects, technical stuff. Guy Pierce was the only good actor of the main characters. The first time i saw it, I fell asleep to the menu of the DVD, and the music was wierd, I could hear it while I was still asleep. I liked that. The stuff I didn't like: Even though Orlando Jones was ok, I thought he shouldnt have been casted for the part. Truthfully, Orlando Jones was decent, but I couldnt stop thinking "Its the 7up guy!" All the actors that played characters in the year 800,000 sucked, except Irons, but that was a small part. The ending was stupid. Just the way he kills the morlocks was sort of stupid. its still worth seeing i guess.

Felicia N. gave it a 10:
Another great film of Pearce's. He is truly a great actor. He really knows how to keep his films together.The effects were great and I have to agree that the crumbling of the moon was a neat idea. The creatures were awesome as well.

Time Machine, The Warner Bros. /DreamWorks Distribution L.L.C.

Time Machine, The
Warner Bros. /DreamWorks Distribution L.L.C.