starblazertv

The Time Machine

I re-read the book recently, and wanted to watch this first feature film adaptation as I'd not seen it before now. There's some things I like about it that are an improvement over the book in my opinion. The brief explorations of other time periods, the first World War and an implied third World War in the 1960's, adds a bit of worldbuilding to this adaptations story. Weena doesn't die horribly in a fire, thank god. That's a major plus. The added worldbuilding does unfortunately replace one of the most interesting parts of the book: the far future after the Eloi and Morlocks are long gone, where the sun is expanding to a red giant, and large mutant crabs roam the desolate beaches. It's possible they didn't have the budget for that sequence, but then again this was a George Pal production, the same producer behind the 1950's War Of The Worlds adaptation, and that film still looks fucking phenomenal over seventy years later. This film was interesting, would've been perfect for me if the super far future stuff was left in. Classic sci-fi.