... I would go back two hours and not watch this film.
--------------------------------- CONTAINS QUITE A FEW SPOILERS - And may put you off if you thought seeing this film was a good idea. ---------------------------------
I love time travel - books and movies. I've even written a few short stories using the theme myself. And also because an SF movie with CGI is always a good way to spend a couple of hours. Sorry, I should amend that - is ALMOST always a good way.
Therefore I so wanted this film to be good. I pleaded and begged it, but to no avail. I've reread this story several times since I first read it as a teenager, and the Ray Bradbury Theatre version is OK, although filmed in that weird American style of the early eighties, as if the sound's been stuck on later and with an odd colour shift.
But it was so bad it was laughable. I couldn't give a rat's arse for the CGI - if a film is good it doesn't matter - but the insane contrivances drove me mad. I overlooked the whole way the team was worked, and only mildly cringed at Ben Kingsley taking yet another nonsense film role like Species. The tripe he came out with was pathetic and actually beyond clichéd - not a phrase I thought I would ever use, and although admittedly he tried to inject humour into his ridiculous lines, ultimately it was a pained delivery. But then all the characters were cardboard, and I mean no disrespect to the actors in anything except their choice of employer.
But in memory of the great Mr B, I was still willing to give it a further go. So I also let pass the blatant contradiction at the very foundation of the film - the bit not written by Ray - they never quite seemed to understand the different scenarios of Time Travel at all - can you change the past (Terminator) or not? (Time Machine)
But added to this the time waves (although Zemeckis used a variation of them in Back to the Future - he made it seem convincing in Christopher Lloyd's able hands) were just silly, knocking people flying, having huge trees appear (sometimes simultaneously with the waves, sometimes not), without destroying any buildings or chucking any animals around: what was all that about, except special effects?
And the combat was so sad (the big eel-thing. I don't, I think, need to say more). And the way they were continually chased by steroid-ridden mandrills, and stupid giant bats (just shoot it!) And almost all the dialogue. And was there supposed to be some chemistry there? Missed that one. And the turning a university particle accelerator into a time warp device accurate to 1 minute in 150 million years and didn't they appear right there but back in time, so how did trooping across the city put him back at the T Rex?....
The more I think about this film, the more I am coming to the conclusion that I have probably seen a worse film, but I can't think what it is at the moment. For these reasons and more, I had to come here and rant about it.
Sorry about that.
--------------------------------- CONTAINS QUITE A FEW SPOILERS - And may put you off if you thought seeing this film was a good idea. ---------------------------------
I love time travel - books and movies. I've even written a few short stories using the theme myself. And also because an SF movie with CGI is always a good way to spend a couple of hours. Sorry, I should amend that - is ALMOST always a good way.
Therefore I so wanted this film to be good. I pleaded and begged it, but to no avail. I've reread this story several times since I first read it as a teenager, and the Ray Bradbury Theatre version is OK, although filmed in that weird American style of the early eighties, as if the sound's been stuck on later and with an odd colour shift.
But it was so bad it was laughable. I couldn't give a rat's arse for the CGI - if a film is good it doesn't matter - but the insane contrivances drove me mad. I overlooked the whole way the team was worked, and only mildly cringed at Ben Kingsley taking yet another nonsense film role like Species. The tripe he came out with was pathetic and actually beyond clichéd - not a phrase I thought I would ever use, and although admittedly he tried to inject humour into his ridiculous lines, ultimately it was a pained delivery. But then all the characters were cardboard, and I mean no disrespect to the actors in anything except their choice of employer.
But in memory of the great Mr B, I was still willing to give it a further go. So I also let pass the blatant contradiction at the very foundation of the film - the bit not written by Ray - they never quite seemed to understand the different scenarios of Time Travel at all - can you change the past (Terminator) or not? (Time Machine)
But added to this the time waves (although Zemeckis used a variation of them in Back to the Future - he made it seem convincing in Christopher Lloyd's able hands) were just silly, knocking people flying, having huge trees appear (sometimes simultaneously with the waves, sometimes not), without destroying any buildings or chucking any animals around: what was all that about, except special effects?
And the combat was so sad (the big eel-thing. I don't, I think, need to say more). And the way they were continually chased by steroid-ridden mandrills, and stupid giant bats (just shoot it!) And almost all the dialogue. And was there supposed to be some chemistry there? Missed that one. And the turning a university particle accelerator into a time warp device accurate to 1 minute in 150 million years and didn't they appear right there but back in time, so how did trooping across the city put him back at the T Rex?....
The more I think about this film, the more I am coming to the conclusion that I have probably seen a worse film, but I can't think what it is at the moment. For these reasons and more, I had to come here and rant about it.
Sorry about that.