3. The Time Machine (2002)
What We Got: A sub-standard Sci-Fi Action piece
What It Should've Been: What the book it's adapting was: A Sci-Fi Allegory for turn-of-the-century class systems. Who better than the great-grandson of the original author to do a film adaptation of a classic novel? Yes, Simon Wells had the H.G Wells linage to do a proper re-telling of his great-grandfather's Sci-Fi defining tale of a turn-of -the-century time traveler, but sadly with none of ideas his ancestor presented. Guy Pearce plays the pilot of the titular machine, a grieving widower who built the machine in order to prevent his wife's untimely demise. Unsuccessful in his attempts to save her, he travels far into the future to try and understand why time won't change for one man's desire. Lots of chase scenes, Jeremy Irons in ridiculous make-up, and an explosion filled climax ensue. How much of this happens in the novel? None. H.G Wells 'The Time Machine' was a story exaggerating the contemporary class systems instilled in British Society in order to analyze their impacts on people as a whole. Depicting the struggles of the elite vs. working classes as thinly veiled extrapolations of thousands of years of evolution, giving a grim endgame for the differences in classes at the beginning of the 20th century. Smart engaging Sci-Fi is so rare these days and 'The Time Machine' (2002) is an unfortunate example of why that is, filmmakers trading in thought-provoking ideas and concepts for explosions (seriously, there is an explosive climax in an adaptation of 'The Time Machine'...), inane character motivations and bad make-up effects.