posted
I wonder if there are any Trekie Colonies out in that Earth. That was funny especially just before the door swoosh the hologram made the Live Long and Prosper sign to Guy Pierce. Anyway, the book was better and more depressing than this movie version. I'm kind of a little miffed that the theatre area with the salvaged signs from New York City didn't show that much age. I guess having Samantha Mumba running around barely dressed is suppose to hide that.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
I lost all respect for this movie at the end. I had felt like they were rushing things along all through the story. But then at the end when Pale Face Jeremy Irons gives him this weak excuse as to why he can never change the past and it makes Alex totally give up and decide to forsake his mission completely... Sorry...it just really blew.
Other irritations involved the fact that the stop over in the 2030's was basically an excuse to introduce the hologram and explain why Earth's population is decimated. That's all well and good, but I felt like it didn't really contribute to anything. He could've just as easily found that information in some video archive (seeing as how all tecnology from the 2030's that survived still functions).
I basically felt the movie was very rushed and, in the end, it didn't feel like anything had really happened.
The visual effect were stunning, for the most part, though... as was the Eloi chick, Mara.
posted
I read that they changed the ending, that in the original script, the city of New York was completely destroyed. This, being presumably unnerving to the American Patriotic Juggernaut, was changed in favor of whatever the ending is now.
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Well, New York was totally destroyed...as was pretty much everything else on the planet (at least I'm assuming this is the case...the movie seemed to be saying that humanity had basically been wiped out and started back at the stone age), but it happened half way through the movie and we never really got to see too much of it.
And hat book would that be? From the plot summaries I've seen, I don't know of any book off of which this movie could have been based...
its based off the original HG Wells book "The Time Machine". It was modernized, but a lot of the ideas and main elements are still there.
Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Y'know, I'd bet the farm that TSN has never heard of HG Wells. Otherwise, he would have known about that book, right? And he sure hasn't heard of sarcasm.
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
I've heard of H.G. Wells. I've heard of his book The Time Machine. I've read the book. And, as I said, from the plot summaries I read of the movie, I don't know of any book off of which the movie could have been based.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
And surely, Battlefield Earth Syndrome causes bleeding from all orifaces and rapid cellular decay, as opposed to just questionable technological survivability?
It turned me into a Newt,.. Maybe I should run for office.
-------------------- Sparky:: Think! Question Authority, Authoritatively. “Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see.” EMSparks
Shalamar: To save face, keep lower half shut.
Registered: Jun 1999
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by TSN: I've heard of H.G. Wells. I've heard of his book The Time Machine. I've read the book. And, as I said, from the plot summaries I read of the movie, I don't know of any book off of which the movie could have been based.
A man travels into the future in a time machine he invented, and discovers that man's own technology eventually splits the race into Morlock and Eloi.
If you cant really make that connection, wow.
Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged
"A man travels into the future in a time machine he invented..."
Not exactly unique to Wells' book.
"...and discovers that man's own technology eventually splits the race into Morlock and Eloi."
Okay, so they stole one idea and a couple names. And the title. A single plot element does not a story make.
Wells' novel: In late-1800s England, a man discovers the secret of time travel and uses it to visit the year 802701. He finds that humans have split into two animalistic groups, a peaceful but stupid race on the surface used as cattle, and a nocturnal, subterranean race of cannibals who are able to operate machinery. After a week, he discovers that the Morlocks are eating the Eloi, he's not pleased w/ what humans have become, and he gets his time machine back and goes forward some more. He sees humans that have become more animalistic, giant centipedes, giant crabs, and the approaching death of the sun. He goes hime, tells his disbelieveing friends, then goes to explore various time periods again.
the movie: In early-1900s New York, a man's girlfriend dies, so he builds a time machine to back and save her, but somehow accidentally goes forward to the year 802701, where he finds two groups of relatively un-evolved humans. Fancy visual effects ensue.
Actually making a movie out of a novel is one thing. Even borrowing parts of a novel as an homage is okay. But just stealing parts of a book, rewriting the rest of it in your own image, and using the famous name to sell it... that's what's known as a "rip-off".
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
I have to agree with TSN. I felt like the movie never really knew what it was trying to be. Was it a retelling of the original story, or a total remake? In my opinion, you just have to view it as a total remake (read rip-off) and not try to tie it to the original if you want to get any enjoyment at all out of it. But even then, the movie's plot and purpose changed right at the end and left me going... "Uuummm...ok. Thank goodness the credits are rolling."
It was a remake in the grand tradition of "The Scarlet Letter" and "Planet of the Apes".
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
