The Time Machine

How to evaluate this matter? A high-budget film created as a calculated calculation of the studio and the director. The invested money is evident in the visual aspect, a number of tricks are interesting even with the passage of time, but the script is incredibly stupid and offensive. I have no understanding for this type of production, it only brings shame to my favorite genre. Scenes from the future seem like a deterrent case of creative dementia. Overall impression 25%. (11/25/2007)

The Time Machine is beautifully filmed and has amazing visual effects, and Guy Pearce does the best he can, but it’s almost as stupid as Wild Wild West in terms of content. Fortunately, however, it’s significantly shorter and comes to an end before it can make you angry. With a wink, in a weak moment of viewer naïveté and modesty, I’d give it three stars. (06/16/2002)

Simon Wells is admirably clever in that he was able to glue together this slushy band of time cards into at least a bit of a fun sequence... but it is a futile endeavor to look for something above-average and lasting in this train wreck between Planet of the Apes and a Jules Verne Disney adaptation. I am adding a star for the likeable Guy Pearce... and for the fact that my evening went by quickly. (09/21/2009)

But yeah, it's quite a nice mainstream idea - an effort to reach a wider audience, even though there is a film from 1960 that did it much better. This can only be justified by the fact that it tries to build on the legacy of H. G. Wells, but without understanding his attempts to criticize society a little bit. (11/26/2015)

A tragicomic example of how a good book can be turned into a first-class travesty. The first half hour is still fine, it has momentum, is quite imaginative and the time shift is masterfully executed. But from the moment Pearce gets to the far future, the film becomes hopeless, starting with a silly plot that goes against the book, and ending with the costumes of the Morlocks and the cardboard sets – an unbelievable shitshow. And poor Jeremy Irons looks like the bizarre guy who offered Nicolas Cage the S&M porn tapes in 8 MM. Simon Wells, I don't know, I don't know, great-grandpa wouldn't be happy. (12/27/2002)