Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

The Time Machine Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 16, 2021

Updating literary classics with more modern sensibilities is usually a recipe for disaster in Hollywood, but not so with The Time Machine, Director Simon Wells' (Mars Needs Moms) adaptation of his great-grandfather H. G. Wells' timeless 1895 novella of the same name. While the film version does not hold to the book's plot specifics but rather more broadly its basic plot points, this is nevertheless a commendable, agreeable, and flat out enjoyable quick take on the classic tale that explores the human condition from within and from without in a far-future world that is at once alien and at the same time very familiar.

Dr. Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce) is a brilliant university professor who is obsessed with his work and the way things work. But he's also fairly grounded and deeply in love with his fiancée Emma (Sienna Guillory). However, she is one night murdered during a botched robbery attempt. Hartdegen, who has secretly invented a time machine, travels back in an effort to prevent her death, which he does, but she dies soon thereafter when she is struck by a carriage. Distraught and seeking answers as to why he cannot change the past, he travels more than 100 years into the future only to learn that the planet is in grave danger following a lunar colonization accident. Fleeing from a collapsing society in his time machine, he is rendered unconscious and awakens hundreds of thousands of years later in a primitive Earth where he befriends kindly surface dwellers but quickly realizes that a dark force lurks under the ground.

Hartdegen is a character who is propelled by very basic motives but the film's success stems from the balance by which he approaches his problems. He is grieving Emma but he is also grieving a lack of answers. Both his emotional and academic worlds are crumbling around him, leaving him in a state of understandable despair as everything he holds dear suddenly changes around him, metaphorically to be sure but also literally as the time machine takes him forward hundreds of thousands of years into the future where all that remains of his world are remnants of what once was. He is much like that future world: confused, decayed, a shell of what it once was, but he'll have to decide if there's a future worth fighting for, both for the world and within his soul. The film is surprisingly capable of tackling this duality with sincerity and depth while also building a fundamentally entertaining picture around the edges.

Pearce is very good in the lead and it's his ability to carry the emotional burdens that make the movie work so well. His portrayal of a deeply spiritually wounded and mentally broken man is quite good in what could have easily been a cut-and-paste performance with little depth and concern only for the movie's superficialities. But Director Wells and Screenwriter John Logan (whose other notable works include Gladiator and Alien: Covenant) build the story from the inside out, not from the outside in, resulting in a richly layered film that is in full command of both its external excitement and internal depth.

The Time Machine Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Paramount brings The Time Machine to Blu-ray with a rock-solid 1080p transfer. While it may not be quite so finessed and fully faithful as some of the studio's best releases of catalogue vintage (Vanilla Sky and The Haunting, for example, both from the prestigious "Paramount Presents" line), this is a perfectly good and very agreeable 1080p transfer, particularly for a far more affordably priced release without so many exterior bells and whistles. The picture is by and large sharp and filmic. The picture plays with a healthy film-like look about it. Grain is managed well, retained with a light and complimentary structure that accentuates the pleasantly complex details through a broad range of environments and locations, from the dense turn of the century lecture halls and studies to sleek and shiny future environments, from natural surface future landscapes to dark underground locales. The picture holds tight to quality detailing, never leaving the viewer wanting for better skin or clothing details or spotting all of the intricacies on the time machine itself. Colors favor a warm push with shades of brown and beige and red amongst the defining tones but to be sure future slick grays and natural greens hold serve quite nicely for contrast and accuracy. Black levels could stand do add some depth but skin tones appear accurate. There are a few spots and speckles but the print is very clean overall. There are no serious encode problems to report. This may not have the fanfare of a Paramount Presents remaster but all signs point to a genuinely good and satisfying Blu-ray, anyway.

The Time Machine Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Time Machine travels onto Blu-ray with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation is very good overall, featuring excellent spatial awareness, surround activity, and overall clarity. The track finds some satisfying surround engagement and full stage extension when Hartdegen fires up the time machine for the first time. The swirls and moving gears, blended with the triumphant score, reveal a wonderful full-on sonic presentation that fills the entire stage and never skimps on detail and proper placement, either. All of the film's more intense time travel sequences hold serve for this variety of engagement and detail, while some additional elements further take full advantage of the generous spacing, such as a swarm of bats at the 68-minute mark which flutter through with precision placement and movement. A solid low end extension is in evidence as well for music and sound effects alike. Light ambient details are nicely integrated. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized as it flows from a natural front-center location.

The Time Machine Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Time Machine contains a myriad of legacy features, headlined by a pair of audio commentary tracks. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

• Audio Commentary: Director Simon Wells and Editor Wayne Wahrman offer a well rounded exploration of the film.
• Audio Commentary: Producer David Valdes, Production Designer Oliver Scholl, and Visual Effects Supervisor James Price deliver the more technically oriented track.
• "The Hunt" Animatic (480i, 6:36): A look at some early storyboard and concept work. With optional Simon Wells commentary.
• Creating the Morlocks (480i, 5:38): A look at the design from Stan Winston Studios.
• Building the Time Machine (480i, 5:45): A look at the prop for which the story is named, dubbed herein "one of the most elaborate movie props ever built."
• Visual Effects by Digital Domain (480i, 4:08): A breakdown of digital effect and practical layers for the time travel sequences.
• Deleted Scene (480i, 6:49): A scene with no identifying marker, but it does come from film's start. The scene depicts Hartdegen teaching his students outside on a cold winter's day.
• Stunt Choreography Fight Sequence (480i, 0:52): A brief look at rehearsals for a complex fight scene that takes place towards film's end.
• Trailers (480i): Included are Theatrical Teaser (1:06), Theatrical Trailer (2:24), and International Trailer (1:58).

The Time Machine Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Time Machine is surprisingly rich and it resonates quite a bit for its blend of inward depth and external excitement. It may not be a cut and paste retelling of Wells' classic tale, but as far as updates go this one is very good. Paramount's Blu-ray is terrific as well. Solid video and audio are complimented by a wealth of extra content. Highly recommended.