7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.3 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A Victorian Englishman travels to the far future and finds that humanity has divided into two hostile species.
Starring: Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux, Sebastian Cabot, Tom HelmoreThriller | Insignificant |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
German: Dolby Digital Mono
English SDH, French, German SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Time travel has become such a staple of science fiction that the writers of various Star Trek series came to rely on it even before J.J. Abrams & Co. used it to reboot the franchise for the big screen. Although H.G. Wells' 1895 novel, The Time Machine, may not have been the first, it is generally regarded as the progenitor of time travel stories. Certainly no film has more influenced the cinematic sub-genre than George Pal's 1960 adaptation of the novel, which fired the imagination of generations of future filmmakers. Even today, when many of his sequences look primitive by comparison to modern effects, others still hold up, because they rely more on creativity than technology. Rarely has anyone come as close as Pal to conveying the child-like wonder of how it might feel to pass through time without being affected by it, watching it accelerate and decelerate, reverse and proceed, as easily as one might navigate a vehicle through space. Although Pal had found success in Hollywood as an animator and producer, including the 1953 adaptation of Wells's War of the Worlds, he was unable to interest any American studio in his idea for a film about time travel. The film was ultimately made, on an extremely tight budget, through the British arm of MGM. Warner now owns the film and is releasing it on Blu-ray.
No information was available on the source for Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of The Time Machine, but the results are problematic. The film contains many effects shots achieved through optical superimposition, and a degree of softness and loss of detail is to be expected with such scenes. But even basic live-action scenes shot in George's home or in scenes when George exits the time machine suffer from a lack of fine detail. The source elements appear to be in good condition, without scratches or damage, but it is possible they may be several generations away from the original camera negative, which might account for the weakness of the image. The usual suspect, so-called "DNR", cannot be blamed here, because the film's grain pattern is readily evident and has a natural appearance. It is possible, however, that some form of high-frequency filtering was applied to strip away fine detail, because the film's average bitrate is a miserly 19.95 Mbps, but if so, the filtering was done very neatly without leaving obvious artifacts. The only way to know for sure would be to compare the uncompressed master with the authored Blu-ray, which is an opportunity that none of us is likely to have. Whatever the cause, the Blu-ray's image is among the weakest of the catalog titles I have reviewed from Warner. It looks better in motion that it does in the screencaps, and it certainly doesn't deserve to be dismissed as an "upconvert" or as "DVD quality", but it is far from the best of which the studio is capable. Then again, if these are the best elements contained in the library of MGM films acquired from Turner Entertainment, a better version may not be possible. On the plus side, the blacks are good, and the colors are strong and well-saturated, which is an important element in the film's overall design, as George moves through different eras and watches his surroundings change. If nothing else, the Blu-ray's expanded color space allows The Time Machine's wide array of palettes to be seen in their full glory, which is no small advantage.
The Time Machine was released in mono, although IMDb lists a four-track stereo mix for the Westrex system. Whatever source was used, the Blu-ray's 5.1 remix, presented in lossless DTS-HD MA, is a modest affair, retaining the original's front orientation and using the stereo separation to expand the presence of Russell Garcia's (Perry Mason) score and a few of the time travel device's characteristic sound effects. The war sequences and the confrontations with the Morlocks have relatively limited dynamic range by contemporary standards. The dialogue is always clear.
Warner released The Time Machine on DVD in 2000. The trailer and The Journey Back have been ported over to Blu-ray, but the music-only track has been omitted.
To quote a former reviewer of my acquaintance, "I collect films, not discs." The Time Machine is one of the essential science fiction films of all time, and Warner's Blu-ray, despite a somewhat disappointing image, is the best presentation on home video to date and also the best we are likely to see for a long time. If I did not already have a review copy, I would be buying the film for my own library. That's as personal a recommendation as anyone can offer.
Remastered | Limited Edition to 5000 | SOLD OUT
1959
The Star Beast / Wild Blue Yonder / The Giggle
2023
Fox Studio Classics
1966
Warner Archive Collection
1979
2012
Flight to the Future / Warner Archive Collection
1956
1965
Includes "The Invisible Boy" on SD
1956
Fox Studio Classics
1961
1940
1983
1984
1970
1986
Warner Archive Collection
1984
2002
1930
1953
1923
1969