The Time Machine

We’d originally planned to discuss a book on this date, but Willie Siros got a bunch of free passes to a movie preview and convinced us to postpone the meeting. A large group of Reading Group members and their significant others (at least 20 people total) went to the Metropolitan to see this adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel.

We thought this was a well-crafted action movie full of impressive computer-generated images of time passing quickly. We liked the performances of Guy Pearce as the Time Traveler and Orlando Jones as an Artificial Intelligence.

Fans of the original novel were disappointed by this film. The story bore only a superficial resemblance to the novel’s plot, and it seemed more like a remake of the 1960 Time Machine movie. Unfortunately the 2002 version lacks much of the charm of either the book or the earlier movie, and the story didn’t make a lot of sense. None of us understood why the film ended with a big explosion.

We were all curious about this film and enjoyed the chance to see it for free. Thanks to Willie for providing the tickets. After the film several of us had dinner at Chili’s.

–A. T. Campbell, III