 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
The Time Machine
- Review Date: May 3, 2004
- PG-13
- Genre: Fantasy
- 2002
Common Sense Media says
A good movie based on H.G. Wells' classic novel.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this movie has some graphic violence, including tense peril. Some characters die.
What's the story?
THE TIME MACHINE centers around Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce), an absent-minded professor back around the turn of the last century. He's so caught up in his formulas that he's lost track of time. With a little help from a friend and a devoted housekeeper, he is cleaned up and sent off for an important appointment. He wants to propose to Emma (Sienna Guillory). He races off, finds her ice-skating, and asks her to marry him. She accepts and he is overjoyed. Then tragedy strikes, and she is killed. Alexander becomes a recluse, obsessed with finding a way to go back in time and change the past. He works for years and then invents a time machine. He goes back in time to find Emma, only to learn that the past cannot be changed. So he goes forward in time. 800,000 years in the future, Alexander discovers the Eloi, a race of gentle people with a terrible secret they do not dare to tell him, and he learns to think about challenging the future, instead of the past.
Is it any good?
Based on H.G. Wells' classic science fiction novel, and with a passing nod to the 1960 movie version with Rod Taylor, this is a showy and entertaining story about an idea everyone has dreamed of: having power over time. Clocks appear throughout the story, sometimes playing an important role, as when Alexander's watch is stolen and when he uses it at a crucial moment. And the issues of the role of history and learning to move on from great loss are also thoughtfully presented.
The art direction is striking, from the intricate Victorian machinery to the balloon-like homes of the Eloi. Pearce's performance seems overwhelmed by all that is going on around him, but Orlando Jones is delightful as a virtual repository of all human knowledge, pop singer Samantha Mumba has a strong, sweet presence as the Eloi teacher who befriends Alexander, and Jeremy Irons is shiver-inducingly evil as the creature who prizes his own survival above everything. The director of the movie, Simon Wells, has two special qualifications. He is an expert at animation, which helped with the special effects. And he is the great-grandson of the author of the book.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about where they would go if they had a time machine. Would you travel to the past or the future? What would they change if they could? Characters in this story make choices about what to accept and what to fight ? choices that turn out to be wrong. How do you decide? How do you decide what problems to talk about, and what to ignore?
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AGE
Decent Sci-Fi Action Movie
The Original Movie was better
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AGE
Excellent remake - too intense for sensitive viewers
I really liked this movie. It was well done and seemed very believable. My 10 year old daughter was very upset by the too scary monsters. I recommend it though for older kids that are not on the sensitive side.
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AGE
A perfect present for a hated foe.
I hated this movie and you should not watch it. Children may be frightened of the "Morlock" branch of future humans, and they will DEFINITELY be frightened by the moon breaking up and crashing on Earth. Too much doomsday, too much violence, completely silly scenes involving things that would never happen such as a character that can read minds, and a very bad plot design.
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AGE
Fun movie
Time Machine seen it about 15 times just keep watching... Very well done from the original, stays within the original framework, with just better effects. If you havent seen this re-make its worth the hour and 1/2 of your time.
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AGE
Good for most of the family
The violent content in this movie is about as tame as most PG movies. There isn't much except for a few ghoulish special effects, no worse then the action scenes in a Ghostbusters movie. And with the exception of one rather strong expletive in the first half of the film, there is hardly any language. There is one part of the story that kids might be disturbed by. At the beginning of the movie a woman dies right after the main character asks her to marry him. He's so hurt by the loss that movie takes on a pretty depressing atmosphere. But that's the worst of it.
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AGE
Watch the first twenty minutes and then turn it off
My brother and I went to rent some movies for our family and I picked this one up thinking it would be like Indiana Jones and Sahara put together. We started watching it and it was good....up until it gets to the part where the jungle people show up. The story is about a 1900's scientist who goes to ask his girlfriend to marry him. However, she dies right afterwards when they are robbed. He then sets out to make a time machine and go back to save her, but when he does, she dies a different way. So, not he goes into the future to find out why it keeps happening. This is where it gets weird. He goes to some huge numbered year where the people are primative and live on the sides of cliffs. He finds out that they are being taken by these weird goat monkey people to some place. These things are ugly and very weird looking!! He then finds their hideout and their boss who is this ugly, bleached warrior man. He then tells him that his girlfriend died because he was ment to build the time machine....we fastforwarded some of it, so the story is a little fuzzy. He then kills the ugly guy, blows up the machine and the goat monkey people and then stays with the jungle people (there is a girl and her brother that he stays with). All in all, a very dissapointing movie with a stupid story and weird characters. We should turned it off after the good part. Thanks and may GOD bless<><
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| Studio: | DreamWorks |
| Director: | Simon Wells |
| Cast: | Guy Pearce, Jeremy Irons, Mark Addy |
| Genre: | Fantasy |
| Run time: | 96 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | March 8, 2002 |
| DVD release date: | July 23, 2002 |
| MPAA rating: | PG-13 |
| MPAA explanation: | peril and sci-fi violence |
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