Having read the original Time Machine [okay, just the abridged version but hey, I'm pretty sure it stuck close to the original] I ignored the critics' warning of the movie and went to see it anyway. My conclusion is that if I hadn't read the book, I would have loved the movie [I'm easily pleased] but since I have - I was pretty disappointed and kept screaming "That wasn't in the book!" at the screen. Usually, in most film adaptations, parts of the book are cut out to shorten it.
In "The Time Machine", the opposite happens - most of the movie wasn't actually in the book, so that the only thing retained was the very loose plot. For example, the main hero had no name and was just called "The Time Traveller". He also had no fiancee. The Eloi were completed change - instead of being short, pale, blond looking people, they resembled some kind of African tribe, with Samantha Mumba's character being the unofficial leader [also managing to get her brother a part too]. Another important point that I could understand was ignored was that none of the Eloi could speak English. Also, in the book they were child-like, and lived in ruins [not demolished by a meteor shower as invented for the movie] because mankind had grown weak due to the lack of war, famine and disease, and only the arts had survived.
However, those were only minor changes which didn't really matter so much. The change I found the most ridiculous was the addition of Jeremy Irons' character, the "telepathic" Morlock which I just found pointless and made him look like some kind of albino drag queen. Him being pathetic, was enough to make me scream "Tack-o-rama!"
However, some additions were good - I enjoyed the part with Orlando Jones as the holographic librarian, and a glimpse of the world in the future. However [this is my favorite word!] I thought that ending was a little hard to understand for those who had not read the book and know that by travelling through time, you do not actually physically move - therefore Alex's time machine located 800,000 years into the future would be in exactly the same place as it was to start with.
In all, I did think that this was a pretty good film, with the usual mind-blowing effects and all. But I found it just too short, so that a few of the book's elements [i.e. the dinner party] could have been included. The only thing that really puzzled me was why didn't they keep to the original storyline?
In "The Time Machine", the opposite happens - most of the movie wasn't actually in the book, so that the only thing retained was the very loose plot. For example, the main hero had no name and was just called "The Time Traveller". He also had no fiancee. The Eloi were completed change - instead of being short, pale, blond looking people, they resembled some kind of African tribe, with Samantha Mumba's character being the unofficial leader [also managing to get her brother a part too]. Another important point that I could understand was ignored was that none of the Eloi could speak English. Also, in the book they were child-like, and lived in ruins [not demolished by a meteor shower as invented for the movie] because mankind had grown weak due to the lack of war, famine and disease, and only the arts had survived.
However, those were only minor changes which didn't really matter so much. The change I found the most ridiculous was the addition of Jeremy Irons' character, the "telepathic" Morlock which I just found pointless and made him look like some kind of albino drag queen. Him being pathetic, was enough to make me scream "Tack-o-rama!"
However, some additions were good - I enjoyed the part with Orlando Jones as the holographic librarian, and a glimpse of the world in the future. However [this is my favorite word!] I thought that ending was a little hard to understand for those who had not read the book and know that by travelling through time, you do not actually physically move - therefore Alex's time machine located 800,000 years into the future would be in exactly the same place as it was to start with.
In all, I did think that this was a pretty good film, with the usual mind-blowing effects and all. But I found it just too short, so that a few of the book's elements [i.e. the dinner party] could have been included. The only thing that really puzzled me was why didn't they keep to the original storyline?