Plot Brilliant scientist Professor Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce) builds a time machine and travels into the future.
Past perfect Prof Hartdegen is motivated by the death of his fiancee (Sienna Guillory). His time-travels are an attempt to harness Einstein's groundbreaking theories on space and time, rewrite history and get her back.
E equals MC scared Instead, Hartdegen leaves his safe Manhattan existence and journeys 800,000 years into the future, where the human race has developed into two distinct species - the life-loving Eloi (represented by Irish singer Samantha Mumba) and grouchy, Eloi-hunting subterraneans the Morlocks (captained by Jeremy Irons in a role reminiscent of his Profion in Dungeons And Dragons).
Present tense A remake of the 1960 film starring Rod Taylor, The Time Machine is also the first live action feature directed by Simon Wells (The Prince Of Eypt). His qualifications for making the film? He's the great-grandson of H.G. Wells, who wrote the original book in 1895.
Verdicts "A time capsule of early-21st-century blockbuster cowardice and redundancy" - Village Voice. "A thoughtful what-if for the heart as well as the mind" - New Times Los Angeles.
