It seems Crichton book-to-screen adaptations have gone downhill since "Sphere," and although "Timeline" continues the trend, it remains a highly watchable story about time travel and fourteenth century Europe. Unlike the usual "time machine" of most other films, "Timeline"'s contraption is instead a fax machine that destroys objects and reunites them at a different point. This contraption reminiscent of a 50s Duck Dodgers cartoon, messes up big time and opens a "wormhole" to 1357 Castlegard, France. An archeologist who studies Castlegard goes back in time and is lost. A group of his students and son time travel to 1357 to recover him.
One major flaw in the screenplay is the doing away with of the parallel universes idea that Crichton exploited. The theory goes that the past, present and future are all occurring at the same time, each infitesimal span of time is its own little universe, except universes can't contact each other. Other times are floating all around us. This has been revealed through molecular studies. With a quantum computer of impossible size, you fax objects and people to other times. This is exactly what Robert Doniger and ITC have accomplished. This complex theory has been entirely done away with, leaving only the insignificant wormhole to fourteenth century France.
Even such heinous distortion of source material isn't enough to kill the film. One of its strengths is the manner in which events from the book are brought to screen: the gore level is upped, the precision of a beheading maximized, the death of a character made all the more cool and fun to watch. Yes. That's one of the better things about the picture. Morbidity. Back to story. There is an undue amount of distortion of the story for no apparent reason whatsoever. Why do you have to make Chris the professor's son? Worse, why keep mentioning their kinship AGAIN and AGAIN. We KNOW Chris is the professor's son! You said it ten times before!
"Timeline" is the kind of film that doesn't stumble in altogether too many places to kill it, yet it never manages to fly instead of a steady walk. "Jurassic Park" may have had as many flaws as "Timeline," but when "Jurassic Park" doesn't stumble, it soars. "Timeline" rating: 7/10
One major flaw in the screenplay is the doing away with of the parallel universes idea that Crichton exploited. The theory goes that the past, present and future are all occurring at the same time, each infitesimal span of time is its own little universe, except universes can't contact each other. Other times are floating all around us. This has been revealed through molecular studies. With a quantum computer of impossible size, you fax objects and people to other times. This is exactly what Robert Doniger and ITC have accomplished. This complex theory has been entirely done away with, leaving only the insignificant wormhole to fourteenth century France.
Even such heinous distortion of source material isn't enough to kill the film. One of its strengths is the manner in which events from the book are brought to screen: the gore level is upped, the precision of a beheading maximized, the death of a character made all the more cool and fun to watch. Yes. That's one of the better things about the picture. Morbidity. Back to story. There is an undue amount of distortion of the story for no apparent reason whatsoever. Why do you have to make Chris the professor's son? Worse, why keep mentioning their kinship AGAIN and AGAIN. We KNOW Chris is the professor's son! You said it ten times before!
"Timeline" is the kind of film that doesn't stumble in altogether too many places to kill it, yet it never manages to fly instead of a steady walk. "Jurassic Park" may have had as many flaws as "Timeline," but when "Jurassic Park" doesn't stumble, it soars. "Timeline" rating: 7/10