Genre: Monster, Time Travel
Source: Syfy Channel
Grade: C-
You know I can`t believe this movies been out for three weeks and still not one poster! Usually Syfy channel is prompt with there poster as well as making some of the best poster designs i`ve ever seen (sad the movies aren't as awesome as there posters). Anyways in regards to reviewing this made for TV movie i`m a little unsure of which angle to go from. First of all its a kinda sorta sequel/prequel to the H.G Wells novel The Time Machine. Then on the other hand its so distant from its source material that it becomes its own thing which in this movies case is nothing more then a bad episode of Primeval. On top of that the movies a complete mess. Which is such a shame since this was a Syfy channel movie I was really looking forward to, because it had such potential as well as having one of my favorite actors Robert Picardo in it.
I suppose I should start off by explaining how and when this movie ties in with the Time Machine. Well first off this movies supposed to explain how the Morlocks in the Time Machine came to be and how they ultimately destroyed humanity. Even though anyone with the slightest knowledge of the story of The Time Machine knows that the Morlocks were mutated humans who had lived underground for thousands of years and in order for them to survive they had to feed off the humans who lived on the surface called the Eloi. Who basically served as cattle for the Morlocks. This is completely disregarded in movie and is replaced with instead by a with the whole "secret government project plot" were the governments got there own time machine (which reminds me of something from Stargate SG-1 rather then a time machine) and then of course the government breaks the time machine, which allows Morlocks to randomly go through and wreck havoc on the base. In response the government tracks down the inventor of the time machine and enlists him to go to the future to fix it because for whatever reason you had to go to the future to fix it.
You know at first I thought this movie was going to go with the whole "the future caused future by going back and screwing up the past" kinda deal like in Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes. Instead they go with the concept that the Morlocks were accidently created by doctors looking for a cure for cancer or something I can`t remember, but that really isn't explained clearly until the very end. Through out the movie there were a few allusions to the novel but they were pretty scarce and some might have not even been intentional. For example the entire government project is called Project Eloi an obvious allusion to the Eloi of the novel. The main character is also a author of a book regarding time travel; possible a reference to to H.G Wells? Other then that their were no other noticeable connections to the book or either movie adaptation.
As far as action goes this was so-so, I will admit there were a couple bloodier then expected scenes for a TV movie especially. When the Morlocks attack people they're fairly brutal and bloodier then expected. Unfortunately the filmmakers decided to make their own version of how the Morlocks look. To me they just looked like the vampire monsters from Priest and a terrible CGI version at that. My favorite film version of the Morlocks has always been the ones from the 1960 version by George Pal, those Morlocks looked so awesome. 2011s Morlocks is just cheap and crappy CGI .
Sadly this Syfy channel movie ends up being yet another one that had a great concept and could have been awesome but instead fails and ends up being a complete disappoint. The reason to blame for Morlocks could be the budget, the cheaply written screenplay, and the awful CGI. At least though Morlocks has a few redeeming factors like a good performance from Robert Picardo, some kinda cool morlock attacks, and it never got truly boring like Mongolian Death Worm did for instance. Overall not that great of a movie and I can`t really recommend this for anyone to go out of there way to watch.
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