film: Timeline

If you haven’t read the book, read the book. Its captivating, entertaining, has some philosophical ideas thrown around like other Michael Crichton books, but not much substance. Just as most of the really great philosophic stuff was lost in Jurassic Park, Lost World, etc. the same is true with Timeline. This does not make this a crap movie,. It still holds the fight ingredients for an entertaining, yet potentially thought provoking (if you’re into that) movie.

When the movie was announced I was excited, when it came out, I wasn’t able to see it, but heard from others that it was nothing but terrible, I was let down, until I actually saw it, and learned yet again that I need to not rely on others too much.

The music was better than expected, and usually matched the fast pace.

The costume and set designer, I think, did a good job of keeping everything historically accurate.

There was some terrible acting, and some great acting. Of course the poor people weren’t given that great of lines to work with in the first place, but none of that interferes too much with the story, or with liking the movie (just with liking the characters).

There were a lot of characters introduced in quick succession which made it kind of hard to follow and keep everyone separate. Many of them had accents which made this easier, but harder to understand what they were saying.

There was some anti-French attitudes through the movie, which was cool, but just as much pro-French attitudes. Except when people died because of their nationality or mother language- that wasn’t so cool. This is one thing I think Timeline excelled in . The makers showed loss, grief and the sadness at losing a friend very realistically- and it continued through the film, not just the 90 seconds following the death. This was very well done- something even great films fail in.

The makers used one technique that got on my nerves. During crisis lot of people talked all at the same time, to give this kind of mood to the scene, but was really annoying. They repeated the same few words, it just sounded like a buzz, once you watch- you’ll know what I’m talking about. Not terribly important- but unfortunate.

One sub-theme was played through them movie: Is history about romantic knight in shining armor, when life actually meant something when men had honor, and women had virtue, and it was lofty and romantic. Or was history (we’re talking about medieval times here) a horrible and ugly page in history books, brutal, Darwinistic, unkind, and uncaring, dark and without enlightenment? The question is asked a few times, and answered both ways, but we see that there are people in both camps, both today, and ‘back-then’ which leads to a few very flat characters (damsel in distress, knight in shining armor, modern depthless meanie, and medieval depthless meanie)

Saving the best for last- the fighting. I don’t know how big the budget was or how big a production, but the fighting was fantastic. There were several small fights, and a castle siege. The sequences are visually stunning and sometimes very large scale, but has a very different feel from Lord of the Rings or Narnia- the battles not as glorified. There is a lot of fire- it gets pretty hot.

Jerman’s rating: two steps forward, one step back. If it wasn’t for the kill’n I’d recommend it for everyone, the deaths are very tasteful- not anything like Rambo, James Bond, or Indiana Jones. If its not a big deal for you, I’d certainly recommend it- you don’t have to buy it, but watch it at least.