<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

The Time Machine movies. The Time Machine (1895) by H.G. Wells is a cleverly constructed indictment of class differentiation. His unnamed time traveler visits a distant future when humanity has divided into two strains, a peaceful, pampered, childish group called the Eloi who live on the surface and the distorted, malevolent, and cannibalistic Morlocks who are the actual masters of the world. The first movie version was directed by George Pal and was released in 1960, starring Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux.

The first few sequences of the movie are loyal to the original, although Taylor's colorful journey through time includes a few stops that Wells hadn't contemplated. It is only when the Morlocks first begin to make their presence known that the story begins to diverge radically. The troglodytic Morlocks are reduced to shambling monsters, easily defeated by Taylor until he is overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Eventually he escapes, rescues the beautiful young girl, and spearheads a victorious assault on the Morlock stronghold. The happy ending is tempered only by the time traveler's disappointing separation from Weena, the Eloi girl. Pal was noted for superior special effects and parts of the movie contain quite striking visuals, particularly for its period, but it varies so dramatically from the Wells original that much of the subtext has been lost.

A new version appeared in 2002, directed by Simon Wells and starring Guy Pearce and Samantha Mumba. In almost every way it is a superior film, although no more true to Wells' creation than the previous adaptation. In this case, both the Eloi and Morlocks are portrayed in greater detail. The Eloi have an elaborate society, given depth by the actors and a sense of physical reality by the far superior special effects available to modern film makers. The Morlocks have been given superhuman powers, and their domination of the relatively passive Eloi makes considerably more sense this time, although ultimately they too are little more than stereotypical movie monsters. Director Simon Wells is the great grandson of H.G. Wells. Alan Young, who played one of the time traveler's friends in the original has a cameo in the remake.