Photo courtesy of Dreamworks In the most recent adaptation of H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine," Guy Pearce contemplates what life was like at other points in history. The film opens today.

Grade:

A

H.G. Wells set "The Time Machine" rolling about 100 years ago and it shows.

The novel is simple and adventurous if you're a little boy living before cars replaced carriages. Wells, or anyone else who was around to read the first edition of the book, would have a heart attack if he could see the latest movie version.

Filmmaking technology has transformed the humbly simplistic story of "The Time Machine" into a stunning visual journey. Modern sensibilities have made it more meaningful.

Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce) is a somewhat eccentric physics professor with wild notions of turning the world upside down, one student at a time. He's a man with the future in his mind's eye; he sees the world as a constantly changing place where humans reign.

Of course, it's only about 1900. That will change.

While Alexander may seem like a big, absent-minded dork, he's in love with a really pretty girl. Unfortunately, just after she accepts his marriage proposal, she gets shot by a hobo. Grief-stricken, Alexander invents a time machine between scenes.

He tries to save Emma (Sienna Guillory) by going back in time to the moment before her death and leading her out of danger. But she dies again - in a different way.

The wheels in Alexander's mind turn, but he can't figure out why he can't change the event of Emma's death. He decides his best bet is to go into the future, where someone may have studied time travel enough to know the answer to his question.

Instead, he finds Orlando Jones, who plays a computerized museum database with a sassy intellectual attitude.

The year here is 2030, and everyone walking down the street in New York is dressed like Dr. Evil.

One of the film's most interesting quirks is how the computer mentions H.G. Wells and the novel "The Time Machine" when Alexander asks about time travel. When Alexander asks about physics, the computer refers him to his own writings - even giving his birth and death dates.

As Alexander goes further into the future, he discovers a race of people living 800,000 years after the destruction of the moon. The Eloi, whose simplicity is charming yet worrisome, befriend Alexander and care for him.

But he soon realizes why there are no old people in their village: They get eaten.

Here's where the film addresses an issue the novel never dreamed of: Sometimes you need to accept what's happening to you, and sometimes you need to fight back. Time may be manipulated, Alexander learns, but in the end each moment is the true playing field on which change can be made.

Even without this surprising depth of character and theme, "The Time Machine" is a pleasure to watch. The sequences in which Alexander travels through time are amazingly complex, ranging from the sun blurring overhead in a solid band of yellow light to the erosion of an entire canyon in seconds.

The only confusing part is why Guy Pearce acts exactly like Jimmy Stewart, but for the first half of the movie.