I didn't even know this film was released yet, and I hardly saw any promotion for it either. Maybe that was a good thing.

I really don't know what to make of this. It's based on a short story "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury, so I had high hopes for it; but this was simply a creature feature with a taste of science fiction.

In 2055, time travel is an equitable monopoly. A company called TimeSafari (closely inspected by the government) charges clients for a trip back to the prehistoric age to hunt a dinosaur: the same dinosaur over and over again, five minutes before it is to die from natural causes, as to not mess with the course of time. The rules: change nothing, bring nothing back and leave nothing behind. Our hero Travis, a fascinated, good-natured biologist, leads one troupe in the hunt. In a simple malfunction in guns, every rule is broken. Back in 2055, every living thing is changed, further evolved. Plants have thorns that turn you insane after they pierce your skin; primates and reptiles have fused in a baboon/lizard creature; what may resemble a pig and a bat have a wingspan of twenty feet (that's right, pigs can fly), and an evolved (not extinct) plesiosaur swims in submerged subway tunnels. And wait until you see what humans evolve into at the very end. Now, our hero, along with his TimeSafari teammates, and the scientist who developed the technology have to see what changed everything and turn it right again.

I've never read the original story, but if a shortstory is to be fleshed out into a full-length script by a person who isn't Ray Bradbury, there are going to be some things that are disagreeable. For example, a particle accelerator can be turned into a time portal with a simple switch of computer harddrives. Instead of chimpanzees that evolve, baboons do, and evolved human beings don't even resemble humans, but something you'd find in War of the Worlds. If the past is changed, the changes in the future come in tsunami-like waves "like ripplies in a pond."

The CGI was sketchy but there some subtle things that I noticed that I liked:

The clothes some of these people wore are from the thirties and forties; the hat and long, brown trenchcoats. Past trends come back just like bell bottoms. Travis reminded me of Indiana Jones. They were just some subtle references to the past that I really liked.

This movie is better than Sci-Fi channel's monster flicks, but still a let-down, anyway.

** 1/2 out of ****

`POTENTIAL SPOILERS`



This movie is one of those poor movies that will end up getting such a bad reception that most people who have seen it won't like it and most people who haven't seen it won't bother with it. Which is a shame, because for those 100 minutes I was throroughly entertained. Sure, the plot is a bit funky, the acting is at times bad, and the effects are laughable, but that's what makes the movie entertaining.

I'm sure we all know the plot by now: a futuristic corporation run by a greedy hairpiece--I mean Charles Hatton (Ben Kingsley), has created a machine that allows you to travel back in time. Led by Travis Ryder (Edward Burns) teams are sent back with rich clients in tow, hoping to hunt the long extinct dinosaurs. There's the little-sister type scientist, the geeky doctor, and the token black guy. Those are about as descriptive as you need to know, because they're mostly just there so that later on there can be a body count. Anyway, each team travels back to the exact same moment in time: five minutes prior to a volcanic eruption, when a Carnosaur stumbles upon a tar pit. Because the dinosaur is doomed to die in mere moments anyway, the team can kill it without affecting history in any major way. We're treated to one such successful hunt during the opening sequence.

Unfortunately on the second hunt something goes wrong. Travis' gun malfunctions with the Carnosaur standing mere meters away. As they try to keep the situation under control, the two clients (neither of whom was prepared for what they were getting into) are sent to hide. Out of view, something happens. They don't realize it yet, returning home as if everything went according to plan. Once home they are greeted by a sudden climate change, as temperatures skyrocket and plant life begins to flourish.

They perform another jump, only this time something major goes wrong. They miss their target time, arriving just moments before the eruption, the Carnosaur already dead in the tar. They barely manage to escape, consulting their super computer as to what went wrong. Rather than risk a major incident, a government inspector shuts them down until everything can be sorted out.

It is described in the movie by Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack) that the effects of the jump are not unlike rippled in a pond. When each new wave hits something changes. It begins with the climate, then the vegetation, then sentient life forms. Humans, being at the relative top of the evolutionary ladder, have the longest period of time before the changes affect them. Only problem is, there's not that much time.

This is where it becomes something right up my alley. Cities become overgrown with wild vegetation as strange new evolutionary creatures move through the shadows, picking off anyone unlucky enough to cross their path. Bodies of the dead are scattered about, the details of their death left to our imagination. In a world where lizards and baboons have crossed species, and there exist vines that can cause people to turn into homicidal maniacs, a twistes imagination really makes the third act a lot more fun.

As more waves hit the city deteriorates further, until there is basically nothing left. Faced with their inevitable demise, devolution, or evolution, the remaining team members attempt to perform a slingshot jump, launching Travis back to the fatal jump that changed everything. He manages to prevent the change from occurring: a single butterfly, accidentally crushed beneath a boot. Not only was it so simply, it proved the flaw in their "Do not leave the path." rule. You can stay on the path, but that doesn't mean the jungle will stay off.

There's a lot going for this movie, just don't expect more than you should. It's a cheesy, B-movie science fiction flick that doesn't take itself seriously, and neither should you. Go see it for yourself, just be prepared to laugh.

*** out of ****

I wish someone would make a sci-fi movie that could be taken seriously.