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Stars: Paul
Walker, Frances O’Connor, Gerard Butler, Billy Connelly, and David Thewlis
Writers: Jeff
Maguire and George Nolfl
Based On The Novel
By: Michael Crichton
Director: Richard
Donner
Feature length:
115 minutes
Extras: Three-Part
Documentary, Featurette, Trailers, and Previews
Languages: English
and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and English Dolby Surround
Sound
Subtitles: English
Captions and Closed Captions and French Language Subtitles For Select Extra
Value Features Only
Packaging: Keep
Case
Chapter Stops: 16
Sound: Dolby
Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year of Theatrical
Release: 2003/DVD Release: 2004
Theatrical
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Home Video
Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Reviewer: Mark A.
Rivera
In college I took
a class on science fiction literature and I remember the professor talking about
how much humanity has changed in the last two hundred plus years. We live longer
and the mortality rate is not as high. We hopefully keep the majority of our
teeth and baldness is hereditary and not necessarily the side effect of some
affliction. We have better medicine and arguably are better fed. We certainly
eat more and have easier access to food without having to hunt for it. Our
general complexion may seem brighter and healthier too. In fact besides having
immunities to diseases that ravaged the world of the past, it appears that
people have grown taller or at least have longer bones. So if this truly is the
case then we might appear like super beings or something akin to that to a
person in the eighteenth century. Now if that is true then how would a bunch of
time travelers wearing only costumes of that period appear to the English and
French during the Hundred Years War? Now granted this is a Hollywood movie meant
to entertain and not to disgust. No one wants to see a bunch of actors in period
costumes with rotting teeth and hair falling out from syphilis and the like.
Author Tom Clancy stated in the audio commentary for “The Sum Of All Fears”
that if the studio dramatized what the real side effects of what
radiation-poisoning looks like, people watching the movie would get sick. Even
“The Day After” dramatized the after effects of Hiroshima type bombs because
in part what we have now is far more deadly. So I cannot blame the filmmakers
for making the actors look somewhat cleaner than they probably should and if it
is true about how we as a species have changed in the last 600 or so years, you
would need a frame of reference on both sides to tell the difference clearly
otherwise a 14th century person marveling over a twenty-first century
woman’s bouncy hair might come off as odd. So there is also not enough time in
a film like this and I fully accept that.
However I still
felt the film dealt with the complexities and paradoxes of time travel to
cleanly. Basically there are two types of time travel paradigms. You can either
change the future or you can’t. The events in the movie “Timeline” seem to
suggest that the travelers appearance in the past was either already a part of
history or they just got real lucky and their actions didn’t screw up the
future. I never read the book, but I was half hoping when the survivors return
everyone would be speaking French to suggest a different alteration in the
timeline having occurred. As it is what viewers will get out of the DVD version
of “Timeline” is a good popcorn sci-fi flick to entertain as long as you try
not to question the absurdities too much. One thing I did like was the brutality
the characters encountered in 14th century France. They were truly
strangers in a strange land and their experience was frightening to say the
least. I just wish the film balanced that harshness more with the heroic action
scenes because if the balance was clearer and the ending not so clean cut and
happy, I think “Timeline” the movie might have been a far better viewing
experience as a whole. The other caveat I had is it looked a little too much
like “Army Of Darkness” without the “Deadites.” I just kept imagining
that Bruce Campbell was about to come out of nowhere at any moment.
Paramount Home
Entertainment is releasing “Timeline” in both anamorphic widescreen and pan
and scan versions with identical extra value features, but sold separately day
and date with each other. The widescreen edition presents “Timeline” in an
anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio with sharp details and contrast
between the Earth tones and the lush greens that tend to dominate much of the
compositions of the film. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is
very lively with a great three-dimensional sound quality especially during the
castle siege sequences. A French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack
and an English Dolby Surround Soundtrack are encoded on to the DVD along with
English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and French
Language Subtitles for select extra value features as options.
The main menu is
animated while the subsequent menus are all standard interactive still frames
that are easy to navigate. One cool thing about the interactive menus is you can
either view them in a 1357 themed style or go back to the future and see them in
2003 style. I prefer the 1357 look personally. Extra value features include a
three-part documentary (45:10) that covers the pre-production setup and the
actual on location Quebec shooting. The documentary can also be viewed in three
separate parts entitled “Setting Time,” “The Nights Of Laroque,” and
“Making Their Own History.” “The Textures Of Timeline” featurette
(18:17) focuses on both the attention to detail that was paid toward making the
costumes appear authentic as well as the limitations of what is practical and
what is not. The scoring of the film is also covered. The theatrical trailers,
which clock in at (1:58) and (1:37) respectively wrap up the extra features
along with a reel of previews (9:48) that include trailers for “Sky Captain
And The World Of Tomorrow,” “The Stepford Wives,” “The Spongebob
Squarepants Movie,” “Pay Check,” and “The Perfect Score.”
“Timeline will
debut on DVD-Video on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 at retailers on and offline from
Paramount Home Entertainment.
© Copyright 2004
By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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