Timeline

"Are you trying to tell us that you faxed him back to the 14th Century?"

Chris Johnston

In the Dordogne Valley in France, archaeologist Professor Edward Johnston (Connolly) and his team have uncovered the ruins of La Roque castle, a monastery and the village of Castlegard. He is been funded by ITC, who seem to be telling him the exact places to dig. Demanding answers on how they are getting this information, he heads back to the US to get them. After the professor has left, the team unearth the catacombs of the monastery that has been sealed since 1357. Here Andre (Butler) and Kate (O'Connor) discover some documents and a bi-focal lens from a modern pair of glasses, which belong to the professor. Carbon dating of the parchments matches the time but how could the Professor's handwriting be on it begging for help? His son Chris (Walker) heads to ITC to find out the answer only to discover it is nothing he could ever imagined.

Michael Crichton's novels can make really good movies but for every Jurassic Park, Rising Sun or Andromeda Strain there is a Congo, Sphere or Disclosure. Timeline has more in common with the latter than his more successful outings.

Now we can't blame the author himself, in fact the best adaptations of his books are usually screenplays written by him, as with Jurassic Park, Rising Sun and Andromeda Strain. Timeline didn't have much input from Crichton and you can really tell. This is a real shame as on paper is sounds good.

All the elements of a possible hit movie are here. Time travel, medieval battle scenes, damsels in distress, a hit making director and a young cast of up and coming talent. But what we end up with is an overly predictable, miss-mash of a movie that is full of cringe-worthy dialogue and hammy performances.

What the film does is prove what a lot of people already new, Paul Walker cannot act. Yes he looks fine behind the wheel of a car or in an action sequence but anything else and you just think he is a pretty boy whole who struck it lucky with The Fast and the Furious franchise. He is plainly not leading man material, as he just doesn't seem intelligent enough to even understand the situation never mind act on it.

The rest of the cast don't fare much better but it is the script that totally wastes their talents. Gerard Butler, Frances O'Connor and David Thewlis are very gifted actors who deserve much better than his. Billy Connolly is the best stand-up comedian is the world but when he tries to act in a dramatic situation, with the exception of Mrs Brown, he just isn't good enough and just comes across as lost. Michael Sheen does his best with the villain role but doesn't have enough screen time to build up the character. Anna Friel does nothing much but look beautiful and Ethan Embry is just plain annoying.

What the movie does have going for it is the battle sequence. The elaborate set, which was built to scale and not produced by a computer for a change, is extremely well done with great attention to detail. You have to ask the question however why Hollywood is obsessed with making the English the bad guys and the fact that they always love the French? The battle itself is very intense and the sight of hundreds of arrows flying through the air and the clash of swords is always good to watch. The problem is that some very dubious dialogue and an overly sentimental and predictable ending spoil all the good work that has tried to redeem the film's failings.

A lot of the blame has to lie with director Richard Donner. The man who brought us hits like Superman, Lethal Weapon and The Omen seems to have lost the plot a little. This is a man that knows how plot and character make a movie but it seems to have eluded him for this production. He handles the action sequences fine but everything else is extremely amateurish by his standards.

Timeline is a wasted opportunity. The time travel element is never truly explained beyond the fact that it is similar to a fax machine, the characters are underdeveloped and the finale is too short and far too overly sentimental. Only the battle scene saves it from been a complete disaster by dragging it kicking and screaming into the decidingly average category.

'Journey Through Timeline' 3 part documentary, 'Textures Of Timeline' featurette & Trailer

The Back to the Future Trilogy

The Time Machine

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2003