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A Sound of Thunder |  |
I just rented and watched A Sound of Thunder last night, a movie based on the Ray Bradbury short story of the same name. If you’ve never read the story, do yourself a favor and avoid this one, unless you’re a fan of thoroughly mediocre productions. If you have read the story, you’ll really want to avoid it. The movie deviates so far from the story that the plot is almost unrecognizable, even to the point where the title of the movie no longer makes sense in context. The only reason I watched the movie in the first place was because of the title; I read the short story many years ago and it made an impression on me, so I wanted to watch the film. I’m just sorry I didn’t read the back of the DVD box until I got home. I quote:
Chicago, 2055. Time Safari Inc., led by its slick CEO (Ben Kingsley), offers the hottest ticket around: an expedition into the past to hunt dinosaurs. Just don’t bring anything back. Someone does. And 65 million years of evolution jump the tracks. Vegetation engulfs buildings. Carnivorous insects attack. Highly evolved dinosaur descendants turn humanity from predator to prey. It used to be our world. Now it’s theirs . . . unless two scientists (Edward Burns and Catherine McCormack) can somehow turn back the clock.
It’s a testament to director Peter Hyams’ skills that an intersting and poignant short story can be turned into such a generic and poorly-produced film. I’ll just go ahead and list a few of the things that really bugged me, in no particular order (SPOILER ALERT . . . if you care).
- Changing the past apparently affects the future in visible “time waves”, which seem to serve no other purpose than to extend the length of the movie, allow the heroes a chance, and look cool.
- The “highly evolved dinosaur descendants” are mammal/reptile hybrid creatures. There’s a reptile baboon and a reptile bat. So, what, dinosaurs mated with mammals and produced offspring? Is that how this works?
- The future was changed because someone stepped on a butterfly in the past . . . in a place that was about to be obliterated by volcanic eruption two minutes later. So, the butterfly would have miraculously survived that?
- The movie succumbs to the “Brother Rule”, meaning that the first person to die is the sole black actor in the film. And, by the way, the whole “time wave” thing is effectively his fault, too.
- The time waves change the course of evolution, starting with simple organisms and working their way up to complex ones. Vegetation grows on buildings, but the buildings, themselves, are inexplicably still there. If we get changed into furry blue ape-wombats that don’t even wear clothes, why are the buildings still there? Who built them? Is it plausible to say that all life on earth changes drastically, but all man-made structures are exactly the same?
- The medical doctor breaks into and hotwires a car, and says, “How do you think I got through medical school?” By stealing cars? Is that supposed to have been obvious?
Anyway, I’ll stop with the rant now. Just, don’t rent this movie; it’s not worth it.
