Movie Review: The Time Travelers (1964)
Synopsis: A team of scientists are working on a device that will allow them to view through time. They underestimate the device's capabilities and instead of just viewing the future they are soon trapped in the year 2071 on an Earth that has been destroyed by nuclear war and where the few hundred remaining humans hide from mutants while building a spaceship so they can leave. Unable to travel with the future humans because of the lack of supplies, the scientists attempt to rebuild their time portal before the mutants break through the defenses.
Who's in it? The movie stars Preston Foster, Philip Carey, Merry Anders, Joan Woodbury and John Hoyt.
Review: I had noticed The Time Travelers on one of my movie channels but since I have seen very few time travel films that were good, I wasn't sure if it would be something I would enjoy. I finally decided to give it a try this morning and, while it didn't quite change my opinion of this sub-genre, it was a pleasant surprise.
The movie had the normal science fiction elements, creepy-looking androids, rocket ships and computer consoles with lots of flashing lights and dials. However, at the same time, it was reasonably grounded in reality as well. Even some of the extreme elements at least had a scientific (or fake scientific) explanation about how they worked.
The plot was also an interesting one, mostly because the team of scientists were caught between a rock and a hard place. Their plans to leave Earth with the surviving humans weren't going to pan out. If they stayed, they would be hunted by mutants and possibly starve to death but, at the same time, if they managed to travel back to their own time, the evidence showed they wouldn't be able to stop the nuclear war and would likely be killed in that.
This did keep the ending from being as predictable as I thought it would be. Of course, when it did end, it was with a very unexpected (albeit a little confusing) twist that I don't think anyone would have seen coming, one that left more questions than it answered but was admittedly kind of cool too.
I did think the movie could have used a bit more action. The mutants were a constant threat but had almost no impact until toward the end of the film. Plus, there were times when the movie seemed to be undecided about what it wanted to be. Sometimes it was a science fiction thriller. Sometimes it was doing something comical. And then there were times, it seemed like it was trying to be softcore porn (at least by 1960s standards) or at least a romance movie. It didn't make me hate the movie, but it would have been nice to see the film pick a lane, perhaps add another mutant battle instead of showing naked (but conveniently covered) women talking about the men they wanted to be with.
Final Opinion: The film, as would be expected, is dated a bit and, like I said, it does tend to get off track at times. However, I thought it did a good job handling the time travel part of it in a way that didn't have me questioning a bunch of paradoxes, etc. and was an entertaining movie overall. It's worth watching.
My Grade: A
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Here are some reviews of other science fiction movies:
Movie Review: Queen of Outer Space (1958)
Movie Review: Flight That Disappeared (1961)
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