Movie Review: Journey to the Center of Time (1967)
Synopsis: In danger of losing their funding because of a skeptical benefactor, a team of scientists work to prove they can use lasers to see into the past and, eventually, into the future. Instead, a time warp sends their entire lab 5,000 years into the future, when Earth has been destroyed by war and mankind is on the verge of wiping itself out. They attempt to return to their own time so they can try to warn people before it is too late but their journey encounters complications that send them too far into the past.
The film also goes by the title Time Warp.
Who's in it? The movie stars Scott Brady, Anthony Eisley, Gigi Perreau, Abraham Sofaer and Tracy Olsen.
Review: I came across Journey to the Center of Time on Amazon Prime last night and, while I am always a bit skeptical of time travel movies, it sounded interesting enough to give it a try. I ended up watching it this morning and it ended up being what I expected. Not necessarily in a good way.
The premise of the movie, frankly, is something I've seen many times before, both in movies prior to this film and after. A scientist or, in this case, scientists, accidentally launch themselves into the future, learn mankind is dooming itself and tries to get back to the present to change it. Same story, different faces., right down to the greedy antagonist Stanton (Brady) who succeeds in making things worse than they already are.
The movie does admittedly try to take things slightly further, both by explaining how their time machine worked (or, in this case, worked too well) and the danger of running into themselves as they travel back and forth through time. The latter even becomes a major problem later in the film.
I also thought the idea of the time machine being able to be tracked by the control room was a different twist. It was one of those things that probably could have used a bit more explanation, but it left the door open to some sort of twist involving the people behind those controls.
I'll even give the movie some credit for building a bit of suspense/mystery as far as how the time travelers were going to get back home. It was one of those films that could have had a miracle save or could have just as easily had everyone dying and it was unclear which it would be until the very end (though I am very certain I've seen that exact same ending in another movie recently).
My biggest problem with this movie is, for a sci-fi/action movie about time travel, it's kind of dull. The scientists aren't put in a situation with any real sense of urgency until toward the end and mostly just spend the movie talking, looking through a viewer at random historic scenes (some of them "borrowed" from other films) and turning some dials.
The limited sets don't help with this. They traveled 5,000 years into the future an all we saw of it was a spaceship on a landing pad (again, through their view screen), a few human-like aliens and a dark room. The prehistoric background later in the movie was slightly better but far from original.
Final Opinion: It's an OK movie but not anything I'd describe as unique. I didn't hate it. I just think it is a film that average enough to be forgettable.
My Grade: C
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Here are some reviews of other movies involving time travel:
Movie Review: Meet Cute (2022)
Movie Review: The Time Travelers (1964)
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