STARRING: Hamish Clark, Christina
Cole, Lincoln Frager, Marem Hassler, David Hewlett, Robert Picardo
2011, 85 Minutes, Directed by:
Matt Codd
In
H.G. Wells’ seminal 1885 science fiction novel, The
Time Machine, the Morlocks are the future descendents of humanity along with
the Eloi. The Morlocks are a cannibalistic race of subterranean dwellers who
maintain ancient machinery they no longer properly understand to keep the
pampered and docile empty-headed Eloi clothed and fed. In turn the Morlocks
treat the Eloi as cattle, feeding off them.
The story was a clever metaphor
for Victorian class relations and sadly probably still is in some societies in
which huge proletarian underclasses toil to keep a rich elite in the pound seats
while the only price the rich have to pay for their lives of luxury is the
possibility of random violent crime.
I don’t know exactly why I am
telling you all this because – despite its title - this god-awful “Syfy Original
Movie” has absolutely f*** all to do with H.G. Wells’ story . . .
Instead the plot seems cribbed
off from a lesser episode of Primeval
and serves as nothing than a lame excuse to bring another cheap
Aliens rip-off in which a squad of U.S. marines battle
hordes of monsters to the TV screen.
A top secret time travel
project has left some U.S. marines stranded in the distant future in which human
civilization no longer exists and the Earth is overrun by a vicious species of
crappy CGI creatures. A team – headed by the scientist (Stargate
Atlantis’ David Hewlett) – is sent to rescue them and retrieve a time travel
device.
While it is nice to see
Stargate Atlantis alumni
such as Hewlett (who played the snively Dr. Rodney McKay) and Robert Picardo
find gainful employment, Morlocks is an endurance test in the way that only Syfy
Channel TV movies can be. The plot is achingly derivative and unoriginal, but
worst of all is the special effects which are so spectacularly crap that you
just feel sorry for everybody involved with the project. Then again, you must
have some balls to bring out a movie with such cheap special effects that make
computer games from fifteen years ago actually look good!
If you were expecting some kind
of clever variation on H.G. Wells’ classic story – which now enticingly falls
within the public copyright domain in the States – then think again! This is
after all a Syfy Channel movie . . .
In
H.G. Wells’ seminal 1885 science fiction novel,