I was pretty siked when I heard that Ray Bradbury's short story "A Sound of Thunder" was being made into a movie. It was also three years ago when I heard that, when Pierce Brosnan was to lead the film under the direction of Renny Harlin ("Die Hard 2", "Cliffhanger"). The film went through some severe changes during production when Brosnan left to do "Die Another Day" and Renny Harlin went to pursue another project. Peter Hyams, who is no stranger to sci-fi with "2010", "Outland" and "Timecop" on his resume, was hired in place of Harlin with Edward Burns now in the lead role. Filming commenced during the big 2002 floods in Prague...but nothing was ever said about it again.
Well, with no publicity and hardly any advertising and an extremely low distribution run, "A Sound of Thunder" made its way to U.S. theaters on September 2 of this year. I had forgotten all about it, until I saw the lineup for September's releases in August. Luckily, a theater very close to my house was playing it and I got a chance to see it...even though the odds were already against it being a much delayed production, whose production company went bankrupt during filming and to put icing on the cake, many critics were already panning the living f*ck out of it (but this is what I think of critics
, not one critic ever changed my mind on whether I wanted to see a flick or not).
The year is 2055, time travel has been perfected and Charles Hatton (Ben Kingsley) is using it to make millions. Hatton has created a labatory in which he sells hunting safaris in the jurassic period. The client would be sent back in time millions of years to hunt a dinosaur with the aid of Hatton's scientist team led by Travis Ryer (Edward Burns). This is also a tricky process, where as nothing modern can go back in time, not even bullets. To kill the dinosaurs, they use nitro-glycerin guns that shoot ice bullets at full speed. Also, the team cannot step off the portal path; no signs that anyone was ever there are to be left.
During a "session", something goes wrong where the nitro guns don't work and chaos erupts. As the team finds a way to kill the dino, a dirt footprint is seen on the portal path as they go back...someone stepped off.
Back in present time, Ryer realizes that something is wrong, plants are 100 times there normal size and animals are morphed into other forms of different species; ex: giant apelizards. With help of scientist Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), who helped Hatton and Ryer perfect time travel (but disapproves with everything Hatton has done with it), Ryer realizes the Earth is going though transitions every 12 hours. Plants and animals have evolved into something else, it's only a matter of time until mankind evolves. So Ryer and Rand & company must find out what exactly happened during that session and try to go back and stop it from happening...which is easier said than done.
I liked "A Sound of Thunder," only one big problem...the effects are sh*tty. Actually it's more like, a few effects are good and some are just thrown together and extremely rough (the dinosaur and the futuristic exteriors are horrendous). Plain and simple, they ran out of money! What a shame, because even though "Thunder" rips off many better films and can get cheesy in places, I was entertained...it's the work of Bradbury and his theory on how one small thing can change the face of evolution is wild. And the flick does hold your interest, it's far from awful.
Another small problem I had was Edward Burns. He's a decent actor and was good in "Saving Private Ryan," and "Confidence"...but here is acting is too wooden and unbeliveable, it felt like he didn't belong. This role was written for Brosnan! It's a shame this movie got caught up with problems...it's a b-flick by standard...but an enjoyable one.
Plus, I'm a sci-fan and have a high tolerance for b-flick schlock.
UJ
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