Morlocks is a movie based (or loosely based) on the old H.G. Wells story The Time Machine. Basically a scientist named Radner (David Hewlett) who helped the military to try and develop a time machine is drafted back into action after one of the projects expeditionary teams is lost. They need to re-acquire a device that will help them close the quantum temporal gateway that they have opened. Failure to close the gateway will result in the Earth’s destruction. Needless to say Radner and his cohorts are anxious about journeying into the future after a group of savage creatures called Morlocks invade their base through the gateway. The future has more than a few surprises up it’s sleeve and none of them are very pretty.
Here we have another Syfy (made for TV) movie that has some really bad special effects and even worse dialogue in parts. The main creatures in this movie the morlocks just look awful. They’re all rendered in a horrid, completely unrealistic CGI style which doesn’t lend itself to making Morlocks scary in the slightest. Apart from the CGI, the Morlock design isn’t that great either so between a flawed design and an appalling execution this movie’s creature just fails. It’s not the only thing…
The movie’s characters are annoying. David Hewlett plays the lead role here, a very reluctant scientist who just whines and moans almost constantly. It’s like they lifted Rodney Mckay from Atlantis and dumped in in here. David Hewlett is a decent actor but his character is just annoying on a few levels. Really not good. We’ve also got Robert Picardo as the military guy overlooking the operation, his character has quite a few dimensions that i won’t spoil and i thought Robert pulled of the subtleties very well. The rest of the cast are decent enough i guess, though their characters are pretty uninteresting.
Morlocks isn’t a good movie, though it’s shame cause i honestly feel there’s a quality flick, somewhere in there, screaming to get out. Sadly as it stands i can’t recommend this one, at the time of writing it’s not available via retail, the only place to see it is on Syfy so if you want to catch it that’s where to go.
Movie Details
Director: Matt Codd
Writers: H.G. Wells, Royal McGraw, Adam J. Karp
Actors: Hamish Clarke, Christina Cole, Marem Hassler, Lincoln Frager
Release Year: 2011