In this updated (Rod Taylor starred in the 1960 version) cinematic adaptation of the classic H.G. Wells novel, the angular Guy Pearce plays a turn-of-the-century time traveler whose primary concern is not science but an issue of the heart. His fiancée has been killed, so he invents a chronology-traversing contraption in an attempt to alter her history, but no matter how many times he redirects the circumstances, she still dies. In search of answers, our intrepid protagonist heads 800,000 years into the future, only to get marooned in a bleak world where civilization is no more and humans are cattle for the Morlocks, a sadistic lot of subterranean humanoids who make the Orcs in The Lord of the Rings look civil.

In the hands of director Simon Wells (H.G.’s great-grandson), the slick contemporary FXs cook up plenty of visual sizzle, and Pearce does convey a compelling resolve, but it’s not until our erudite hero is tossed into the atavistic futurescape that the story begins to titillate. Orlando Jones is a cheeky plus as the ageless New York librarian with almost all the answers, and Jeremy Irons nearly swipes the show as the pasty-head Morlock with an extra cerebellum sprouting from his spine.