With less than stellar special effects, a plot with too many holes to count, and mediocre acting, A Sound of Thunder should be re-titled to A Sound of Wasted Time.
Loosely based on a short story from sci-fi legendary writer Ray Bradbury, the movie has a solid cast of actors including Sir Ben Kingsley, Edward Burns and Catherine McCormack, and was directed by Peter Hyams – who has a track list of quasi good sci-fi/horror films including The Relic, Timecop and End of Days.
A Sound of Thunder is set in the year 2055, and follows the workers at a corporation called Time Safari, Inc. which is led by Charles Hatton (Kingsley in a really bad wig) and offers rich customers the chance to time travel to the past. The most popular request is to take a trip back to the prehistoric days and hunt a T-Rex.
To make sure everything goes smoothly on the “hunts” and the timeline isn’t messed up, the team is headed by scientist Travis Ryer (Burns), and they only kill an animal right before it was supposed to die anyway in the exact spot it was supposed to fall. They also only use weapons that fire frozen liquid nitrogen bullets that dissolve in two minutes. This way there aren’t any bullet fragments left in the dead animal (just remnants of modern liquid nitrogen) to bother that pesky timeline.
As an added safety measure, there are a couple of rules that everyone has to follow. The rules are simple – you can’t bring anything back with you, you can’t leave anything there, and you can’t step off the path (a little time travel sidewalk). Naturally, a trip has an accident (a liquid nitrogen firing gun jams because some liquid spills in it) which causes someone to step off the path and bring something back.
Don’t mess with the dino-monkey
At first, the team believes that they got through the incident without any damage, but they discover a problem when they take their next trip. They travel to the right spot, but something is out of sync. This leads them to discover that someone stepped off the path, and that bad things are coming.
Like the waves of a pond, the trouble comes in ripples. The first knocks out the power as prehistoric vegetation blends with modern vegetation (some of which is deadly) and takes over the city; then we get to see some funky monkeys (that are a cross between a dinosaur from Jurassic Park and a baboon) and some other bad CGI creatures; and the final wave will take out humans – thankfully not until the end.
While the waves are a coming, Ryer and his team, which now includes the technology creator Sonia Rand (McCormack), track down the two clients that could have brought back something; discover that it was a butterfly that was accidentally stepped on (umm, isn’t it kind of hard to step on a butterfly); and come up with a plan to set everything right before the credits roll. They also have to battle the funky monkeys, a really bad looking underwater snake like thing, and some bad-looking flying bat creatures.
Although the movie has some massive holes in its plot, it could still have been an entertaining “popcorn” type of ride. It doesn’t turn out that way because the premise just gets too far fetched, the holes become a huge problem (if they can create time travel, why can’t they create boots that don’t let you step off the path), and the special effects are just too cheesy.
The acting also tends to get annoying with Burns doing his best “Ben Affleck” deadpan delivery; Kingsley coming across as a slick car salesman, but not really trying to be believable in the role (he must have needed the money); and the side characters not really mattering at all.
The effects in this movie are simply bad
Most of the special effects were not really up to the standard that you would expect from a big budget Hollywood studio film. When CGI effects are good, they can be a great part of a sci-fi film. When they are bad, they can really ruin a movie. The effects in A Sound of Thunder are bad, and don’t help you want to look past the movie’s other problems.
The lack of good effects hurt several scenes – such as when Burns battles the underwater snake (which looks like it was left over from a Sinbad movie from the 50’s) or the flying bat creatures (which were so bad you just have to laugh). These scenes were meant to build suspense to the already dragging pace of the film, but instead make it come across as comical. You don’t really care if they fix the timeline because you really want to see what bad effect is coming next – prepare yourself for a laugh at the final wave that changes a couple of humans.
Normally, I would also take time to trash the plot of the movie, but this film’s plot is so bad there is no need. From the opening minutes, you are already able to start picking the plot apart, and it only spirals downhill as it goes. I have never read the Bradbury short story, but there is no way that it could be as bad as the film’s adaptation.
The DVD comes with ZERO special features (not that you would want to watch any of them anyway). It does have the film’s two trailers, but nothing else. Although I hated the movie, I wouldn’t have minded some commentary or even a basic “making of” feature.
Kingsley can’t save this film and actually helps ruin it
While I normally enjoy sci-fi films and even like most of the actors in this cast, A Sound of Thunder fell flat on me. I had already heard that it wasn’t that great of a movie. I was willing to give it a chance based on who wrote the short story, and the fact that I enjoy a “popcorn” ride of a movie sometimes. This film just never has a chance of being good. It starts off halfway decent, but goes downhill quick (like the first ten minutes). Unless you simply have some time kill and want something that doesn’t require any thought, it isn’t a film that I would recommend you watching.
A Sound of Thunder is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information
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