Thought: Are time travel movies good or is it a boring old hack?
Nic Staley ‘22:
Time travel is one of Hollywood’s biggest cop outs when it comes to movie making. It is up there with the classic “Oh no all my memories are gone” plot line, which in my opinion, is overused as well. When movie makers do not know what to make, they always go back to time travel and every time it comes out very medicore. Yes, there are some movies that do it right, like Back to the Future (even though it gets old after the first film) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. These movies seem to always follow the same story just with different characters.
First they get the idea to time travel, then go to the time period, mess something up that screws with the future, and then spend the rest of the movie trying to fix it, sometimes meeting a love interest along the way. It has become so cookie-cutter that you can walk into any time travel movie and fill up a bingo board with all the cliches. These movie tropes, especially time travel, is what stops true creative thinking from modern directors. They see the success of these types of movies and are drawn to them for the guaranteed cash grab. Time travel films are not as risky as making something truly unique and controversial. The time travel movie trope is something we need to permanently leave in the past, so that true creativity and innovation can shine.
James Austin ‘22:
Despite what my colleague might argue, time travel is just plain old fun. Who didn’t love watching Superman save Lois Lane by circumnavigating the globe in the “opposite way”? Throw science out the window and give the audience something light-hearted. Not everyone wants to watch Eraserhead on repeat; sometimes we just want stupid, Hot Tub Time Machine laughs. Afterall, movie-making is a monetary industry. Formulating a box-office hit is also important because those are the movies that are rewatched by the pure and inquisitive minds of each new generation. The pinnacle of time travel movies is, of course, Back to the Future. No one grows up watching that film and thinking “time travel just doesn’t work in movies.” Furthermore, time travel introduces many to the values of past generations. Marty McFly’s solo in the movie is the only reason most kids today can even recognize a Chuck Berry song.
No matter the context, time travel is a form of escapism that plays within the confines of our current world. It’s the classic fish-out-of-water scenario, and that’s okay. These exact themes are demonstrated in Midnight in Paris. Owen Wilson’s character meets and reveres all his heroes living in the seemingly idyllic conditions of an expatriate-filled, art-appreciative 1920s Paris: Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, Joyce, Dali, Stein, Picasso. Yet, when he seeks affirmation from someone who was living at the time, the character responds that she wishes she had lived in the golden age of the city, 40 years prior. Time travel teaches a valuable lesson on greener pastures: savor the time in which you live, because nostalgia is nothing more than poor memory and history lessons. My favorite part-romance, carpe diem movie, About Time, uses an alternative form of time travel to show this. The character can relive and fix his mistakes, but his climactic epiphany is that life is messy, and the best way to live is by enjoying the small singular moments. Time travel is really a ploy for self-reflection. Even in a movie such as Terminator, the time travel aspect demonstrates a culturally self-reflective theme warning of a reliance on technology.
Time travel’s appeal cuts across genre and age-group, which is why the device is shared in children’s cartoon films like Peabody and Sherman and adult-centered storylines like 11.23.63, an adaptation of the Stephen King novel about stopping the Kennedy assassination. It can subtly relay poignant messages while maintaining a level of excitement in a theater, and for that reason, I hope more strong and considerate screenwriters will include time travel in their work.