A whimper.By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"
Until I read about the catastrophes associated with "A Sound of Thunder," I was going to call it the cheesiest movie in recent memory. The adapted Ray Bradbury science fiction story about time travel suffered the great floods of 2002 in Prague and lack of money that delayed its release for 2 years. That Renny Harlin (Cutthroat Island) was originally scheduled to direct should have tipped me off to a lowbrow enterprise.
The rear projection is blatantly so; the futuristic city is often modeled; the autos are real toys in chase sequences. The characters who hire Ed Burns to take them back in time to hunt dinosaurs are frequently overacting; the set pieces distinctly function as scene breakers or time wasters, ending up giving nothing to dramatic flow and sequential logic.
I can't find anything good to say other than the butterfly effect is a sound premise that won't be heard in this vehicle. The idea that changing even a minute part of history would affect all subsequent history is worth exploring.
A Sound of Thunder is a whimper and should be sent back in time to the '50's, where poor production values were valued in B movies. In this film there is no satire of the genre, not anything to indicate the filmmakers were even making fun of themselves
John DeSando teaches film at Franklin University and co-hosts WCBE's "It's Movie Time," which can be heard streaming at www.wcbe.org Fridays at 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com