I've seen the original and it's pretty good, certainly closer to the original text than this one. That's not too say that the story is bad in this remake, just different. The only criticism story-wise for the new one, is that it feels like it sort of sags between reaching the far future and the Morlocks appearance. But certainly the effects are fantastic, and the design of the time machine is vastly superior to the original. It's quite beautiful with all the brass and lenses. I'd love to have a model kit of it if there was one. I'd recommend this movie if you like the genre.

Plot Synopsis:

Based on the classic sci-fi novel by H.G. Wells, scientist and inventor, Alexander Hartdegen, is determined to prove that time travel is possible. His determination is turned to desperation when his fiance is killed in the park by a mugger. Testing his theories with a time machine of his own invention, Hartdegen returns to the past to try to save her, but each time she dies no matter what he changes. Frustrated he cannot change the past, he ventures into the future to find the answer.

After he becomes caught up in a disastrous accident, he is mistakenly hurled 800,000 years into the future. There he discovers that mankind has been split into two species: the hunter and the hunted. One race, the Eloi, are simple and have shunned technology, returning to a simple agrarian lifestyle. But they are farmed and hunted by the Morlocks, a subterranean species with specialised castes. Journeying underground to rescue his friend's who have been taken, he discovers the Morlocks are eating the Eloi. Captured, he is taken to the Chief Morlock, who controls the other castes by telepathy. Alexander discovers he cannot change the past because without his fiance's death he would never have built the machine - he is trapped in a paradox.

He decides to save the Eloi, and drags the Uber Morlock into the time machine. They fight as it travels forwards into the future, and the Uber Morlock falls outside the time machine, where he ages and disintegrates. Returning back, Alexander rescues his friend, and sets the time machine to overload. It explodes as they escape, aging and destroying the Morlock's underground.