A prime slice of ‘getting sci-fi classics all wrong’ fun ensues with this well-worn “re-imagining” of Wells wherein Rod Taylor uses a big flywheel to view time-lapse film of shop window dummies and rescue dopey Aryan women (namely Yvette ‘The Picasso Summer’ Mimieux, Yvette ‘The Picasso Summer’ Mimieux fans) from LED-eyed albino gorillas. Our traditional gripe – where’s the bit at the very end of the book where he goes to the end of the Earth and there’s a great big crab monster? Eh? Because we really liked that bit. Alan ‘voice of Scrooge McDuck/Keyop/Z-Zark-7/Scaredy Smurf’ Young’s tacked-on “Of course! He dragged the machine out into the garden to be with her!” speech is scarcely a substitute. Call us unromantic, but given the choice between true love against the odds and outsize shellfish with whip like attachments, we know which we prefer.
