This film wasn't that bad. It is definitely not a masterpiece, but it's not awful, either. The movie is fine and does have some really good ideas but some of them are not executed well; like if he can't save Emma, can he not stop the lunar apocalypse that doomed mankind back in 2037? Stuff like that is never explained. The Morlock leader said he couldn't save Emma because his time machine was the reason why he built it in the first place and had he actually succeeded in saving her life, then he never built it and therefore his motivation never existed and we're presented with some kind of grandfather style paradox. Now if he couldn't save Emma, then I doubt he could stop the moon cataclysm from dividing mankind and knocking it back to to the stone age. However, the movie never explains that and we're just assuming he cannot save Emma. Stuff like that sadly ruins it from becoming a really good movie, thus we're left with just an average time travel flick with sum of its parts. The movie is pretty good, up until it becomes boring and the mundame stuff like him speaking to Mara and the other Eloi only works in the 1960 one because average movie audiences back then liked the more laid back and melancholy narrative in movies. In 2002, that no longer works and this was at a time when spy movies (which also originated in the 1960s) and superhero movies were more on par with what average moviegoers wanted. The approach in the 60s is what Baby Boomers in their child and teen years wanted, not Gen Z people coming of age, in the 90s and 2000s.
For context, I've seen both the 1960 and 2002 versions and the 1960 is a lot better because it wasn't trying to be like 3 genres in 1 movie. Also, the two apocalyptic events in both movies that lead to the devide in mankind are completely different and were not even in the original 1895 novel. In the 60s one: The near future year is 1966, instead of 2037 and instead of a moon cataclysm, it's nuclear war (WW3) and a volcanic eruption that dooms mankind and splits it into two races. The 1966 scenario was way scarier than the 2037 and not to mention FAR more realistic. When I saw the moon crashing scene from the 2002 one, it made me think of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask where Link had to stop the moon from crashing in 3 days, also via time travel. The 1960 one is actually terrifying and there's a plethora of disasters that happen: buildings and houses catch on fire from the nuclear missles launched from the satellites and the ground becomes covered in lava from a volcanic eruption. In the remake, it's only earthquakes, due to the moon being ripped apart from Earth's gravitational pole. I also like the ending from the 1960 verison better. That's not to say the 2002 one was terrible. He couldn't go back to 1903 for two reasons: the time machine was destoryed to wipe out all the Morlocks (along with their lair) and there was no reason to return to his own time and get some books (which is what the time traveler did in the 1960 verison) because of the hologram, Vox. While I find the 2002 version decent, the 1960 one is a lot better, because it was closer to the novel.
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