Taking a high concept time travel premise, and despite having a grand pedigree and impressive talent on board, Timeline fumbles when it comes to delivering the goods.
A group of archaeologists make a strange find while examining the site of an ancient battle where the French, enraged by the murder of their Lady Claire, stormed the English castle and obliterated the oppressors. A bifocal lens and a scroll with handwriting that is remarkably similar to Professor Johnston (Billy Connolly), who had recently disappeared.
There are two plot strands battling for attention here; the 14th-century Quantum Leap-esque action is fun enough, but it comes at the expense of the other story, the power struggle going on between the scientists working on the wormhole machine. There’s not enough on this side of things to give provide enough tension, while the time travellers get lumbered with a hackneyed romance subplot. The simplification of Michael Crichton’s original novel just doesn’t do the story justice.
Despite being directed by Richard Donner (Superman), the action never really gets above what you’d expect from a TV movie. Even the relatively big names – Paul Walker, Gerard Butler, and Michael Sheen – don’t raise the entertainment stakes and Billy Connolly is out of his depth in one of his rare straight roles. Imprint’s Blu-ray release adds some decent supplementary material, including several featurettes that include some fun behind the scenes footage of Donner at work.
