Despite Richard Donner’s fame, there is one sci-fi movie, which featured Gerard Butler and Paul Walker in Donner’s second foray into the time travel genre, that’s been forgotten.Richard Donner is most notably known for directing classic 80s movies such asThe Goonies,Lethal WeaponandScrooged. His work on the first threeLethal Weaponmovies has been highly praised for helping revitalizebuddy cop movies, despite the producer’s first choice of director forLethal Weaponbeing Ridley Scott, andThe Goonieshas gained so much popularity that it is now one ofthe rarest and most expensive VHS tapes.
Richard Donner seems to thrive in the action genre, however, there is one historical sci-fi film involving time travel which stands out in his filmography. 2003’sTimelinewas a sci-fi adventure directed by Donner and co-produced by The Donners' Company, a production company he founded in 1986. Thehistorical sci-fi moviewas released the same year as theX-Mensequel,X2, which was also co-produced by his company.Timelinewas the sixth movie by The Donners’ Company which Donner himself directed, and starred Gerard Butler and Paul Walker in leading roles, who were two big name actors at the time.
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Timeline Is A Time Travel Historical Movie Starring Gerard Butler & Paul Walker
The Movie Is Based On A Book By Jurassic Park Author Michael Crichton
Timelineis a time travel historical movie which follows a group of archeology students who must time travel to battle-ridden 14th-century France in order to rescue their missing professor. The movie stars Paul Walker as archeology student, Chris Johnston, and Gerard Butler as the Scottish archaeologist, André Marek, alongside others such as Billy Connolly, Michael Sheen, Neal McDonough and David Thewlis.Timelineis based on Michael Crichton’s 1999 novel of the same nameand was the ideal movie for Richard Donner to direct, as he was in the running to direct Michael Crichton’s otherbook adaptation movie,Jurassic Park.
$20 million
$18.4 million
$35 million
$4.6 million
$80 million
$43.9 million
Despite its host of big-name actors and $80 million budget,Timelinewas a box office flop, with $43.9 million at the box office.Timelinemarks the third box office bomb with Richard Donner as director, with previous moviesLadyhawkeandRadio Flyeralso missing their mark. However, Donner’s career lasted 50 years, so three bad movies were not the end of the world. Furthermore, actors such as Michael Sheen and Gerard Butler were not impacted byTimeline’sbig box office bomb, as Sheen reveled in the success ofUnderworldand Butler landed his first musical role inThe Phantom of the Opera.
Why Richard Donner’s Timeline Wasn’t Well Received
The Movie Is Disappointing For Multiple Reasons
Richard Donner’sTimelinewas not well received by critics or audiences, and it has a 13% Tomatometer score and 45%Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes. When it was released, critics described the movie as cheesy and claimed that despite its budget,Timelinelooks cheap because it lacks a sense of grand scale. Other critics were disappointed by the historical inaccuracies inTimelineand claimed that, even though it was marketed as a time travel movie,Timelineactually travels between the historical and sci-fi genres more than time itself. The Donner movie held a lot of promise, however, its execution failed to deliver.
The main plot hole happens inTimeline’sbig battle ending, when the characters decide to make Greek fire to defeat the French.
One particular grievance withTimelineis its flimsy take on time travel, which ended up making time travel messy instead of entertaining. This is surprising considering time travel is a major plot point in the movie. The main plot hole happens inTimeline’sbig battle ending, when the characters decide to make Greek fire to defeat the French. This would cause a ripple in time which changes the future because this event didn’t originally happen in the movie’s timeline. However, the major plot point is glossed over and disregards the most importanttime travel movierule: don’t change the past.
Timeline Was Technically Not Richard Donner’s First Time Travel Movie
Timelinewas not Richard Donner’s first foray into time travel, as he also directed 1978’sSuperman(akaSuperman: The Movie) starring Christopher Reeve, which has been called thebest Superman moviedue to its characterization and comic accuracy.Supermanfollows Kal-El’s origin story as he grows into the caped superhero, whilst maintaining his disguise as Clark Kent and pursuing love interest, Lois Lane. Despite being warned not to change human history earlier in the movie, when Lois dies, Superman becomes enraged and flies around the world, reversing time so that he can save Lois and prevent Lex Luthor’s missile strike.
It is forbidden for you to interfere with human history. Rather, let your leadership stir others to. - Jor-El
Supermanwas a box office success, earning $300.5 million against a $55 million budget. This was partly due to Mario Puzo co-writing the movie’s script, asThe Godfatherwriter’s involvement helpedSupermanto come to fruition. FollowingThe Godfather’ssuccess, Puzo’s involvement meant the unexplored superhero genre was being endorsed by an established personality and allowed the film to get the green light. Even with its unscientific time travel methods and significantly lower budget,Supermancharmed its way to a 94% Tomatometer and 86% Popcornmeter, making it much more successful than Richard Donner’s 2003 box officeflopwithTimeline.
Timeline
Cast
Timeline follows a group of archaeology students who travel back in time to 14th century France to rescue their professor. As they navigate the perils of the past, they must find a way to survive until they can be rescued.
