In 1952, Ray Bradbury’s short storyA Sound of Thunderwas published in the magazineCollier’sand made a splash when it was part of his 1953 book of short storiesThe Golden Apples of the Sun. While the premise of rich people time traveling for fun is a fascinating one, the movie adaptation from 2005 does a terrible job of bringing the smart source material to life.A Sound of Thunderdidn’t impress audiences and critics gave it bad reviews. It only has a 6% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer and an 18% Audience Score.
Where does the movie version ofA Sound of Thundergo wrong and what happens during the film? Fans of the original short story were definitely disappointed by the movie adaptation. And when a video game was released in 2005, it was clear that it was much more interesting than the movie.
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What Is A Sound Of Thunder About?
There are someweird time travel machines in sci-fi movies, but the adaptation ofA Sound of Thunderdoesn’t spend enough time explaining the rules of time travel. Instead, it sticks to the original premise of Ray Bradbury’s short story of Time Safari Inc. giving tours of the past to wealthy people. The main character Travis Ryer (Edward Burns) is shocked when something goes wrong during one tour and dinosaurs try to attack everyone. While he helps the group to get back to 2055, this isn’t the end, and he battles throughout the entire film.
There are manycommon time travel tropesand that includes the concept of a butterfly causing a massive ripple in the world and affecting the future. This is used in bothA Sound of Thunderand the2004 movieThe Butterfly Effect.And while the Ashton Kutcher film isn’t without its flaws, it feels more logical and understandable than the movie adaptation ofA Sound of Thunder.
Most of all, the movie version ofA Sound of Thunderignores the brilliance of its source material. The point of the story isn’t dinosaurs running after humans trying to kill them. It’s a story of whether time travel is even a good idea and why people think that they can do whatever they want if they have a lot of money. All of that nuance gets lost, which is a shame since Bradbury’s short story asks a lot of compelling questions.
Why Did A Sound Of Thunder Have So Many Problems?
The worst issue withA Sound of Thunderis its poor special effects.A Sound of Thunder’s CGI is pretty bad. CGI is an important part of many movies andMarvel’s CGI is getting old.A Sound of Thunderneeds to present a realistic future world that feels genuinely engaging and horrifying in order to sell the story’s time travel premise. Instead, everything looks lackluster. Several people have pointed out that it doesn’t look like enough time was spent on the CGI effects. And when CGI doesn’t look good, it can be incredibly distracting and can make it tough to focus on the main story or the characters.
Another problem withA Sound of Thunderis the big change made to the original short story by Ray Bradbury. There have been somebad adaptations of Bradbury’s novelsand that’s always a shame since his stories are so smart. In the story, when a tourist kills a butterfly and that messes up the future, Bradbury offers up a careful analysis of what that means for humanity. In the movie, dinosaurs then begin going after humans and trying to kill them.A Sound of Thundertakes a great premise and makes it goofy.
Was The Video Game Adaptation Actually Better Than The Movie?
There are manyvideo game adaptations that shifted the movie’s tone. And it’s fair to say that theA Sound of Thundervideo game is better than the movie. It’s a more fun, more entertaining, and less frustrating story. The game was released in the United States in 2005. While players liked some features and disliked others, it was definitely more popular than the movie adaptation.
While there aresolid movie adaptations of popular video games, there are also great games based on films. In the case ofA Sound of Thunder, the video game is an enjoyable way to spend time, unlike the poor movie adaptation.
