There is, as they say, nothing new under the sun and as such, The Time Machine almost functions as a nice mixture of various writing styles, but still retains musical cohesion within itself. It is brimming with melodies, the main one does rather unfortunately sound a bit like a cross between Goldsmith's The Edge (even echoing the orchestration to some extent) and Titanic, notably during Good Night with the ethnic instrumentation. However, for all that, it is quite striking and the slightly sombre undertones to the heroism quite welcome.
The second and perhaps most notable idea is only introduced halfway through as Profess Hartdegen ventures thousands of years into the future. A more quasi-ethnic/primal slant is introduced with percussion, but also a youthful chorus which brings to mind the Adeamus series of albums which have been very popular in the UK. This being a good old fashioned adventure story, there are bouts of heroism and action, most notably the bracing Morlocks Attack, although by and large avoids sounding like a more generic Media Ventures action outing, with a pleasing complexity that makes it all the more engaging.
I am often complaining about giving ratings to albums that are very enjoyable, but for one reason or other I feel I'm going to end up being either too generous or too harsh on. The Time Machine is very enjoyable, it has plenty of energy, diversity, the album is the perfect length - hardly a dull moment - and while it is coherent within itself, there's occasionally the nagging feeling that it sounds like this or that. However, in this instance, Badelt does a good job with the ideas he's absorbed to produce a hugely entertaining score and certainly better than I'd dared hoped for based on the reviews of the film. Well worth picking up.
Rating ~ 