Things to Come (1936)

Wonderful Movie

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I'd not seen this film for many decades. After watching Ray Kurzweil - The Singularity Is Near on YouTube, I remembered this movie and decided I should view it again, remarkable!In the 1960's I was young and remember thinking to myself how very silly and quaint Things to Come was. Let's face it, there was no "green screen" no CGI etc. But the issues are still very relevant. H.G. Wells had amazing and prophetic insights.Pre WWII but the directors and screenwriters were spot on as was Mr. Wells. Keep a close eye on the time lines. The correlations I found rather remarkable. WWII the cold war etc. The rise and fall of despots, those who wish to live in the past, the fear of the unknown, change and progress. At times the acting is very much over the top, but try to look beyond that, to themes, archetypes, and how we humans tend to repeat history. Overall, we progress, sometimes plotting along, other times through giant leaps. Always, and I mean ALWAYS through science and reaching out to our future as frighting as that might be.

I saw this film as a young boy and really enjoyed it as a kid. I saw it again several more times as an adult and through the eyes of a b/w movie lover. This movie will always stand great through the passage of time. The plot , story line of this movie is so predicting of our actual future that it is incredible. Then again H.G. Wells is well known for his genius of fantasy and creativity. The acting was very accommodating for the story they were playing out. I was fortunate enough to recently find that this movie had been high quality colorized which made it even more interesting to watch. The color seems to add to the details of the picture. I can highly recommend this movie to old movie buffs. I couldn't live without it. It is one of thousands of movies in my collection but it will always stand out as one of my favorites. It is a great si-fi futuristic movie of the 1930's.

Sci-Fi movies more often than not reveal more about the time they were filmed than about the future they depict. H.G. Well's "Things to Come" from 1936 is a prime example picking up on political, social and scientific vibes of it's time. Born in the golden-age of science - physics making great strides with the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics; electricity was establishing itself in many households and everyday live - the movie provides a grand testament (spanning not less of one hundred years of mankind's future "history") to the idealistic spirit of technological progress. At the same time it is well routed in contemporary politics and social circumstances - predicting a world war in the aftermath of an economic depression and failed "pacifist" appeasement.The visuals are grand in scope - ranging from destroyed wastelands, future war machinery to vast utopian cities - and fantastically well executed. While special effects usually age quickly, i would dare to say that the effects in this movie from 1936 have not been surpassed until the early 70s.The ambition of H.G. Wells to demonstrate scientific and technological progress as the solution to many of the adversities future mankind is predicted to face is a little simplistic and doesn't reflect well in some of the wooden and trite dialog in the movie. He throws in a world war, a pandemic called the "wandering sickness" and conservative forces that want to halt progress in a more or less utopian technocratic society built by engineers. This is meant as his ultimate warning that any status-quo, as desirable as it might seem to society remains vulnerable to the "unkown unknowns" with the pursuit of technological progress with all the associated risks as it's only insurance.This naiveté should not distract anybody from the movies virtues. Amibitous Sci-Fi grand in scope touching on social, political and scientific ramifications are a rare breed. I for one laud H.G.Wells for realizing his vision and providing food for thought instead of a barrage of action beats and sub-woofer exercise (paraphrasing the flash gordon serials of the time). The movie feels strangely honest about H.G. Wells convictions and in a weird way personal to him. What other movies now or then can say that for themselves.

wonderful and historic film when most of you would not know important film if it bit you in the As*. I am always cheered by the cries of "this film from the 30's does not good as films now and where are all the car crashes and explosions?"I think the saddest part is that many reviewer are so terribly ignorant about film history that they don't even know that they are ignorant. Of course it does not look like a 2000+ film. When it was made it was state of the art. That is the sole way it can be judged, by the standards of it's time. The entire concept of history of all kinds and what we can learn and lessons it holds have been pitched by the masses of the ignorant that now write 90% of the reviews here. They gather all their 14 year old friends around and write such drek it makes me cry. I really have been a 3rd or 4th grade teacher so I could flunk you all till you were about eighteen and liberated from school. Because the level of the average high school student now is equal to a 3rd or 4th grader or 15 or more years ago. You make me despair. If you don't like the film for legitimate reasons, fine. It's just that now 90% of the reviewers can't even construct a reasoned argument. That is not a skill that 3rd and 4th grade students have.The seasoned and well versed film critics are growing fewer as well. They will compare a current film to a historical film of the 1990's. Yea, that's a h*ll of a historical perspective.