Review of Things to Come (1936) by Adrian Z — 22 Jun 2013

H.G. Wells had a strong hand in the production, being the writer and consultant on this rather fascinating work of speculation, based on his fictional essay. The story spans nearly a century, beginning with a prescient, visually and aurally stunning rendition of the start of WWII, a war which lasts for several decades and leads to a post-apocalyptic, pandemic ravaged wasteland where several warlords fight for their piece of land.

Humanity is eventually led away from its war stupor by a rising technocracy, and the film ends with a utopic society that is finally shooting for the stars, even if part of its population expresses dissent.

History would prove resource depletion and the "bomb" to be the unimaginable events that really stop much of the film being an accurate prediction of the future, and yet, rather ironically, humankind has been able to achieve more peace and progress than anticipated by Wells - thankfully we haven't had to contend with a global pandemic that wipes out half of the population, as is represented in the film, although it always remains a possibility.

Thought provoking stuff, as good SF often is, but as a film, not without some problems. The film basically comes across as pompous anti-war propaganda, being completely unsubtle about its motivations.

Also, it's episodic nature and preocupation with ideas rather than characters detaches viewers the film's characters, making it somewhat unengaging. There are a few extensive, visually impressive, montages set to Arthur Bliss's rousing music, which would be a good thing, except they end up giving the film a newsreel propaganda feel.

What Things To Come does with success, though, is provide a visual and thematic template for future works of sci-fi. It may well be one of the earlier depictions of a post-apocalyptic world depicted on the silver screen.