'Timeline' is a waste of time

There are many differences between "Timeline" the book by Michael Crichton and "Timeline" the movie. For starters, the book is good.\n"Timeline" tells the story of a group of young archaeologists who travel back to the year 1357 to bring back their professor. Forget about an explanation for how this technology works, or why their professor went back in the first place, they slash through the opening scenes entirely too fast, without explaining the science which Crichton employs in the book.\nActing and character development are the film's biggest weakness. Frances O'Connor (who plays Kate) is guilty of overdoing her role to the point of annoyance. And Paul Walker (Chris Johnston) is just plain boring. The result is an underdeveloped love story.\nThe movie's one redeeming factor was its authenticity to the time period it was portraying, 14th century France. And the special effects are done well, especially the trebuchets blasting castle walls. However, the sword fights are weak, and the decapitation early in the film looks very fake.\nFor those still interested in owning this movie, the "Special Edition" DVD will give you that, along with two making-of documentaries and two theatrical trailers. The documentaries are pretty dull, since the movie doesn't sport any innovation. It just shows the techniques they used to recreate the time-period, such as taking a lot of pictures and finding dirty costumes. On the menu screen, if you select a little button in the middle, the menu will change to a "modern" version, but with no extras included. The DVD is one-sided and can be bought in either the widescreen or fullscreen formats -- but why bother?