I love Richard Donner films, I love Michael Crichton books, seems like a solid match, but the big-screen adaptation of Crichton’s Timeline feels a little lackluster.

It boasts a solid cast, Paul Walker, Gerard Butler, Frances O’Connor, Billy Connolly, Anna Friel, Neal McDonough, and Michael Sheen. There’s an archaeology study and dig going on at Castlegard, France. It’s overseen by Johnston (Connolly), whose son, Chris (Walker) is only hanging around as he has romantic designs on a driven historian, Kate (O’Connor).

When Kate and Marek (Butler) discover a document from the 14th century that impossibly has Johnston’s signature on it, asking for help. It seems Johnston has been getting information from a company working on a unique form of teleportation, but may have inadvertently discovered a wormhole back to France in the 14th century.

So, a group of historical experts, and Chris, gear up to go back in time, and find Johnston. Unfortunately, despite all of their knowledge, they may not be ready for what they encounter. They are about to be thrown into an iconic battle, that sees the French clash with Lord Oliver (Sheen) and his forces.

There are lots of things set up in the present that you know will have to happen in the past to pay off. There’s no real surprises, and no real twists and turns. It’s all telegraphed.

And it just doesn’t feel like it should work, despite the talent attached to it. It doesn’t feel as completely realized as it could have been, as if they were holding Donner back.

There could have been other things that would have helped it as well. A little color grading for when the narrative throws us back to the 14th century would have been a nice touch, I think. There are moments of really solid camera work, the river sequence, Kate on the roof, and then there is just some bland work around it.

It’s disappointing cause, generally, Donner is a great director, and has made some very entertaining films. This one feels like it falls short. It doesn’t have the sweep, scope, and epic feel that an adventure like this should have. And we know Donner can do epic, so what happened?

The story is also really familiar, technology gone wrong and experts in a field are brought in to help – Westworld, Jurassic Park, Timeline, there’s a theme. Knowing that going in, you know what to expect, and the film ticks all of the boxes because of that, but never quite achieves sense of itself, or of the enjoyment it’s capable of.

Walker feels a little out of place in the film, and all of it feels like a great big could have been. It’s not great, and not how I will remember Donner’s legacy.

Maybe I should revisit the source material and throw on some classic Donner to wash this one away.