A massive flop for Warner Bros. after Franchise Pictures went bankrupt, A Sound of Thunder didn't even trickle into theaters back in 2005. It was quietly slipped out to regain anything from its $50 million budget, and it really didn't even do that ($1.8 million total gross). That's a shame, since aside from the glaring plot holes, Thunder had some potential.
Taking its concepts from the classic Ray Bradbury short story of the same name, Thunder is a wildly fun summer blockbuster that misses the blockbuster part. Ben Kingsley is the saving grace of this on-again, off-again adventure, playing the hilariously shrewd owner of the world's only time travel company in the year 2055. When one of his clients accidentally steps on something during the prehistoric era, it changes the present day into a death trap.
It's a unique idea with some great concepts for action sequences. A few of them go off as planned, while the rest are forced to crumble against a failing studio that couldn't afford to keep going. Certain shots of actors walking about in a futuristic city are impossibly bad as they walk out of sync with what's going on behind them. An Allosaurus attack at the opening of the film starts things off poorly too, as the CG nature of the critter is painfully obvious.
Some sequences do succeed, and it's a glimpse of what could have been. A bat attack is expertly crafted in the classic American creature-feature stylings, and the eerie death of one lead character as he slips out of consciousness is great. Creature designs are also excellent, at least when they're executed well enough from an effects standpoint.
Unfortunately, moviegoers tend to think once in a while, even when watching something like this. The multiple glaring, obvious, and ridiculously ignored plot holes are too much. While the natural dialogue creates a small history from our present day to the futuristic setting nicely, anything involving time travel rips this story to shreds. Even a small child should be asking questions as they watch it (and parents note that the PG-13 is somewhat harsh). The finale even banks on one of the film's obvious missteps for its conclusion.
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