Director: Len Wiseman
Actors: Colin Farrell, Kate Bekinsale, Jessica Biel
Rating: 3.5/5
Before there ever was a Jason Bourne, or even a Neo
(Matrix), there was the super-spy Douglas Quaid who jumped out of paper,
borrowed flesh and blood from a world champion body builder in an attempt to
figure out who he was.
His quaint search of his memory and purpose in life endeared
him to the masses and ensured he stayed etched in their memory.
22 years later, though a remake makes a decent attempt to replace
old memory with new ones, it does not succeed as it could have.
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After going to a travel company providing fake memory
implant, Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) realises he is more than a low-life
factory worker. As he runs surprised by his lovely wife Lori (Kate Bekinsale)
trying to kill him, he encounters a girl he has literally been dreaming about Melina
(Jessica Beil).
Together they must find out what is there in his mind that
has both the authorities and resistance fighters seeking him out.
To be fair, this 2012 reboot did not have to be loyal to the
1990 film, just like that film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t completely
loyal to the Philip K. Dick story ‘We Can Remember For You Wholesale’.
What both the films took from the short story, were its
ideas on identity, totalitarianism and resistance. Yet, the 1990 version was
more heartfelt and as emotions go, and seemed much more ‘real’ than this one
despite its setting in Mars, mutants and alien technology.
The current version, as with most modern retelling of past
films, sacrifices a good story and build up of emotion and suspense for a brilliant
set design aided by corresponding camera work, spectacular visual effects and some
great action sequences. In the older version, with air supply being turned off
for ‘mutants’ you felt the pain and agony of those not like you unlike here
where the ending seemed a let down despite a decent build up.
The representation of the perspective of those not like us,
was the greatest strength of the 1990 version.
Secondly this version omits Mars and sets it entirely on
earth with it being divided into two sections, the rich United Federation of
Britain and the poorer colonies i.e. Australia where all the ‘workers’ live in
one large, endless ghetto travelling back and forth on ‘The Fall’.
However, the characters of this ‘ghetto’ and their
population was not built up well enough unlike the plight of the working
mutants in the original. This was its major flaw.
Secondly, the 1990 version was much more subtle both in the
story and in its message against totalitarianism. The freaks and mutants in it were
a statement against the evils of everything nuclear considering that the
affects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster was well known by then.
The major problem with this version is that it becomes too
literal, and though you have characters making statements against all the evils
in the world, the ‘telling’ of it instead of the ‘showing’ of it by a better
script, lets the film down.
Yet, lovers of sci-fi and action films will have a lot to
cheer as your three lead stars pack quite an action packed presence. The gadgets
in the film, including the interesting concept of a mobile phone implanted in
the hand will give you a lot to cheer about.
These elements make it a worthy watch despite the
disappointments.
