Anothertop anticipated movie of 2012 for me. Remembering my reaction of the original back
in the mid 90s, Total Recall was the epitome for what I believed the future to
look like. Cool looking cars, that drive
themselves, giant wall sized TVs and the ability to live on Mars. A more recent
viewing of the 1990 classic has me thinking otherwise. Cool looking cars? Well,
I guess in the future cars are ¼ the size they are now and travel at 10% the
speed. Maybe in the future natural resources are limited. Cars that drive
themselves? Not really sci-fi anymore thanks to Google. Giant wall sized TVs?
I’m certain my living room TV is larger than the one in Arnold’s home. Mine is
also anamorphic widescreen which makes it even better. That blender that Arnie
is using to make his breakfast, is sitting in my cabinet at home. And the
ability to live on Mars? OK, mankind hasn’t mastered that yet. But we did just
land the most sophisticated space probe in the history of NASA. I am also
intentionally leaving out the most important sci-fi draw of both movies; the
ability to implant memories into people’s head. This is the sci-fi element that
drives both films and still remains mastered.
The two
things that worried me about this project were director Len Wiseman and screenwriter
Mark Bomback. Bomback is responsible for destroying John McClane’s personality
in Live Free or Die Hard (not to
mention that wonderful idea of John McClane riding on the back of an F-35) and
he also penned the critically acclaimed Race
to Witch Mountain. However, Bomback teamed up with Kurt Wimmer this time
around, who I am a big fan of. Wimmer gave us, Equilibrium (which put Christian Bale on the map) and the Recruit. Wiseman is most known for the first two Underworld movies, where he actually
stole actress Kate Beckinsale and then married her.
Wiseman’s
Total Recall is redesigned- Colin Farrell
takes over from Arnold Schwarzenegger, still works reluctantly at his job, unhappy
with the way his life turned out, married to a smokin hot wife (Kate Beckinsale) and
intrigued by a company called “Rekall” that advertises vacations or fantasy memories
by implanting them in your brain. Like Arnold, Farrell opts to visit Rekall and
get ‘secret agent’ persona memories implanted in his head. You can essentially break Total Recall into halfs- the first being
ripped straight from original- making it easy to guess the sequence of events.
Both films follow essentially the same pattern of events with minor tweaks and
modernization of technology. Instead of cherry sized GPS implant in Arnold’s
head, Farrell has a cell phone installed into his palm. There is also an
overextended chase sequence showing off Wiseman’s futuristic hover cars. It’s
almost as if Wiseman knew people were poking fun at the Verhoeven’s Total Recall depiction of the future
and wanted to ensure his audience that yes, we made cars in the future cool
again. Kurt Wimmer
The
second half is where new ideas start shaping. There’s no Mars in Wiseman’s
adaptation, so the big sci-fi element is a giant tunnel through the center of
the Earth. The tunnel divides the two surviving factions after World War III.
The United Federation of Britain (UFB) and The Colony. In Verhoeven’s Total Recall, the rebel force on Mars
was fighting for more air and a fair and balanced civilization. In Wiseman’s Total Recall, a rebel force is fighting
for habitable space in the Colony. Wiseman does a great job portraying the
Colony as a dark and gritty Blade Runner-like world, filled with congestion and
unpleasantness, while the UFB is portrayed as a clean Minority Report world.
The biggest
problem with Total Recall is how the
story develops in the 2nd half. We meet up with Melina (Jessica
Biel) early (as we did in Verhoeven’s version) but scenes feel dragged out.
Maybe the source of the problem was in the editing room? The car chase sequence
was way too long, the standoff sequence where Farrell is made to believe he is
still strapped into a chair at Rekall was way too long and it took way too much
time to meet up with Bryan Cranston’s character. Unlike Lockout, which I felt needed an extra 20-30 minutes to fully
develop, Total Recall needs 20-30
minutes cut to make the movie flow better.
There
are some things to like about Total
Recall; some great action set pieces, neat sci-fi ideas and of course
Beckinsale and Biel look great on screen. But Farrell as an action hero still
comes off rather boring. Biel is also wearing cargo pants throughout the entire
movie which was a big mistake. Maybe Beckinsale and Biel needed to switch
roles. For an action movie, it’s a rather dull one. There are some great
throwbacks to the original involving the “2 Weeks” woman and the “three
breasted woman”, but no “See you at the party Richter” lines, no alien tech and
no mutants. In fact, the three breasted woman isn’t really explained in the
movie. I suppose you could argue that the radiation from World War III is the
cause, but there’s no mention of radiation or anything else that could have
caused that anomaly. In the end, Total
Recall is a rebranded-iRobot
screenplay that barely resembles its predecessor due to weak chase story mixed
with a dull lead actor.
