Total Recall

     
          Dropped by Anthony Fabozzi
          PG-13, 1 hr. 58 min.
          Action / Sci-fi
          Directed by: Len Wiseman
          Written by: Kurt Wimmer and Mark
          Bomback Stone, Don Winslow
          Starring: Colin Farrell, Kate
          Beckinsale, Bryan Cranston
          and Jessica Biel
          Released: August 3, 2012
          Columbia Pictures

Phillip K. Dick was one of the greatest science fiction writers of the 20th century. Dick’s stories have been adapted into 12 films, including Blade Runner (1982), Minority Report (2002), The Adjustment Bureau (2011) and Total Recall (1990). Len Wiseman’s Total Recall is the latest adaptation and the first one of Dick’s stories to be made into a film twice. This film also marks one of the largest departures from the original story, “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.”  What is left of the original story is only used only as a catalyst to a two-hour long chase film; imagine Jason Bourne in the future.

In Total Recall‘s version of the future, Earth has become mostly uninhabitable thanks to chemical bombs used in multiple wars over many years. The survivors of the wars are separated between the ruling class living in England and the working class living in Australia, now called “The Colony.”  The two countries are connected by a large train dubbed “The Fall.”  Doug Quaid (Colin Farrell) is a factory worker who lives in the colony and is married to a medical first responder named Lori (Kate Beckinsale), but Doug is looking for something more exciting in his life. Doug goes to “Rekall” in hopes of buying some happier and exciting memories. Before Doug can get injected with these new memories, a police force knocks down the doors looking for Doug but somehow this factory worker is able to kill 10 heavily armed men. This starts Doug on a chase for his life and the truth about who he really is.

Total Recall has been completely stripped of all of its great science-fiction elements. The filmmakers could have saved $100 million and set the film in the present since nothing futuristic happens in the film. We are never taken to a different planet or shown mutant lifeforms, but instead we get cars that hover (not fly) two feet above the ground and an army of robots that look like they came off the set of Star Wars: Episode II. The idea of memory recall is under used in the film. You rarely see Doug using clues to figure out what is real and what has been altered in his memory. Instead, Doug usually just believes what people tell him and that person is generally a recording of himself. This version of Doug Quaid is a bit of a shithead.

Kate Beckinsale’s Lori poses as Doug’s wife but is actually working for the government to help i=ensure that Doug does not regain his memory. Lori becomes the main villain in the film and seems almost physically unstoppable throughout. I felt like Beckinsale could have actually kicked the shit out of Colin Farrell. Lori is so relentless I expected that at some point in the film it would be revealed that she is a robot like the rest of the police force. Jessica Biel’s Melinda really has no character other that she loved Doug when he was whomever he was in the past. Doug believes Melinda from the first moment they meet and never really questions her motivation or loyalty. I had a hard time believing that someone who feels like they have no idea what is real or made up would so easily trust another person. Biel is not given much to do other than run alongside Colin Farrell.

I really like Colin Farrell. I enjoyed him in Fright Night even if the film wasn’t great, and I think he gave an award-winning performance in In Bruges. In this film, Farrell is given little to do other than run, jump, shoot and throw punches. His character is a man who got his mind erased but he never seems too upset about this. He really questions very little about what is happening and just goes along for the ride. Colin Farrell needs to stop starring in dull remakes of classic genre films; he is a much better actor than this film deserves.

The story is so formulaic that I would be shocked if anyone who has seen a Bourne film or any Alfred Hitchcock film would be shocked by the few twists in the plot. The film tried to make the audience question whether what we where watching was real or just fake memories, but the screenplay is so poorly written that this effect was never realized. The writers rely on large televisions playing the news in the middle of the city to inform the audience on major plot points. This is somewhat lazy writing. I feel like the filmmakers thought about what stunts and special effects could be created and built a script around that. There are some moments squeezed into the film to pay homage to the 1990 original film, but none of the scenes worked and most of them had me wishing that I was watching that film instead.

Len Wisman’s direction style takes a lot of cues from Michael Bay. The camera is always moving, often time it feels frantic and annoying. During scenes with just actors talking, Wisman is constantly panning the camera back and forth. Maybe he knows that the film is so dull that he needs to keeping moving the camera so no one falls asleep. The camera is on a dolly and spins around and around the actors. I could barely pay attention to what the characters were talking about because I was getting dizzy. Plus, what the fuck is with all the lens flares? Wiseman lets the entire screen get washed out multiple times and often one after the other. To all directors, please quit with the lens flares; everyone hates them.

The set design of the film seems largely stolen from Blade Runner, but minus any artistic ability. The street signs are all in an Asian language and everyone is carrying umbrellas because it is constantly raining. Also light floods into rooms from open windows and doors just like in Blade Runner. What is most amazing is that 30 years of technical innovation and five times the budget could not get this film to look any where as iconic as Blade Runner does.

I know most people want to compare this film to Schwarzenegger and Verhoeven’s 1990 classic, but to be honest, these are two completely different stories. While the original Total Recall is a better film in every sense, this version will have the most hope of being enjoyed by those with little to no knowledge of that film. While I do give the filmmakers credit for trying something new with the property, they failed by making the film just like every other action film of the last 10 years. I recommend getting your ass to Mars and avoiding this Total Recall.

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Watch the trailer for the Total Recall remake below: