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cyranoLook out, here comes the
(Quite a few trailers I'm interested in seeing. Some television show with a submarine, Branded, Skyfall, Looper, Man With the Iron Fists... I don't know whether to be amused or dismayed that we have now come so far that a dystopian satire on the fascist leanings of the Thatcher years can now be played as a straight action film.)
All in all, this Total Recall was a better retelling of the story than I'd expected. Less cartoony than the Verhoeven version, but neither of them are subtle or demanding. I feel like the 1990 version played more on the 'am I dreaming' theme, but about two thirds of the way through I realized that there was a slightly different play on identity going on here. The idea of the Fall fascinated me--travel from one side of the globe to the other by dropping a commuter train into a hole. Screw scientific feasibility, that's just a fun set piece. There were a lot of women and people who were not white doing things that were not bystanding, being rescued, or admiring the hero. It's sad that this drew me out of the movie to notice it, but I approve.
And here's the quick list of stuff that bugged me right away, because there were a couple.
The bad guys seem to have teleporting capabilities that can only be used to catch up with escaping heroes.
There are only two countries left on earth, but why is one just called The Colony? If the Federation's political control over the place is so total as to give it such a demeaning name officially, then no invasion is really needed to take it over. You just tell your lackeys to vote for their own dissolution.
If you know that you're being invaded through a gigantic hole in the ground, wouldn't your first move be 'throw some shit in that hole'?
And in the 'endings are hard' category... Quaid is lying on the roof of the terminal, mostly conscious. His rebel girlfriend (whose name I never caught) is shaking him and imploring him to 'wake up! wake up!' And I thought "Oh! throw in a couple of sound cues from Rekall, and fade to black here. *That* would lend this film a little Philip K Dick/Life on Mars reality twist." But no. We had five more minutes with the return of the persistent bad guy (which was kind of cool) and the heroic happy ending instead. Which made me sad. I need to start making films.
(Quite a few trailers I'm interested in seeing. Some television show with a submarine, Branded, Skyfall, Looper, Man With the Iron Fists... I don't know whether to be amused or dismayed that we have now come so far that a dystopian satire on the fascist leanings of the Thatcher years can now be played as a straight action film.)
All in all, this Total Recall was a better retelling of the story than I'd expected. Less cartoony than the Verhoeven version, but neither of them are subtle or demanding. I feel like the 1990 version played more on the 'am I dreaming' theme, but about two thirds of the way through I realized that there was a slightly different play on identity going on here. The idea of the Fall fascinated me--travel from one side of the globe to the other by dropping a commuter train into a hole. Screw scientific feasibility, that's just a fun set piece. There were a lot of women and people who were not white doing things that were not bystanding, being rescued, or admiring the hero. It's sad that this drew me out of the movie to notice it, but I approve.
And here's the quick list of stuff that bugged me right away, because there were a couple.
The bad guys seem to have teleporting capabilities that can only be used to catch up with escaping heroes.
There are only two countries left on earth, but why is one just called The Colony? If the Federation's political control over the place is so total as to give it such a demeaning name officially, then no invasion is really needed to take it over. You just tell your lackeys to vote for their own dissolution.
If you know that you're being invaded through a gigantic hole in the ground, wouldn't your first move be 'throw some shit in that hole'?
And in the 'endings are hard' category... Quaid is lying on the roof of the terminal, mostly conscious. His rebel girlfriend (whose name I never caught) is shaking him and imploring him to 'wake up! wake up!' And I thought "Oh! throw in a couple of sound cues from Rekall, and fade to black here. *That* would lend this film a little Philip K Dick/Life on Mars reality twist." But no. We had five more minutes with the return of the persistent bad guy (which was kind of cool) and the heroic happy ending instead. Which made me sad. I need to start making films.