Review: Total Recall

I am a big fan of the original Total Recall film with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone.  When word came out the film was being remade, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it.  I knew the original version was vastly different from its short story source material by Phillip K. Dick, and supposedly the new version would be a more direct adaptation, so I was willing to give it a try.

Can't win 'em all, though.

The original film centered heavily around Mars, but this new version (and the original short story) had nothing to do with that planet.  The basic plot is essentially the same though: Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell - remember him?) has been having a series of dreams about some woman he's never met.  His wife Lori (Kate Beckinsale) is doing everything she can to help him, even through his very boring job working in a robot factory.

Eighty years or so from now, the Earth is a vast wasteland, and the only hospitable places left are in Europe and Australia.  Europe is home to the rich portion of mankind, while the lower class resides in Australia.  A tunnel called The Fall runs through the center of the Earth to connect the two regions.

Because Quaid is so bored with his banal job, he visits a company called Rekall to give him a false memory of being a secret agent.  The false memories involve Quaid being undercover for the government and exposes a crazy conspiracy while killing lots of bad guys.  You know, like the basic plot of lots of action movies.

When Quaid is about to be put under at Rekall for his memory implant, things go haywire.  He's suddenly involved in a murder of nearly a dozen soldiers, his wife tries to kill him, and he's on the run trying to figure out whether he's really himself, or this is all still in his head.  Along the way he finds his way over to Europe where he meets Melina (Jessica Biel) and learns more about his former life as an undercover agent working against the evil Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston).

It's worth noting that the overall look of the film is incredibly impressive.  Both Australia and Europe look like massive metropolis centers, each with distinctive looks to them.  There are a few action sequences which are pretty exciting, including a hover car chase and a shootout entirely in zero gravity.  The real flaw here is that none of the characters are compelling at all.  I don't care about Quaid the way the original film managed to accomplish.  The original film had him daydreaming of Mars and wanting to go there, so his motivation to go to Rekall meant more than just being bored.  There was a recurring theme of whether the action truly was going on, or if everything was in his head as well.  This time, that theme does pop up once or twice, but it's more of an afterthought thrown in as a nod to the original film than anything else.

Speaking of nods to the original, this version of Total Recall felt more like a film that knew it was a remake than being concerned with telling its own story.  Early on, Quaid runs into a three-breasted woman while on his way to Rekall.  The original version of Total Recall had a three-breasted woman as well, but she was part of a group of mutated humans living on Mars who had brief contact with the Martian atmosphere.  Here, she was there because....she was there.  She certainly didn't add anything to the film except for director Len Wiseman to make audiences think the three-breasted woman was the most memorable part of the original version.

There's also a scene about halfway through that's a clear nod to an important scene from the original as well. Quaid and Melina are surrounded by robotic cops and approached by Quaid's buddy claiming they're still asleep at Rekall.  The whole thing is a dream Quaid is experiencing, and he has to take initiative in order to wake up.  The tension doesn't hold the same weight because the audience just doesn't empathize with Quaid the same way as in the original.  Like I said before, the theme of whether this is really happening or if it's all just a dream in Quaid's head is really watered down this time, and thus the entire film is less engaging.

Len Wiseman has a history of making films that are visually impressive, but lack human element.  Live Free or Die Hard was much weaker than any of the previous Die Hard films, mainly because it was an action film with John McClane penciled in as the hero.  However, late in that film McClane has a conversation with an FBI agent about finding McClane's daughter in case he doesn't see things through to the end.  I remember feeling really hollow watching that conversation, and the same hollow feeling was all over Total Recall.  It's a trip not worth remembering.