Total Recall (2012) Directed by Len Wiseman
There really were plenty of problems I had with this movie but the bottom-line of it all was that this movie is being nothing more but an average one, in about every regard. It stands out in absolutely no way, except maybe for its looks.
Visually it's being a great movie to look at. Not only are the special effects just fine but so its set design. The movie really has a very typical futuristic/science-fiction Philip K. Dick look and feel to it and the movie is incredibly detailed looking. They definitely spend some money on this movie, which luckily can all be seen back on the screen.
But lets get back to the problems of this movie. Probably the biggest problem of the movie is that it does a poor job at handling and telling its story. I would imaging that anyone who had never seen the first movie version, or has read the Philip K. Dick short story, will have an incredibly hard time figuring out what is going exactly on in this movie. It's never really focused enough on telling its story and the main plot line gets introduced far too late in this to its audience.
Basically this is being a movie in which its main character is constantly on the run. It's like a non-stop chase movie, in which the movie never stops or slows down to elaborate on anything or let stuff sink in. It probably sounds like a good and awesome that this movie is incredibly fast paced and basically has non-stop action in it but let me tell; you get fed up with all of it after a while. It's also hard to remain impressed with everything this movie constantly throws at you. Instead of having one or two standout action scenes the movie is being like one, big, long but average action scene.
This is probably why this movie will be a big disappointment to most people; it does absolutely nothing to stand out. It's sort of funny how the movie is constantly paying homage to the first movie version (also to please the fans no doubt) but it leaves out all of its greatest moments and does almost nothing creative or interesting by itself.
It's hard to really feel involved with this movie, or with its main character, played by Colin Farrell, since it's mostly being average and predictable all the way through with its story and developments. This takes away so much of the tension and thriller aspects of the movie and besides ruins everything that potential could had been interesting and clever about this movie its story.
Nothing wrong with being average. It just means that it isn't being very memorable, or all that great and interesting to watch. It's still good as a genre movie and definitely also as eye candy!
7/10
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