Trailer Trashin’: Total Recall Looks Slick But Soulless

In the debut edition of Trailer Trashin’ last week, I talked about my excitement for Rise of the Guardians, this week we’re looking at something completely different – the upcoming remake of the 1990 Paul Verhoeven/Arnold Schwarzenegger classic Total Recall.

Premise: In the dystopian future of 2084, the countries of Euroamerica and New Shanghai vie for political power. Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), an ordinary factory worker suffering from violent nightmares, begins to suspect that he’s actually a spy whose memory and personality were erased and then replaced – but he doesn’t know which side of the fight he is on or how important his lost memories may be to its outcome. Quaid joins forces with Melina (Jessica Biel), a young female freedom fighter, to try to change the political system of Euroamerica, which is controlled by the ruthless President Vilos Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston).

My take: First the good. I do like what I’m seeing so far of the cast. Colin Farrell seems like a good fit for Quaid, and if nothing else, he looks more like an everyman than Arnold Schwarzenegger did in the original. I like Kate Beckinsale in the Sharon Stone role, especially because I don’t think she’s played this kind of villainous part before. I almost didn’t recognize John Cho at first, with the blond hair and mustache-goatee combo – it’s cool that he’s playing a non-comedic part. It’s always nice to see Bryan Cranston in anything, even if just in the tag at the end of the trailer. Who I want to see, but who doesn’t appear here, is Bill Nighy as the resistance leader Kuato, who I have to assume will not be a mutant conjoined twin in this version.

I also think the technical aspects of the movie look very well-done. The sets look cool. The visual effects seem quite polished. The action scenes all look pretty impressive too. If nothing else, I think we can expect the film to look and sound really good.

Now for the bad. First off, starting the trailer for your slam-bang sci-fi action film with the main character waking up does not strike me as a logical move. The armor of the soldiers/police/whoever looks like the work of someone who’s either played too much Mass Effect, or who would rather be playing Mass Effect than working on this film (can’t say I blame them). And I find it somewhat alarming that the film seems to use as many of the common visual tropes of modern science-fiction filmmaking as it can. Scenes shot with colored filters? Check. Overabundance of gray and blue in the production design? Check. Gratuitous lens flare? Check. Mixture of western and Asian culture? Check. Hover-cars that are basically rounded-off modern vehicles without wheels? Check. To be clear, I don’t think that any of these elements are intrinsically bad, but when they’re all used without any twists, as is apparently the case here, it strikes me as fairly uncreative, especially for a genre where the only true limits are budget and imagination. This, combined with the fact that the remake is ditching the Mars and mutants aspect of the original film, makes me think the filmmakers are playing it completely safe and boring. Where the original Total Recall was fresh and visually inventive in its day this remake looks and feels like a generic sci-fi action film.

Let’s compare it to the trailer for the original 1990 film. (See below for the original trailer!) Now that is a unique and memorable way to start things out. The image of Arnold’s head rotating in space over Mars, accompanied by the narration about the importance of the mind, immediately pulls the viewer in. The final question – “How would you know if someone stole your mind?” – is the perfect hook to grab the audience. Even with all the weird, crazy stuff the trailer proceeds to throw at you, you still know what the key premise of the film is from the outset. When you compare it to the trailer for the remake, they’re both going through many of the same basic beats, but the original just has a more singular style. The original also seems to have a sense of humor, while the remake looks stone-faced. The Mars colony, the mutants, the tracking bug in Arnold’s skull, the weird robot disguise, the disturbingly-cheerful “Johnny Cab” – all those great, quirky Paul Verhoeven touches are nowhere to be seen in the new film.

Just to reiterate, I’m not assuming that the Total Recall remake will be terrible. It looks very well made on a technical level, and the cast is full of talented people I’m inclined to like. But this version just seems to be lacking that intangible element which makes me think it could be something special. At this point, I’m expecting a flashy, mildly entertaining, but ultimately forgettable summer sci-fi action movie. Bottom line, unless the rest of the promotion is way better, I’ll be giving this one a pass.

ANTICIPATION: The only thing I want to recall is a happier time before this unnecessary remake existed.

Release Date: August 3rd, 2012

Starring: Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale, Bill Nighy, Bryan Cranston, John Cho, and Bokeem Woodbine
Director: Len Wiseman
Writers: Kurt Wimmer, Mark Bomback, and James Vanderbilt