Total Recall (2012)

I have sufficient problems on my head these days, so I've found myself thinking on what sense does it have to keep this blog running, especially since I don't know how much time will I have for movies soon. Anyway, I managed to catch the 2012 version of "Total Recall", especially since for a while the SciFi became sort of a rarity at the big screen level (I'm not counting the superhero stuff that's pretty much the same story with a different mask every time). The opinions I heard before were not very good. My opinion after .. let's say it's divided.

I don't know if it has sense to tell something about the movie subject, since we're talking about a remake after something that we can call a genre classic that being the '90s version directed by Verhoeven and starring Schwarzenegger. I'm going to do something else, with the risk of losing the attention due to the writing volume, that being a resume of the P.K. Dick short-story-ului which is the base of the movie. In the story, Douglas Quail (with an "l" at the end and not a "d") is a minor clerk (not a worker building his muscles in a factory or on a construction yard) living a pretty dull life, and being married with a sort of hag as a wife named Kirsten (so not Lori and far from being so tender in the first phase as the movie version). The man decides one day to achieve his life dream, that being to travel on Mars, but since he does not have the necessary money for this tries to solve it with a visit to Rekal Incorporated, firm that handles memory implants according to the slogan "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" (the title of the novel). Without more details, our man chooses a packet that will guarantee him the experience of having "lived" two weeks on the red planet as an Interplan agent (a sort of intergalactic CIA). Service payed, subject taken by the operator, execution problem .. the memory is already there, but was deleted after Mr. Quail assasinated an important person. Therefore, the client half asleep is sent home where is taken by the Interplan agents with the purpose to eliminate him from the current planet. The reasoning - you know too much and if we erase your brain again, you'll go again to Rekal to "leave" to Mars. Well, here comes "the movie" = for something like half a page in the book Doug uses his fists and runs desperately. After which he gets an idea about a compromise - and here starts the spoiler for the book :) : he will surrender in the terms of replacing his Mars memory and "tendances" by something more powerful that will erase his subconscious travel desire. Done: Rekal Inc., meanwhile recruited by the government, finds in the mind of the subject a powerful childhood fantasy in which he sees himself as the saviour of the Earth from an extraterestrial invasion. And like this, the new memory package is created with the perfect memory to eliminate his Mars travel dreams: more exactly, the invading race impressed by the innocence and compasion of the little Quail decides to embark in the flying saucers and leave as long he will be alive on the blue planet. Service payed (by the government), subject taken by the operator, execution problem .. guess what ;)

This is pretty much what I remember from what I've read not long ago, and which is the basis for the two movies. Why did I spent my time with writing so much text instead giving a summary for the 2012 version. Well, because like in the 1990 one, the movie goes way further than the short story. In the same time, compared to the '90 film we have major differences = Doug does not get to Mars, Lori = the wife becomes the principal evil character, we do not have Quato anymore, etc. And these are the main reasons (more or less conscious/obvious) for which the movie is bashed. And this is wrong ... Because after all the visual "original" diverges a lot from the written original, as it can be seen from the story above. And in this years' film we do not have a total remake after all, we have an adaptation of the remake. Which adaptation gains exactly from having an original script (and it is quite original) and for that deserves appreciation, and not the contrary, since the book was anyway already far before the movie came up. Talking about which script or story is better, I think this is subjective here. As story (and movie overall) I think I like more the one from 1990. As a script on the other hand the new one seems more close in a few points (not many) to P.K. Dick as general atmosphere (the piano scene for instance). AS general, because as I said the original novel is quite far and quite simplistic after all in the literary universe it belongs to + is filled with a fine sarcastic humor characteristic to the author that is lost almost completely in the movies. To end my plea about the wrong comparison done between the productions one should take in account also the time when these were released. We have more than 20 years as a difference. And to be more clear where I'm going with this, I always had a feeling (possibly a wrong one) that the '90s "Total Recall" got a bit influenced by the politics of the time. More exactly, I don't know why but every time I'm seeing it I'm involuntary thinking on South Africa and Apartheid. Starting with the evil leader = Kohaagen - Dutch name (that doesn't show up in the book) up to the oppresive situation against the mutant population on the Mars colony (that again has nothing to do with the book). Probably it already starts to sound weird :) so I'll stop my rambling here. Conclusine: it's a movie to be seen ;) ..

Rating: 4 out of 5

.. PS: at least for Kate Beckinsale & Jessica Biel it deserves this :D I've almost forgotten :P