Review of Hollow Man (2000) by Filipeneto — 17 Dec 2018

I confess I expected a bit more from this movie. The script was promising, with a good initial premise: an experiment in humans that works well, but ends up failing because of the ego and arrogance of the person used to do all the tests, the same scientist who had coordinated animal experiments previously and who had shown, at that time, few scruples and little concern for the ethical and deontological issues of his profession. Add to that a high dose of misogyny and you will make the main character a potential villain, to whom superhuman power is given: invisibility.

The problem with all this is that everything ended up being terribly underdeveloped. Aside from what I said, there is no script or story, all summing up with a hunt for the invisible man. Another problem is that most of the characters are empty and there is a good deal of clichés and predictability throughout the film. The romantic sub-plots outlined in the film are perhaps the worst part, as far as plot is concerned. Paul Verhoeven is a satisfatory director, who missed the opportunity to make a good movie. Kevin Bacon impressed me positively, especially considering that I have never particularly enjoyed the work done by the actor. He was able to become really bad at this character, something the character demanded of him. Elisabeth Shue tried to do a good job, but she did not have the material for it.

Visually, the film is good ... it has good cinematography and a good CGI (considering the time when the film was made, of course), good special effects and sound, good action scenes and suspense. The soundtrack, discreet but effective, is a good addition. But all this, while positive, is not enough to compensate for the lack of a better, more developed script, with more material for supporting characters to do something more than to talk.