Review of The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) by Mloy X — 23 Feb 2014

Edward Douglas (David Thewlis): Most times, I keep the memory far in the back of my mind, a distant cloud. But there are times when the little cloud spreads, until it obscures the sky. And those times I look around at my fellow men and I am reminded of some likeness of the beast-people, and I feel as though the animal is surging up in them. And I know they are neither wholly animal nor wholly man, but an unstable combination of both. As unstable as anything Moreau created. And I go... in fear.

This movie was kind of cheesy but I think I can attribute it mostly to the fact that the technology and CG effects weren't at the stage where this movie needed it to be to be taken seriously. If any film could benefit from a reboot, this would be a good candidate. Don't get me wrong, I mean, the source material is profound but a credible CG department would have made this film vastly different. Granted, the talented cast were a bit disappointing too. I mean you've Brandon who the Godfather of acting (pun intended). David Thewlis who is one of the most brilliant and underrated British actors (IMHO). Kilmer (who did a wickedly dead-on Brando was super creepy), Balk and Pearlman who are very capable actors in their own right, it's just seemed like they were purposely directed to "ham it up" or just act uncharacteristically strange. The more eccentric the better it seems and c'mon no one can out eccentric Brando, let's face it. Other than that, the film lack fluidity, which was strange for a movie whose locale barely changed, every scene looked so choppy and slapped together. Once again, poor direction, poor editing. All I can say, this film could have been done so much better and it's such a shame to see so many talented actor's potentials wasted on a promising project.