Review of Total Recall (2012) by Onemancrowd — 07 Aug 2012

I must admit; I (like many others no doubt) have never seen Arnold in the original Total Recall. Right off the first 10 minutes, director Len Wiseman showed the type of movie Total Recall was to be. The first pan of the futuristic city Wiseman had envisioned the world of Total Recall to be was reminiscent of Blade-Runner: a city so unlike our own but so detailed that it seems a perfectly logical direction for which the world would be heading towards. Often times I forgot that Total Recall was part Sci-fi, as I became so immersed in the setting that it became normal. The Colony, one of the only two mega-cities left on earth, was able to blend a heavy sci-fi theme with a sense of overpopulation, allowing it to seem technological but backwards at the same time. The first half of the film does an excellent job creating a believable world, but unfortunately the characters that inhabit the world itself fall a bit short.

A major problem with the film was its cookie-cutter characters. Colin Farrell just seemed confused most of the time, and Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale were just action-movie eye-candy with no really distinguishing characteristics. Going by the trailer, I had expected Total Recall to be mind-boggling; juggling reality and fantasy until it became a blur. This unfortunately was not the case, as the plot became incredibly straightforward. With such a simple plot and such simple characters, by the end there was no element of surprise or shock. For a sci-fi action movie, it ended rather dully.