Review of Westworld (1973) by Victor T — 10 Dec 2016

Michael Crichton is now remembered as a big author that had creative success on the page, TV ("ER") and film ("Jurassic Park"), but it is often forgotten that he also had a brief career as a director, starting with the Jurassic Park precursor "Westworld". Is this a solid sci-fi film and a solid directorial debut? Or is it a forgettable product of its time?

DELOS is a highly technological amusement park design for rich people, as each day costs $1000. It consist of three worlds populated by androids, (or as I like to called them, Synths), that meticulously recreate an historical era: Westworld, RomanWorld and MedivalWorld. We follow Peter and John, a pair of friends who go to visit WestWorld, but in the middle of their vacation, things get out of control within DELOS.

After deciding to watch the new HBO series, I also decided to give its source material a try, even though it looked campy, and what I got is quite peculiar. "Westworld" has passable acting (may I just say that Josh Brolin's dad looks like Christian Bale), hilariously dated effects, a score that sounds like the composer was selecting random notes and random instruments, it has one of worst editing jobs I've seen, the screenplay shows that it has written by a novelist (as it takes too much time in establishing the setting, thus the ending is rushed), Crichton's directing is as amateurish as you would expect for a first time director, and the concept is quite silly. But let's also give credit where credit is due as this film has some greatness within. While the effects are dated they are impressive for their time, many ideas are so good that most of them are now staples of the sci-fi genre, and there are many scenes that while they are not well executed in the technical level they are still so much fun to watch (specially the climax).

"Westworld" is a film that despite having a silly premise, extremely amateurish direction and the fact that it is quite dated, manages to stand out thanks to its peculiar visuals, some interesting sci-fi ideas and a fun climax. Forgettable, silly, dated but quite entertaining.