Total Memories: A crippled classic that was remade
Text/Lin Wang
As a writer whose works have been adapted into science fiction movies, Philip Dick should be glad that his early masterpieces met talented directors, the so-called discerning pearls, heroes, and achievements of many immortal science fiction classics and actors, Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner", Paul Van Hoewen's "Total Memory", Spielberg's "Minority Report", so that Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise, the classic lives on, the superstar shines.
And Hollywood has recently risen science fiction film remake storm, some early classics, have returned to the furnace for the second time, borrowing the majestic wind of high technology, earning two silver flowers and flowers. Unfortunately, the remake of the movie also has to find the right person, and if you can't pull an unknown little person on the street, you can bury the pot and cook, in a vain attempt to achieve a full table. If you choose people carelessly, the consequences are disastrous, not only will the food be made into a leftover cold rice of the food stalls, but also will make fans angry and create a box office poison.
I can still recall the stunning feeling of seeing Paul Verhoeven's "Total Memories" in the smoke-filled video hall more than 20 years ago, and it has been revisited nearly 20 times in the years since. A complex spy story, which Paul mastered with ease, the most dazzling stunts, the most thrilling legends, the most imaginative character shapes, and almost perfect performances, which made this classic and Paul's status among movie fans around the world. Even the super vase Sharon Stone showed a little acting talent.
Colin Farrell roared with the new version of "Total Memories", but unexpectedly ran into a wall, first suffered a box office failure in North America, and did not harvest many silver tickets around the world, because this is a film that has been completely crippled by the director, a super cheesy, chaotic original, poor set, unimaginative bad film. Before the film director started filming, I'm sure he hadn't read Philip Dick's original book, let alone deeply understood the connotation that the writer was trying to express in this work.
The film's failures are as follows:
First, the vast cosmic scene is narrowed down, abandoning the Mars plot and limiting the story to Earth. The classic of 22 years ago won the love of fans because of the creation of charming Martian scenes and twists and bizarre plots, and all the focus of the story also takes place on Mars, and the harsh conditions of the alien planet make the story more unbridled, more able to test the director's imagination and the level of stunt production.
The remake abandons these, completely contrary to the original intention of the original work, and the narrowing of the scene means that the director has no confidence in the production of imaginative and creative content. The director not only changed the scene, but also viciously borrowed the apocalyptic bridge of the biological war as a background to tell the story that occurred a hundred years later. It can be seen that the director is quite poorly chosen.
Second, the plot setting and plot conflict are very old, the character positioning is poor, and it is cheesy everywhere.
The ambitions of the old work are not so great, but they portray a story of a Martian governor's delusional dictatorship. He is more dictatorial, and there are higher chiefs above, this kind of low-key and streamlined character settings, but more prominent dramatic conflict. The new work was ambitious from the start, dividing the end-time earth into two major regions: the British Commonwealth and the Australian colonial zone, and the rest of the land was polluted no man's land. Why? Filming the end of the world bridge section is not better than "Son of Man", nor is it better than "The End of the World", and even more than "The Last Century Storm", so why bother with this muddy water of the end times? At the same time, the new game sets the villain as the president of the British Commonwealth, in a vain attempt to destroy the colony that insists on independence, so he uses espionage to infiltrate the rebel army and find the leader of the rebel army. Another dream of wanting to be the ruler of the world is also a setting that is used by many movies, and the director follows the butts of others everywhere, which is really not at all out of the way.
Third, the deliberate apocalyptic set sets off the classics of the old works.
Philip Dick's original novel tells a story that takes place in the future. There are many kinds of futures, or the technology is extremely advanced, or the earth is destroyed. The old work did not take pity on the fate of the entire earth, but looked further afield, to Mars, where there is amazing technology, although evil but still a beautiful future scenery, so that the audience has a feeling of pity. Paul is very particular about the set of the old work, bright colors, technology penetration is everywhere, fascinating.
On the other hand, the new work, from the beginning is a dilapidated street, a messy ugly building like a Brazilian slum, mixed with some Chinese character signs is also filthy and disgusting, is the director using this sincerity to pay tribute to Chinese film fans?
A planet destroyed by biological warfare, how can survivors develop rampage hovering cars? It turns out that all the people who died in the war were grass people, and those who survived were the scientific and technological elites and careerists? A war did not blow the earth back to the Stone Age, but exploded to a hundred years after the development of science and technology, this kind of laugh-out-and-teeth plot fully demonstrates the director's shortness of breath.
Fourth, the bridge section that pays homage to the classics is disappointing
At the beginning of the film's release, there were rumors that the new work paid tribute to the old work in many places, in fact, the so-called tribute bridge section, in total, there are only a few places: Quaid wakes up from a nightmare, the fake wife hugs him to comfort; the prostitute with three breasts flirts with Quaid; the fake wife fights with the real lover; the robot's arms are crushed by the elevator, the old work is the anti-face arm is bloodied by the elevator; the scene where Quaid wears makeup and passes the security check.
These bridges, to be honest, belong to the plot of the small branches, and even if they are paid tribute, they are also the east of the shi gong. Take the prostitute with three breasts, in the old work, it is explained that it is a shape-shifter created because of the harsh environment of Mars, in addition to her, there are convex people, demigods, folding hands and so on. The new work is a very abrupt tribute, in addition to being unreasonable is funny.
The most intolerable thing is that the new work makes the appearance of the most classic rebel leader into a lackluster. Compare with the old work, you know how mediocre the new work is!
Of course, the new work is not useless, dazzling fights, car chase scenes can still make people adrenaline gushing out, while some such as the steering wheel can move left and right, through the entire earth's fall path and so on is still quite imaginative. But don't tell me that the concept of falling is copied from Liu Cixin's novel "The Cannon of the Earth", and if that were the case, I would have nothing but contempt for the director.
Oh, yes, for half a day, the lead actor Colin Farell has been left out in the cold, along with two beautiful women, Kate Kim Bessell and Jessica Bell. I'll just say one thing: Colin Farell is like a hooligan, with no secret agent temperament, and as for the two beautiful women, their fairly qualified performances really support the whole movie.
