My Review Of “Total Recall” 2012

“Total Recall” is directed by Len Wiseman and stars Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel, Brian Cranston, Bokeem Woodbine and Kate Beckinsale. It is a remake of the Shwarzenegger sci-fi classic about a civil war between the ruling government of earth and a outpost colony. In the original it was a Martian colony but in this new vision I honestly have no idea where the fricking colony is founded. This film has basically the same story complete with climactic action sequences and sci-fi spectacular scenery. In the new “Total Recall” the story follows a factory worker undergoing a personal crossroads of sorts. He decides to change things up in his life but gets more than he bargains for when his fantasy becomes far too real. He soon becomes the last man standing for a resistance movement against the oppressive ruling regime.

This movie has all the qualities of a great sci-fi film but the true star of the movie was missing for me-Mars! The thing that made the original story so entertaining and whimsical was the concept of a human colony on the one world we constantly dream of which is our closest planetary neighbor. In this film I never really new who was who in the great civil conflict. Both the colony and ruling society were so identical in appearance that it was hard to focus an emotional attachment to the physicality of this sci-fi world. The scenes carried the highly produced and fantastical scenes and technology that is truly a future worth dreaming of much like the original however I found myself constantly wishing for the Martian fragility that the colony faced. In this version I never could figure out what made society so dire that the government had to conspire to take hold of a founded colonies land. Although the population was critical the advancements of this reality were so great that even the desolate and toxic areas outside of the city could have been re-populated so I never felt completely sold on this story. I have to give props to the action and fighting sequences between the stars of this film because they were quite intense and entertaining. Even though the one thing was missing that could have made “Total Recall” epic and I found it’s absence irritating I did enjoy the movie’s effects and view of the future-minus the conflict of course.