Total Recall (2012) Movie Review: Not All Remakes Carry The Legacy of The Original Masterpiece
Read how the 90s sci-fi blockbuster remake turned into a box office bomb
I love to watch movies during my weekdays, and if it belongs to an action genre then I’d always prioritize watching it first from my watch list
After winning against my writer’s block over time within two weeks I again started to shift my attention towards starting my content writing journey on Substack
So, the movie that I watched this week was Total Recall, released back in 2012, a science-fiction movie, with a theme set in a post-apocalyptic world, filled with a lot of action scenes.
When I started my research on this movie, I discovered that it was a remake of a popular sci-fi thriller movie back from the 90s, named Total Recall, whose main lead was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Well to be honest the remake is different from the original one in many aspects, if I started talking about it here, then this article will take a different turn, so let’s about it in a different article.
Here we are going to talk about Len Wiseman’s (director) Total Recall
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Cast
Director: Len Wiseman
Story by: Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, Jon Povill
Notable casts: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, John Cho, Bill Nighy
Movie based on: Total Recall (1990) by Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, Gary Goldman, and Jon Povill
IMDb rating: 6.2/10
Languages: English
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Adventure
Maturity rating: U/A 16+, contains Nudity and Violence
Plot
Set in a futuristic era of humanity, Total Recall is a story about a simple factory worker, Douglas Quaid (played by Colin Farrell) whose life is a bit miserable and confusing due to his regular frustrating dreams about being a secret agent partnered with an unknown woman where he is captured by the police officers every time and his dream ends.
So, to fix this, he visits Recall, a company that promises to deliver an experience to their clients about the life they always wished and dreamed of living, by implanting artificial memories into their brains.
But things suddenly take a bitter turn and Quaid’s life starts to face berserk situations one by one, which takes him to a point where he starts to question his own identity about who he is.
Characters
As the film is associated with the action genre, the story majorly revolves around our main character Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), the story flips itself from time to time depending on his actions and decisions.
The movie presents our main character in a pretty decent and not too iconic role throughout the movie
It doesn’t give any type of badass or any relatable vibes towards the character nor it leaves any type of memorable incidents to be remembered.
Other notable characters along with Quaid were his wife Lori (played by Kate Beckinsale) and the unknown woman from his dreams named Melina (played by Jessica Biel), who later on becomes his love interest.
These characters other than Quaid were the ones who hold the majority of the screen time throughout the movie.
The unbeatable spirit of Lori being a temporary wife of Quaid and an evil and abusive UFB undercover agent is the best you can experience.
The adrenaline rush inside her to chase and hunt down Quaid is what you are gonna enjoy the most in this movie.
The role of Agent Hammond (played by Dylan Smith), as a rouge UFB agent hasn’t given majority screen time as well importance to its character.
But in reality, he was the only one who helped Quaid not only to escape from the UFB agents but also to find clues about his identity.
In the climax scene, we witness his accidental death, thus you might feel that proper justice hasn’t been served to this character.
Finally, let’s talk about the main villain of the movie, Chancellor Vilos Cohaagen (played by Bryan Cranston), an evil and corrupted dictator of the United Federation of Britain, whose target is to invade the Colony.
Cohaagen makes his proper appearance in the climax scene, but honestly, as a viewer, you might not feel any kind of villainic aura from his character because Cranston as a villain in this film is not perfectly suited.
My Perspectives Regarding Total Recall 2012
In this section, I’m gonna talk about what are my opinions and views regarding Total Recall 2012.
But first of all, let me tell you some trivia about this movie I found online, I randomly found this movie on Netflix this week, before that I had no idea about this film nor about the original version of the 90s. Therefore, this is my 1st time experience and might differ from others.
According to Wikipedia, this film was first announced in 2009 and was released in North America on 3rd August 2012, receiving almost average to below average reviews that gradually grossed over 211.8 million worldwide, receiving the tagline of box office bomb as it failed to carry the legacy of the original version.
My opinions and views are mixed into both good and bad, starting with the good things that I liked about this movie is the depiction of the dystopian earth that has been set very realistically and accurately.
It gives us an idea of what the end of the 21st Century would look like due to the devastation of chemical warfare on Earth. Only 2 habitable lands remain — The United Federation of Britain (UFB), located in north-western Europe, and the Colony, located in Australia.
The action scenes and the camera angles were well choreographed especially the scene where Quaid or I say Carl Hauser takes down all the UFB agents inside Recall in quick close combat — I enjoyed watching this scene
I was like — what the sudden f*ck happened outta nowhere? And honestly, I started making assumptions about it — whether Quaid is actually in reality or is he in his dreams at that moment?
The next scene that I enjoyed was Lori’s chase to hunt down Quaid, she showed tremendous determination to kill him but I guess we all know what happened — right?
The humor shown in this film is average, not at that level where everything seems relatable
My last and foremost favorite scene that made me think not even twice but thrice was “It’s all a dream” where Quaid’s friend Harry (played by Bokeem Woodbine) takes the spotlight to stop and capture him.
Here we came to know that Harry who was a co-worker and a close friend to Quaid was, in reality, a secret agent in charge sent by Cohaagen to monitor his behavior.
This scene puts up your eyebrows in curiosity, letting to know what would happen next, who would Quaid choose to believe as his ally –
His best friend Harry or his love interest Melina?
Which I guess we all knew about from the beginning — am I right?
Therefore, here ends the good part, let’s skip to the bad part of this movie
Well, some of you might think that the remake is quite good to watch after reading the above but don’t fall under the influence of my words, guys
The story lacks the ability to build the baseline for the main character, it somehow failed to provide a good and solid character introduction and solid back story for our MC.
Talking about side characters, it seemed like they didn’t hold any significance in the movie, I felt like they were only here to perform their role anyhow.
The movie provides a little bit of info about Douglas Quaid, who he was in reality, how he became an ordinary factory worker from a top-class UFB agent Carl Hauser, and then the long hunt suddenly begins until the villain is killed by the hero.
Thus, everything happened so fast within the blink of an eye that the story failed to develop gradually
I was like — why did it happen? What’s the reason behind it? And then the story moved so ahead that I had to ignore it
If I talk about the villain — Cohaagen, then I would say Bryan Cranston was unable to deliver any kind of memorable moments
This one was one of the most boring scenes in the entire movie where Cohaagen starts to praise himself and says he is the mastermind.
I think characters like Agent Hammond should’ve been given more importance and screentime (in my opinion) due to the potential of how he managed to save Quaid two times, he didn’t deserve this kind of death
What do you think?
Well, well
So these are my both good and bad views regarding Total Recall 2012, at the end of the day, it’s just a fictional movie, let’s not trash talk about it
What more should’ve been shown in a movie of 1hr 40 mins?
So, chill out and enjoy watching Total Recall, without any hassle, because either way it’s a great movie for entertainment.
I would strongly recommend this movie to those hardcore action lovers who only enjoy experiencing the adrenaline rush, this movie is not recommended for those who always search good storyline, character build-up, etc.
My Final Verdict
I would like to give Total Recall an average rating of 6.9/10 stars
Watch Total Recall, streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video
What are your opinions and views regarding Total Recall (2012)?
Have you already watched this film or still left?
Are there any other points that are worth mentioning in this article?
Share all your thoughts in the comments below👇
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