Why Total Recall Failed to Imitate Its Original Remake
Surely, the movie was fully entertaining but the condition of the story is something else
Well let me configure first, I haven’t watched the original Total Recall of the 90s whose main lead was Arnold Schwarzenegger so I really can’t compare the remake with the original.
So, what’s the reason behind writing this article?
To be honest, the reason behind this article is quite simple
I’m here to talk about what Total Recall (2012) failed to deliver as a remake
The Story
Total Recall (2012) sets itself in the posy-dystopian earth where only 2 unions remain in the last due to widespread chemical warfare.
- The United Federation of Britain (UFB), located in north-eastern Europe
- The Colony (spanning across Australia)
Our main lead, Douglas Quaid (played by Colin Farrell), is a simple factory worker in the UFB. Still, his life takes serious twists and turns when he finds out about his identity as a highly trained rogue undercover agent.
My Takeaways
Well, the story starts with a great start, the depiction of post-apocalyptic developed humanity is very accurately shown in the movie but I still missed some of the important details it has to offer
Like our main character Douglas Quaid, has been provided a minimal amount of character introduction and depth.
As we proceed further in the movie, we come to know who he was in reality, a rogue undercover agent named Carl Hauser who was brainwashed multiple times before and supported with a new memory.
Here in this scene, Carl gradually learns about himself with the help of his conversational hologram.
The scene provides enough details for that moment but — it would’ve been better if the movie showed us some scenes from the past of the original Carl Hauser.
How he was? What were his principles from that time etc, by that I think I could’ve been related with that character even more.
In the end, I could only conclude that the movie tried to deliver its top-notch performance in the action — genre but was unable to fill the gap in building a better plot for the audiences who search for a better storyline in a movie.
I’ve done a full-fledged review of Total Recall (2012) in my substack newsletter FilmyFlix, where I’ve discussed this in more detail.
