Total Recall (2012)

[Dave]

I must preface the following with two admissions:

Firstly, the original 1990 Paul Verhoeven/Dan O’Bannon /Arnold Schwarzenegger version is one of my favourite films. I just watched it again last night; must have seen it more than any other film, and still can’t decide if it is a false memory or a real experience.

Secondly, I have never read, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale; I don’t know how that is possible, since I’ve read loads of PKD, especially those collections of short stories you can borrow from the public library, but it just wasn’t ever in one of those collections.

So, obviously the trailer for this new version interests me, even more so that it has been in development for so long – it was originally going to be directed by Jonathan Frakes.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386703/trailers

After watching the trailer, I don’t feel like I need to see the film. Douglas Quaid is now a factory worker, but other than that it seems that the plot follows the first film almost word for word – and I really literally mean, word for word, except that there is no MARS! No dreams of Mars. No holiday to Mars. No ancient civilisation on Mars, or exploited workers on Mars. Now it seems like another chase film. Kate Beckinsale is in it because every Len Wiseman film must have her, just like every Tim Burton film stars Johnny Depp.

It even has the woman with three breasts only now she says the cab driver’s line to him instead. She was meant to be a Martian mutant; as a result of radiation due to the cheap domes Cohaagen forced his Martian workers to live under. So, the reason for her unique physiology is unclear to me.

The original version is pretty gory with a body count of 77 and numerous losses of limbs. The original cut of the movie was given an X-rating by the MPAA for excessive violence. Some violence was trimmed and different camera angles were used in some of the more over the top scenes and the movie was then re-rated R. This version is going to be a child-friendly MPAA Rating: PG-13.

Having said that, I undoubtedly will see it at some point.

[steve12553]

This would appear to be another case of "they got it right the first time but let's do it again anyway." Shades of The Day the Earth Stood Still. It is so very rare to get two goos movies out of one story. (The Thing and The Thing from Another World being the exception.) I watched only part of the remake of TDTESS and was convinced that there was notion there for me. The trailer for this one is just about convinced me here.

[Dave]

I ranted on about the TDTESS remake here, but when I actually saw it I thought that the way they had modernised it from the 1950's to the noughties was quite reasonable. I'd still argue that it was not necessary to update it at all, but that's a separate argument.

My main problem with this is that it is only 22 years old. It isn't dated that much. I think the Jonathan Frakes film I mentioned earlier was actually going to be a sequel. This is just another remake.

[Connavar]

It might be the most action filled PKD adaptation so far. I couldnt believe how much action was in the trailer. I never cared for the first film either so i dont expect anything.

I would like to see one good film made connected to PKD in the last decade and half so far it doesnt look good.

[Dave]

I haven't seen A Scanner Darkly but I heard that was a faithful adaptation (although films always have to cut something out of a book by necessity). It was a animation though, so maybe you weren't counting that as a "real" film.

[Metryq]

Originally Posted by Dave

I haven't seen A Scanner Darkly but I heard that was a faithful adaptation (although films always have to cut something out of a book by necessity). It was a animation though, so maybe you weren't counting that as a "real" film.

It was rotoscope, meaning all of it was live actors shot on real sets, then painstakingly converted in post.

[clovis-man]

Originally Posted by Dave

Secondly, I have never read, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale; I don’t know how that is possible, since I’ve read loads of PKD, especially those collections of short stories you can borrow from the public library, but it just wasn’t ever in one of those collections.

You know, I have read WCRIFYW. But, oddly my recollection of the story is quite dim compared to the movie. I don't know if that's a good thing or not.

In the new film it looks like they at least ce-cycled some storm troopers.

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by Dave

I haven't seen A Scanner Darkly but I heard that was a faithful adaptation (although films always have to cut something out of a book by necessity). It was a animation though, so maybe you weren't counting that as a "real" film.

There has never been a faithful adaptation of PKD. Hollywood isnt interested in that. He wrote social dramas about people mostly talking in weird futures. Scanner Darkly was close but the actors ruined it little for me. Tried to be too quirky because of the animation style.

Im not talking about good adaptation but good SF films on its that dont suck as bad as Nick Cage films, Paycheck or substance less films like Adjustment Bureau.

[Gordian Knot]

Just watched the original with AHnold last night on cable. My gawd, that was a horrible film! LOL. No offense to those who like it. In retrospect I should have known there was going to be trouble when I saw Verhoeven's name on the project. Can't stand a single thing that guy has done!

[wonkishere]

Originally Posted by Dave

I haven't seen A Scanner Darkly but I heard that was a faithful adaptation (although films always have to cut something out of a book by necessity). It was a animation though, so maybe you weren't counting that as a "real" film.

I loved Through a Scanner Darkly myself, but I thought the original movie you mentioned was um... absolutely horrible. So we obviously have very different interests. I don't think the plot of the movie was something that really needed to be followed faithfully.

I suppose the remake might be more interesting.

[Starbeast]

SPOILER ALERT

Just saw it yesterday, not bad, lots of eye candy.

I like the original more though, because it had actor Michael Ironside as a villain and a planet Mars connection. Plus it established doubts in your mind to what is real and what is a memory implant much better than the remake. There is a great moment in the original film where I began to question if the hero Quade (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) is just freaking out by his memory adventure, or he really did begin to remember what was erased from his mind.

[Illusive]

Originally Posted by Connavar

There has never been a faithful adaptation of PKD. Hollywood isnt interested in that. He wrote social dramas about people mostly talking in weird futures. Scanner Darkly was close but the actors ruined it little for me. Tried to be too quirky because of the animation style.

Im not talking about good adaptation but good SF films on its that dont suck as bad as Nick Cage films, Paycheck or substance less films like Adjustment Bureau.

I agree. Total Recall was a pretty terrible attempt (and a not-so-good film in general), but Hollywood tends to leave out the most important bits in everything they do with PKD. Scanner Darkly left out such things as the German-speaking hemisphere of his brain (and yeah, the casting was poor), Minority Report created entirely new characters and changed the plot, and thank god Ridley Scott decided to rename Blade Runner, because everything that made the novel great was removed.

Recently someone told me that Ubik is in the works. All I could think was, oh no...

[Fried Egg]

Has anyone seen this movie and if so, what are there thoughts?

So far I've heard that it compares unfavourably to the original movie.

But one critic complained that they never went to Mars as they did in the original movie but in the story this was based on ("We Can Remember it For You Wholesale"), they don't go to Mars either.

Is this adaptation more faithful to the story?

[Dave]

I've merged your post with the existing film thread, if only because I think your questions have already been answered here.

[Lenny]

I've just come back from seeing it, and I have to say that as much as I love the first version, I think this new one is better.

It's slightly more faithful to the short story, in that Quaid (what's with the name change, again?) doesn't leave the planet, but after having him walk into Rekall, it skews off in a similar fashion to the first - indeed, I'd say it takes more material from Verhoeven's film than Dick's short story.

The bulk of the film is entirely new, and the setting is almost entirely new. There are some very weird elements to it, which I suppose are there only to make the story realistic, but some of the SF is pretty neat. I also like the design - parts of it put me in the mind of Blade Runner, whilst other bits made me think of Minority Report. As far as drawing inspiration from other films goes, this new version of Total Recall has chosen three belters.

All in all, I enjoyed it. Sure, it doesn't mess with your head as much as the first did, and the story is more that of a modern film with the barest of bones from We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (if you want to read it, Google it - I read it during Apple's press conference this evening, just before going to see the film), but it's a good film with some great SF elements.