Review: Total Recall (2012)

I vaguely remember the original version of Total Recall from 1990. I know she’s had a lot of violence: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone in close sports uniform and a with three breasts. Of all the things that stood out to me the most, I would say that the Three-Sided Woman was by far the most memorable. Not because it was fun to watch or anything. It’s very memorable because it scared me. I had never seen anything like it and hoped that I would never see it again… Then I heard that they had remade Total Recall with a 2012 release date.

Colin Farrell was replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger in this remake. He plays Douglas Quaid, a factory worker who leads a simple but disappointing life with his handsome wife Laurie (Kate Beckinsale) in a small dilapidated apartment. To escape from his sad life, he decides to visit Rekall. Here they can turn all your wildest fantasies into reality. But there’s a snag for everyone who’s attached to this car. There is a possibility of irreversible damage, and in the process you can confuse reality and fantasy.

Despite the warnings of his friend Harry (Bokem Woodbine), Kwiad still enters and immediately gets into trouble when a group of armed men breaks into Reqal, shortly after he sits down and becomes addicted. Is it true or fake? He doesn’t know, but he doesn’t know what’s going on either, and he discovers that maybe he can’t trust anyone either. As the situation becomes more and more dangerous by the second, he has to run away from several people who are trying to stop him as he desperately tries to find answers to the riddles that surround him.

The first thing you can see in Total Recall is the level of beauty that can be seen in the scenes of the film that take place outside. The beauty of this open space reminds me a little of films like “Minority Report” and “I, Robot.” It’s dark, grayish and sometimes rainy, but looking at it is fun. Judging by some of these frames (especially during some combat scenes), it would be the perfect movie to use 3D. I think these graphically drawn backgrounds help sell the film, and I think it would work perfectly for anything that appears on the screen at this time.

Now note, when I talked about beauty in this version of Total Recall, I specifically pointed to the external footage of the film’s environment. That’s because they enter the scene quite simply and vanillaly. Wherever they are, these settings are stripped and have no individuality or character of their own. It’s so average that I could go to the store and buy the stuff myself, design it and take the rest of the money to save these guys some money. I’ve never done much interior design or anything, but I definitely could do as well as these guys.

Outside, inside, beautifully or mediocrely, all this does not matter in general terms. “Remember Everything” is a film in which everything is about action movies and actions. They use a few small scenes of dialogue to play the inevitable action that is sure to follow. In addition, the dialogues in this film are not used. In this sense, the whole setting of the film is like a video game. There are shootings and fights, followed by more shooting and fights, and between them there may be a small scene of chase. From time to time they stop and talk, just to start the action again.

When you rely so heavily on action or one aspect of the film, you better be awesome. I’d say all or most of the action is just like that, but I’d be lying. The actions in Total Recall are not bad, it’s just a normal, down-to-earth place. They don’t do anything that flashes on the screen and you don’t notice anything. All we see here is what we’ve seen in so many other films. You can also say that he has achieved more success in a number of films. I’d like a little more innovation and a little less general. Given all the high-tech weapons and more than two decades between Total Recall movies, they certainly had a lot to do, but they decided not to use them.

For me, the action also loses a little interest because of the ability of a particular character to cultivate adult men, despite the fact that he is a very petite woman. I find it hard to believe that a woman weighing only a hundred pounds takes part in competitive battles with an adult man who can overcome between ten and twenty armed self-ingest killers.

What do I think of this version of Total Recall? Well, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it leaves much to be desired. Not only do they have the flaws and repetitions I mentioned earlier, but they are also harmed in other ways. They use the same tired rules to “let her go” and “let her go” that we’ve heard a million times before. They even use some of the usual villainous mistakes of movies that I would call vintage James Bond stuff. As an audience, we also never be able to feel anything to the characters, whether good or bad, since we have little time for dialogue and/or character development.

These things hurt the film, but as I said, Total Recall is not so bad. Throughout the film there is a decent (albeit well-known) action, Bokem Woodbine has risen from the dead, having been without news since 1995, and Kate Beckinsale is as beautiful to watch as ever. I am also pleased to report that a woman with a third breast did not scare me as much as she did when I was a child. Probably because I’m a little older now, and this time the scene seems a lot faster. Keep in mind that unlike the original version of Total Recall, this 2012 version has a PG-13. Maybe that’s why the scene was so fast this time.

When I look at all the positives of Total Recall, I see that some people like this film based on the entertainment value they can find in all races, shootouts and fights. I even liked these parts to some extent. I’m just sorry I didn’t get the maximum out of this movie, but I didn’t get it. When you remake a film, you have to do it in the hope that it will be better than the original. You may not be able to do it, but why would you try it any other way? This is a question that the creators of the remake should ask themselves.

Rating: 2/5

Rating: PG-13

Director: Len Wiseman

Refuse:
Colin Farrell
Kate Beckinsale
Jessica Biel
Bryan Cranston
John Cho
Bokeem Woodbine
Bill Nag