Quaid himself is played by Colin Ferrel and is perhaps the only improvement this remake boasts over the original. Only Kate Beckinsale was able to truly shine playing Quaid's wife-turned-assassin. They do an excellent job with the acting and chemistry but the good actors like Bill Nighly felt under utilised. The cast is basically a reunion of mist actors that were in Len Wiseman's Underworld franchise. The future is epilepsy inducing, we get it and sometimes this really distracts from the tip top designs. Think Bourne Supremacy with the visual style of the 2009 Star Trek film. He shoots Total Recall with an over reliance on shaky cam and lens flare, almost like a "Paul Greengrass meets J.J Abrams". Director Len Wiseman brings in all that is good and bad in modern day film making into this movie. Instead of keeping it ambiguous as to whether the events unfolding are real or part of Quaid's implanted fantasy, this remake spoils its own mystery for the audience. Compared to the original Total Recall film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, this remake has Less twists, a less ambiguous ending and lacks the cynical dark humor that made the original so memorable.
WATCH TOTAL RECALL 2012 FULL MOVIE MOVIE
A pity that the rest of the movie is fairly typical of modern day chase thrillers.
The dichotomy in the design between the rich and elite United Federation of Britain and The ramshackle Colony is beautifully rendered thanks to the amazing production design headed by Patrick Tatopoulos (the guy who worked on Independence Day, Starship Troopers and Dark city). This is a future that seems very real judging from our current world: Strict class segregation taken to the extreme. Floating buildings to make up for scarce land, a country confused by its melting pot of cultures, cyborg police, hover cars, it is amazing. The most striking feature of Total Recall would be the stunning vision of this overcrowded future.
In the background lies a dastardly plot by a rich chancellor involving the poor dissidents of the overcrowded Colony and the leader of an underground resistance. What follows is "Kurt Wimmer's 'Salt: dystopian future edition - minus Angelina Jolie" (surprise surprise, this movie is also written by Wimmer) with Quaid's wife turning out to be a psychopathic killer, his past a complete sham and his grip on that fine line between reality and fantasy slowly slipping. A swat team busts in for some reason and he dispatches them to some beautiful camera camera pans. Suddenly, its discovered that he already has memories of being an agent: meaning he actually is an agent with his memory erased. So he gets a fantasy of being a double agent implanted.
Convinced that these are repressed fantasies brought on by his monotonous life assembling security automatons (which are like Cyber Stormtroopers) Quaid visits this place called "Rekall" Rekall claims to implant fake but realistic fantasies into one's mind. In a vastly overcrowded, class segregated future, everyman Douglas Quaid is haunted by dreams of being a secret agent on the run. The aforementioned themes are only teased but never developed in this intense tale of on man's quest to uncover the truth of his identity and past. It is Definitely a product of 2012 as much as the original was a product of the early 90s. What we have instead is a showcase of the best and worst of modern science fiction film making.
What makes up who we are? Are we the result of our past experiences and memories or does our identity stem from something much deeper? These are questions that the 2012 remake of the classic action film "Total Recall" could have delved into.
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