A meteor crash-lands in Glen Canyon, Arizona, creating an
underground cavern. Two college professors, Dr. Ira Kane (David Duchovny) and
Professor Harry Block (Orlando Jones), are tipped off about the meteor’s
existence by Wayne Grey (Sean William Scott), a local resident who witnessed
the landing whilst practising for his firefighter exam. Ira and Harry quickly
realise that there are alien organisms in the cavern, which are rapidly evolving
at an exponential rate. Soon the U.S. Army is involved, led by General Woodman
(Ted Levine), and they seal off the site to research and contain the alien
lifeforms. However, a series of incidents in Glen Canyon suggests that the
aliens are becoming more complex and dangerous. With the help of Dr. Allison
Reed (Julianne Moore), Ira and Harry must find a way to stop the aliens from
taking over Arizona and the rest of America.
Evolution was
originally pitched as a serious alien horror film, until director Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) came aboard and chucked
out most of the script. If this film is the survival of the fittest, what
didn’t make the cut must have been dire. Evolution
is all about the adolescent humour and the movie itself is obsessed with butt
jokes. Big bums, rectal removal, gassy aliens and giant sphincters contribute
to a substantial proportion of the comedic scenes in Evolution. The rest of it comprises of humiliating Harry at every opportunity,
Allison falling over and jokes about how women are crazy/frigid/dumb/insert
your own stereotype here in general. Tonally, it is all over the place. Evolution doesn’t know if it wants to be
a complete goofball comedy, a parody or a comedy-horror film. Its tonal
problems are best exemplified in the third act, when our heroes figure out how
to kill the aliens; they require copious amounts of a certain shampoo product.
Reportedly this was supposed to be a spoof on product placement in films, but it
isn’t apparent whilst watching the film.
Evolution does have
some nice creature designs going for it, the sequences with the albino gorillas
are executed well enough. However, the reason the alien gorillas hold up well because
they are men in suits, the same cannot be said for the CGI creatures, which
often feel weightless and have a plastic sheen to them. Evolution
has some glaring errors in terms of continuity and plot holes: the U.S. Army’s
security is severely lacking and it’s amusing to watch extras’ clothing change
colours between cuts in the film. Whilst Evolution
doesn’t quite reach the levels of bad-science that The Core does, it stills makes a valiant effort. Suffice to say
that pretty much every element on the periodic table will kill you, if given
too much or too little of it, whether you are human or alien. Also, heat is not
the evolutionary equivalent of Miracle-Gro, even if you are an extra-terrestrial
lifeform.
The acting in Evolution
is serviceable. Orlando Jones as Harry Block, the local college’s geology
professor and volleyball coach, suffers from constant shifts in
characterization as demanded by the script. When Harry is not flirting with the
beauty pageant student or teasing Ira about liking Allison, Jones reacts to events
either with wide-eyed screaming or a cool sarcastic quip. David Duchovny is
okay as Ira Kane, the cynical biology professor with a dark past, and he does
have a good onscreen chemistry with Jones. Julianne Moore is not unbearable as
Dr Allison Reed, which could have easily happened as her main character trait
is being clumsy and a stereotypical cold scientist, who needs a man to make her
chill out. Moore makes Allison somewhat likeable but she cannot convince us
that her character is in love with Ira. If the filmmakers really needed a romantic
couple by the end, they should have just paired up Ira and Harry. It would have
been more believable.
Whilst it is not terrible (it might be worth watching some
clips to look at some of the creature designs), Evolution is probably best viewed with a group of friends providing
a running commentary.
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