Well, I woke up early in the A.M. to go see VIRUS, it’s a film I had a few hopes for, mainly because of the work that Phil Tippet’s crew was doing for the film. Also, I’m a bit of a Jamie Lee Curtis fan, and it would be refreshing to watch her scream about something other than a tall guy in a bleached Captain Kirk mask with a kitchen knife.
The film had been delayed over and over and over again. Beginning way back at last summer, and being bumped to the next ‘window’ time and again.
Their advertising campaign had started off pretty darn good. It had me interested in the film, the effects looked pretty darn cool, and the pacing seemed intense. I was up for a lite-core sci-fi action film that would entertain me for the time being.
Then the second stage of the advertising campaign began and whew.... it stunk.... It stunk baaaaaad. The posters blew, the trailers had the smell of a washed up sea mammal carcass. It had a lot of you folks reading the site swearing off the film like crazy.
I didn’t care, too often UNIVERSAL has ruined really wonderful films with TERRIBLE advertising campaigns. In fact, it’s been happening since the beginning of last year. I had my fingers crossed that the film was.... one of those...
Father Geek, Tom Joad and I all loaded up in the wounded jalopy of death, and threw caution to the wind and lept upon a highway headed to VIRUS. While sitting in the ‘state of the art’ stadium seat theater, a thought hit me. A rarity I know, that’s why I noticed. Anyway, as I was looking at the screen I began to imagine STAR WARS EPISODE ONE and its crawl unfurling. And I realized... it was alllll wrong. The crawl was meant to be seen from below and ascending into infinity. Here from this straight on view, it would look like a flat contrived thing. I’d be looking DOWN on the first letters and EVEN at the words as they disappeared. Father Geek and Tom Joad looked at me like I was insane, but thankfully the lights dimmed and the trailers began.
1. THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE -- Wonderful narration, cool images... until the goofy house morphing (ugh) and then the goofy acid-style flash images in neonish colors. I can’t wait for the real trailer for this movie. The best thing of the trailer is the sound though... really creepy.
2. THE 13TH FLOOR -- The trailer just didn’t really do that much for me. All the green ‘hologrammy’ lines were just... ummmmm... well, they just don’t excite me. The stills I’ve seen from the film, on the net, did a better job of getting me excited for the film. Who knows... maybe it’ll work.
3. MATRIX -- Huh huh huh.... Cooooool. Ya know, maybe... just maybe, Warner Brothers might be on the right track again. Though, I’m really curious when they are going to finally cut a WILD WILD WEST and EYES WIDE SHUT and IRON GIANT trailer.
4. THE MUMMY -- Boy does this trailer look handsome as hell on the big screen. I really really want this movie to rake in the dough. If it does... then Universal will go the monster route... YES!!!! Instead of the inane comedy route... BOO!!!!
Then the movie came on.
I enjoyed VIRUS, but I won’t say it’s a good movie. You see, it’s handsome as could be, but every single problem I have with this movie can be traced to the original source material and the script... oh... and Donald Sutherland.
I have never picked up an issue of VIRUS (the comic book) to read because... well from judging the cover and a quick flip through the insides, it seemed to be crossing SATURN 5, the Borg, SHORT CIRCUIT, BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED, ALIEN/S, and Carpenter’s THE THING. Now for a film, that wouldn’t be too grating, but the dialogue in this flick just about caused me to hate it.
I’ve noticed some people saying this film is a ‘ripoff’ of DEEP RISING... welllll... the problem with that statement is that this movie and DEEP RISING were in production at THE SAME TIME. They are also... to me... different genres. DEEP RISING is a comedy/horror movie, this film is an action/sci-fi/horror flick.
The dialogue in the movie feels ‘comic bookish’ in the worst way it can. The phrases didn’t ‘feel’ like the words that would naturally be coming out of the characters’ mouths. Really, for me, there was only one actor that raised their performance above the script, and that was this new guy... SHERMAN AUGUSTUS.
He, the look of the film and Tippet Studios work on the film are the primary reasons I enjoyed the film. Sherman Augustus is completely unfamiliar for me. I went and did a quick filmography check on him, and he has never really had a role before that I have caught him in, but let me tell you this.... If this movie had had a smart script... well this movie could have propelled Sherman to stardom. But unfortunately Hensleigh’s script and Chuck Pfarrer’s original comic just didn’t leave that sort of room.
Here’s the problem. Had the screenwriter had a clever bone in his body, he might have noticed that his Richie character had the most potential. You see, the film stole the wrong elements from the films it was drawing upon.
You see, I don’t have a problem with ripping off other films. You see ALIEN was taken from IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958), but it was a masterful adaption. Here... this movie seemed to want to be ALIENS/THE THING.
My favorite aspect of the original ALIEN isn’t Giger’s monster, or the sets, but rather the misdirection that the film had. From the beginning of the movie, it looks like Tom Skerrit is the star of the film. Sooooo, when he dies... well it’s shocking and then we don’t know who the ‘main’ character is until we survive the film. It was not ‘obvious’ that Sigourney Weaver was the star.
In this film, there is never a doubt that Jamie Lee Curtis and William Baldwin were the stars. That those two would survive. It’s obvious from the posters, the trailers and in the film itself. BUT it would have been an absolute shocker to have them die, and Sherman Augustus’ character emerge at the end of the film as the star. NOONE would have seen it coming. Audiences liked his character over every other one in the movie. Hell, he was the only one with his priorities straight in this thing. Personal survival was the number one issue with him, and killing the ‘thing’ was secondary. I can grock that.
So, let’s see, I want to wind up this review here so before I go I have a couple of last points.
This movie didn’t suffer from poor direction, but from a poor script. EVERYTHING wrong in this film is there... the dialogue, the structure, the plot. Everything that is right with the film comes from Tippet Studios, Sherman Augustus and a pretty decent job of directing from John Bruno.
I really want to see him get his hands on some better material because there are some glimpses here and there at some very sharp directing turns. If his material had been up to his level... it might have been something. In a lot of ways it reminds me of projects like 1492 or LAST ACTION HERO, where a good director is trapped in a badly written hell.
Often times the director gets stuck with the blame, but here... I just can’t blame Bruno. Look at the work he’s done in the past... My favorite sequence in HEAVY METAL (Taarna) was directed by him, he’s been the visual effects supervisor on films like POLTERGEIST, THE ABYSS, TERMINATOR 2, TRUE LIES, CLIFFHANGER and on and on. I think here... it was the material that failed.
VIRUS is one of those no-where near great sci-fi/action/horror films that you may watch with your buddies and gripe about ‘what you would have done’ and ‘how it would have been cooler if...’ and I always enjoy those sorts of films. The film could have been and should have been much much better than it was.
