Point Break - pointless...

Rating: 2/10 (13 December 2015)

OK, so last night was the annual Lucia Movie Night here in Sweden, where SF (Swedish Filmindustry) do their part to keep the kids away from the streets during Lucia Wake. They do this by having a drug- and alcohol free all-night event at their cinemas all across the country. For 295 SEK (app. $40-45) you get popcorn, soda, a few other refreshments AND three undisclosed previews of films yet to open in theaters. Where I live, in Umeå, they NEVER tell you the name of the movie beforehand. You have to wait and see for yourself when the title pops up on the screen.
You can bet everyone wanted Star Wars, but everyone also knew that wasn't going to happen.
The last film of the night, starting at about 05.15 in the morning, was this one, Point Break. I was all excited when I realized what it was (which was right at the start, when one character calls another character 'Utah'). But my excitement checked out and went home to catch some well needed z's pretty quickly.
The plot is somewhat different to the original, mostly the changes revolve around the bad guys and their reasoning for doing what they are doing, but also around the character Utah, and his background. It is also glossier (if you know what I mean), much of this is due to the 3D-effect, which is prominent and very much in your face - but also creates a feeling of nothing being done for real...something I know isn't true. A lot of the stunts were if not 100% real, then at least close to 100%. But the 3D makes it all look fake somehow... I tried removing the 3D effect occasionally - by closing one eye - and it really did look a lot better without it.
The biggest change from Kathryn Bigelows modern-classic-original however is the fact that this version doesn't make me care about the characters...at all! It borrows a few iconic scenes (most prominently the "angrily shooting into the air"-scene and the ending...sort of) and it makes no excuse whatsoever about cramming these images into the film. It tries SO hard to make audiences go 'Ooo, did you see what they did there! That is from the original that is!', but as this film is so infuriatingly inferior (say that quickly five times) it only makes me a little bit angry, that it didn't even have the guts to stand on its own two legs as a modern day action movie.
If you plan on seeing this in the theater, but have never seen the original, Make sure you do see that one as well! But in this case I dare to say it doesn't matter if you see it before or after you see this remake, because no matter what you WILL see that this is nothing but a cash in on on of the best action movies of the 90's.