Give Us a Word

Rating: Null/10 (19 July 2001)

Spoilers herein.
Science fiction writing has its share of really deep and complex work. Science fiction films do not, in large part I think because it provides a simple scaffold for special effects and other moneymaking cinematic crutches. The only intelligent film constructions I can quickly recall are: Forbidden Planet; 2001; Bladerunner, and yes, this. Surprised?
What I like are not the effects so much. Nor the story about Milla being a reconstructed key -- that's all rather illogical and unimaginative. Some of the small touches charm, but they pale compared to the big trick: the Chris Tucker character. He becomes the frantic narrator; self-absorbed but contrarily not as he is lost in the role of being the eyes for a whole population. The filmmaker puts himself in the film and by reference our own appetites for titillatingly exaggerated explosions and suspense.

So if you love science fiction for its metaphoric notions, for its clever creations of new or alternative worlds, then you will also be annoyed when the public draws it into the trivial sewer of cowboy revenge, of Bruckheimer propane bombs, or predictable, Hardy Boy last-minute escapes from doom, of bulbous boobs, of cheap scares. And you will appreciate this wonderful intrusion of the Tucker character. Willis has an appreciated comic talent, which in my memory will be epitomized by his one-syllable responses to that randy public.