After A Slow Start This Becomes A Very Good Remake

Rating: 7/10 (12 April 2011)

I wasn't especially taken with this after the first half hour or so. There seemed to be a vaguely comic element involved that wasn't fitting - revolving mostly around the character of scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum.) For those first few minutes the character wasn't working for me. And then, somehow, it came together. Goldblum turned out to be very good and very convincing in the lead role as the scientist who accidentally "teleports" himself along with a housefly, and finds their genes "spliced" - after which he begins to slowly mutate into a human- fly hybrid.
This, of course, is based on the 1958 movie of the same name - a movie that I wasn't especially blown away by so I went into this wondering why a remake was called for. But this is one of those rare remakes that are substantially better than the original. I particularly liked the hybrid idea. In the original movie we got a rather silly concept of a human with a fly's head and a fly with a human's head. Splicing them together as one creature was a good move, and created an increasing "creepiness" as Brundle gradually transforms. Genna Davis was pretty good as Veronica, the reporter who wants Brundle's story and then falls in love with him, but it really was Goldblum who made this work.
David Cronenberg directed. I've not been an especially big fan of Cronenberg's style over the years - and at times this is very much an Cronenberg-style movie - but I would say that of the Cronenberg movies I've seen, this may well be the strongest. It's a good, suspenseful and at times truly creepy movie. (7/10)