Hollow Man

I read the script for this movie several months before it was released and my reaction to it was that it would have spectacular special effects but was otherwise pretty amazingly unoriginal. Now I've seen the movie and my reaction is that it had spectacular special effects but was otherwise pretty amazingly unoriginal. I had a little entertainment value added back when before the movie, a woman sitting right behind me told the person sitting next to her that she didn't think that "the invisible man was going to go around killing people." Irony doesn't get much better than that.

Of course the invisible man does go around killing people. That's why the movie is so wildly unoriginal. So many facets of being invisible were left unexplored in favor of just killing people. Let me back up for a minute before going into that though.

The story centers on brilliant scientist Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon). He is heading up a military funded program to "quantum shift" a person and bring them back. That's a fancy way of saying they want to turn a person invisible and then visible again. Caine's team has long since worked out the invisiblity part and now have an extensive collection of invisible chimps, dogs and a gorilla to show for their efforts. All of these critters are starting to get a bit agitated with their condition.

The project is stuck on the part about restoring visibility. Caine figures it out and this eventually leads to his testing the invisibility process on a human, himself. He quickly does all the things you'd expect, teasing his team of scientists, lurking about and getting cheap feels of women while they sleep.

The fun ends when the process for restoring visibility fails and he is stuck in that state for weeks. He starts to get stir crazy and eventually sneaks out of the lab to have some fun. The power of it makes him a bit loopy and pretty soon he starts developing a plan for keeping his new power.

Okay now let's get back to the complaints. The creepiest thing that could have happened is if Caine escaped into the world while invisible. He would have been nearly impossible to track and could have set about all sorts of mischief. Instead, he decides to try and kill off eveyone attached to the project. This turns what couldn't have been a frightening concept into a mundane slasher flick. There is a basic question to be asked here. Does a person abide by the rules of society if he can't be caught for breaking them? This question is only explored very briefly. It really should have been the centerpiece of the story. Handled well that look at a person's soul could have been really frightening.

Obviously though the special effects are the main reason to go see this. They are truly amazing. The process in which something becomes invisible or visible is extraordinary. It occurs layer by layer instead of all at once. Skin vanishes, showing muscles. Muscles disappear, revealing organs and bone. Organs disappear showing off a full skeleton and then that vanishes. You can expect this movie to be a serious contender for a special effects Oscar. The effects that showed Caine while invisible are similarly impressive. The effects alone make this movie worth seeing.

The early parts of the movie are well done and set the mood nicely. Bacon does a good job with his overly cocky and arrogant scientist. His gravelly voice is put to good use when his character sneaks around unseen. The rest of the cast isn't given much to do other than move the plot along. Elisabeth Shue gets the bulk of the screen time but isn't given much of interest to do other than fight the bad guy.

The bulk of the blame for the movie's problems land firmly on the script. The copy I read was little different from the final movie. The rest of the blame falls on director Paul Verhoeven for not insisting on a rewrite to keep it from becoming a slasher movie. Then again, maybe he wanted a slasher movie with great special effects. If that's the case he had the right script.

I just can't help wishing for something more original and creative though. In the end the movie simply serves as a way to show off some flashy new effects. Don't get me wrong, I loved the effects. I was just hoping for a lot more thought to be put into the story. There are a lot of moments where logic fails to put in an appearance. For instance when Caine first enters his lab, a device on the door reads his thumbprint before he can enter. Later, while invisible, he leaves the compound and returns. How did he get back in? The scanner wouldn't be able to read his thumb if it was invisible. I know it's a minor point but the film is riddled with similar lapses.

So if you want to see images on screen to make your jaw drop, go see it. If you want a slasher flick, go see it. If you want a creepy thriller with a thought provoking look into human nature, don't go to see it.

- John Shea