If you check out my review for the original 1990 Total Recall, you will see that it is a movie I really do love. The 2012 Total Recall remake is one of the worst remakes I have seen. This movie sucks, there is an IMDB review that is titled, No Mars, No Mutants, No Soul, and honestly, that perfectly sums up my feelings on this completely unnecessary remake. I have watched this a few times to try and get something out of it, but I just cannot get into it at all.
How to Download Total Recall (2012)
Total Recall (2012) was released on August 3, 2012. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
When I first heard that they were remaking Total Recall I was not against it right away. Do not get me wrong, there are many movies that I feel do not need to be remade, but I never just dismiss them right away. There are some remakes that I like and a very rare few like Dawn of the Dead that I much prefer to the original. What I am trying to say is that I was willing to give Total Recall a chance.
To be honest, when I saw the cast with Colin Farrell now playing Quaid I thought that sounded good. As well as Colin Farrell there is Bryan Cranston, Jessica Beil, Kate Beckinsale, Bill Nighy, and Bokeem Woodbine. This cast is stacked and to be fair, they all do as good a job as they could with what they were given to work with.
Missing the Essence of the Original
The problem with the 2012 Total Recall remake is that they literally ripped all the soul out of the original. We still have Quaid going in for a fake memory vacation, only to discover that he is really a secret agent who has had his memory wiped. However, there is no Mars this time around and no mutants!
Mars and the mutants are a huge part of what made the original Total Recall so much fun and so memorable. Instead, we have a dystopian Earth with only two habitable zones, one that is wealthy and the other that is not. There is a corrupt guy keeping people down and we have a resistance trying to fight back and make things fair.
A Disappointing Storyline
Look, despite on paper sounding similar to the original movie, the story flat-out sucks! They take some of the elements from the original and I know it sounds crazy, but getting rid of Mars and the mutants makes this movie nowhere near as much fun or as entertaining. It is truly like they just ripped all of the heart and soul that the original movie had right out.
The special effects are pretty good to be fair and you get the impression that the actors really wanted the movie to be good. I have no doubt many of the actors in this were fans of the original and thought that it would be so cool to be in a remake of Total Recall! I would love to know how they feel about the movie now.
Final Thoughts
I have watched the 2012 Total Recall movie three times, I went to see it in the theatre and was not keen at all. However, both times I have watched it on streaming, I have liked it less and less, last time I straight up hated what I was watching. This is a movie that I will go the rest of my life without watching. Stick with the original and do not watch this!
