Review of Evolution
June 2001

Rarely have I seen the promotions for a film and the experience of seeing the film itself convergence in such a simple perfection as I have in the case of Evolution, and it's quite inadvertent on the part of the studio, I'm sure. Think back to the first teaser-trailer a few months ago, if you happened to see it, right through to the various television and print ads you can see now. If, like me, you found it difficult to get a sense of just what this film is about, and more importantly, its tone, then you've already seen Evolution at its core. You needn't spend the time or the money seeing it.

Ivan Reitman's sci-fi comedy, about micro-organisms from outer space who crash land in the Arizona desert and spawn a plethora of marauding alien creatures and the rag-tag team of academics, military types and random teens who try to stop them, suffers most from the lack of a solid, consistent tone, just as do the ads. Questions left unanswered by the publicity pervade throughout and after the film: is this supposed to be funny and irreverent, like Ghostbusters? Funny but scary and thrilling, like Arachnophobia? Hip and action-packed like Men In Black? Or is it, as the narration of the commercials suggests, supposed to condescend in some vaguely weird way? Just how is one supposed to approach Evolution?

The answer still escapes me, and ultimately, Evolution is most like itself, the quality of uniqueness being negative in this case. It's an exercise in overwhelming mediocrity, at times depending on special effects that aren't very special, plotting whose route seems to depend on detours more than a main road, cliché jokes and jabs nobody needs more of, and a general sense of pandering. And on top of all of that, there's the inconsistent tone.

Reitman returns to the Ghostbusters formula in a number of ways, most notably the odd-ball, outside-the-mainstream academics turned heroes. It's difficult to figure out what Reitman really thinks of academia. On one hand, he places college professors at the center of the action, and makes them privy to scientific knowledge, ignored or misunderstood by the rest of the world (especially the military) so that ultimately they're the only ones who can save the world. But on the other hand, the science placed in their hands is junk, and ultimately the whole affair, unlike Ghostbusters, is one big joke. Surely a film whose resolution of conflict involves injecting a giant blob full of Head and Shoulders shampoo via fire hose is not treating its scientists seriously. Where exactly does that leave the intellectuals--genuine heroes or kooks? Somehow, I question whether Reitman ever distanced himself far enough from the Animal House mentality in order to deal with any other organ of the American university.

Fortunately for the cast, there's no clear strongpoint among them to pin the bulk of the film's success or failure on. Like the group of characters in the story, the acting team has been assembled from an eclectic group with varied backgrounds to form a group without a leader. David Duchovny and Orlando Jones play ostensibly the main characters, a pair of college science professors who first stumble upon the alien life forms. Then there's Julianne Moore as a U.S. military scientist and Seann William Scott, taking another baby step along the away-from-Stifler continuum, assisting Duchovny and Jones.

Each of these actors have yet to open a big-budget film on their own; Jones is still best known for the 7-Up commercials, Duchovny is tied to his history with The X-Files, and Scott has thus far stuck with ensemble comedies aimed at the middle-schoolers. Moore comes from the most impressive body of acting work, through her biggest box-office success, Hannibal, was dependent on many other factors. (And anybody who thinks they're clever for pointing out the fact that I used the words Moore, body and impressive in one sentence--you aren't.) So collectively, the reasoning at Dreamworks must have been, there's enough star power to draw on various key demos to make Evolution a hit. That reasoning was specious, as evidenced by the way the film is being sold.

Moore's character is introduced both in the commercials and the story itself when she holds out her hand to shake Duchovny's and promptly trips over her feet like some kind of damned blond klutz, only she's redheaded. Who's supposed to take her character seriously--both as a woman and as a military scientist rather than as token eye-candy--when Moore's talent is degraded in such a way? The answer is no one.

Then there's Orlando Jones, who we're supposed to believe isn't a token black man in Evolution. But then what's with the line, "I seen this movie--the black dude dies first!" that's in every commercial? Despite the fact that we've heard it at least ten times already, it's pandering and it's lame at this point. That kind of identifier coupled with the fact that Jones is given the responsibility of most of the comic relief points in only one direction. The tokens are collecting rapidly, the third being Scott, who I suppose is the hot young actor who's guaranteed to pull in the 13 and under crowd, hence his presence. I doubt it will work.

Finally, there's our beleaguered X-Files veteran. Likely much will be said about Duchovny's decision to take a leave from The X-Files only to take on a role in a sci-fi film, both by critics and in audience word-of-mouth circles. The actor himself brushed off the X-Files persona issue at an April press junket, saying "I don't sit there and think, you know, I'm Mulder--I've been Mulder for [years]--I don't think of myself that way." Maybe so, but the problem is that most audiences do, and they're far too savvy by now in terms of self-reflexive and inter-textual references to think otherwise. Not that the publicity for Evolution would make it any easier--most of the television ads make no bones about the fact that they've got Fox Mulder starring in this film. The "I know those people" line, in reference to the feds, is the perfect example. Whether he likes it or not, Duchovny has to accept that doing Evolution is a statement about all of it: Mulder, The X-Files, and Duchovny the actor. And ultimately a lot of people are going to wonder why he left the show that made him a star to do a sub-par sci-fi comedy that will exploit his association with The X-Files to no end.

Watch one commercial for Evolution and you'll see the charming X-Files star playing off his Mulder persona, a hip and wise black dude, a hyper-sexed bombshell who has trouble handling stairs, and a sidelined Stifler uttering awestruck, largely monosyllabic one-liners. In others words, Dreamworks will go to any extent to exploit its cast however possible in order to guarantee business. Go ahead and call me cynical, but then go see the movie.

There's a lot more, like the inconsistencies in the way the aliens are handled, the nonsense backstory for Duchovny's character that's thrown in at the wrong time and executed with lameness, and the cameo by Dan Aykroyd as the fatuous governor, but addressing these won't unearth anything positive I can say about Evolution. I can hear the "critics are really meaningless to a film like this--it’s all up the audience" comments coming a mile away. Moviegoers who think their role in the business is being flattered should be warned: you're being sold out as suckers. What the executives are really saying is: audiences are manipulated easily enough so they'll go see it once despite the overwhelmingly negative response from critics who are trying to save them seven or ten bucks, and we'll at least recoup expenses on a film that has turned out to be, in the words of Seann William Scott, "a big loogey." Trust me, you know better.

Reviewed by Rob Morlino for Matinee Magazine