Subject: REVIEW: THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (1996)

From: [email-masked] (Jack Choo)
Date: 10 Sep 1996 18:08:37 GMT

THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU
                           A film review by Jack Choo
                        Copyright 1996 The Flying Inkpot

Directed by : John Frankenheimer 
Screenplay by : Richard Stanley & Ron Hutchinson
(based on the 1896 H.G.Wells Book)
Cast : Marlon Brando (Dr. Moreau),   Val Kilmer (Montgomery),   David Thewlis 
(Douglas),  Fairuza Balk (Aissa), Daniel Rigney (Hyena-Swine),  Temuera Morrison 
(Azazello)
Produced by : New Line Cinema
Running Time : 1hr 40minutes
Rating : ** out of *****

THE CLASSIC STORY & THE PRODUCTION WHICH RUINED IT
 
Marking the centennial anniversary of the 1896 H.G.Wells classic, New
Line Cinema, armed with a stellar cast and expert make-up effects man
Stan Winston (Alien, Predator, Terminator etc) churns out yet another
Hollywood film based on the classic novel. Of course, the production is
no doubt much more superior compared to the earlier 2 movies, one of
which was made back in the 1933 and the other in the 1977, under the
title THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (sounds like a much better title..).

The story begins with Edward Douglas (Thewlis), a UN representative sent
to oversee a peace treaty somewhere in the south pacific, who is saved
from the brink of death by Montgomery (Kilmer) after his plane crashes
into the sea. Douglas soon learns that Montgomery is working for
Dr.Moreau, who incidently, owns the island and also a reputable
geneticist who has been awarded the Nobel prize. His host's reluctance
to allow him to freely move around the island becomes clear when he
stumbled into Moreau's lab, when a monstrous birth was in progress. Even
worse, the other workers in the lab are not exactly normal "people."
Douglas stumbles across yet another shocking discovery when he is led to
the beast-people community, which considers Dr.Moreau their maker. Using
shock-therapy and the Law, Dr.Moreau has long been able to keep his
beast-people civilised to some extent but there are a few animal-men who
are just too savage to be controlled.

THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU questions the ability of men playing god.
Dr.Moreau is a man obsessed with creating a race of beings which is free
from hate and violence...but the savage within every beast is not
something one can suppress for long. MOREAU has no doubt a very
interesting premise within its grasp. Even so, the production has failed
to make the most out of it. There are too many characters to put your
attention to and the worst thing is, the characters are not
"prioritized" so when the audience is led to believe that a particular
character is important, before they know it, he or she or it
perishes....rather ungloriously at times too.

Perhaps there is some redemption in the development of the beast people,
especially Aissa (Balk), the most human of Moreau's creations. The two
very important characters, Montgomery and Dr.Moreau himself receive no
development at all and it is in this area that the script fails
miserably.

More screen time could have been used for character interaction and
development. I really would have liked it better if, say, they delved
more into Dr.Moreau's obsession, Montgomery's purpose in the story and
justification to as why the beast-people had to rebel. Maybe the nature
of the screenplay, which incidently, does not incorporate much action
sequences in the film, forced the filmmakers to  "cut a long story
short"  and make it more of an action film than anything else (it's
still summer, and movies have to be "marketable"). The special effects
too, are really nothing for anyone to shout about. At most, I would say
the beast-men looked just a bit more realistic than those apes in PLANET
OF THE APES.

This H.G.Wells classic really has potential to be a good film.
Unfortunately, after 2 adaptations, they still could not decide on how
and what to focus their attention on to really bring out that important
message which makes up the entire essence of the story. As a third
outing, THE ISLAND OF DR.MOREAU accomplishes little and is nothing more
than an inferior version of `THE PLANET OF THE APES'. <p>

The Flying Inkpot Rating System:
* Wait for the TV2 broadcast.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha!
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.

____________________________________________________________ 
This movie review was written for THE FLYING INKPOT, the 
Singaporean zine that dares to say "Bok." For a spanking 
good time, visit THE FLYING INKPOT at <http://bizdir.com.sg/inkpot/>
____________________________________________________________