Saw this one first...

I saw this one first, but recently watched the original because of all the people who say the original is better. I have to disagree on that. I did not care for the original at all. Way too campy. If I saw it in 1987 I might feel differently, but I didn't.

One thing I do agree with that others have pointed out is that it could have been so much better. It was just good enough that it really ticked me off it wasn't better when it so obviously could have been. I think they could have taken the nuance and inner conflict of several of the characters a lot further than they did and it did kind of ruin it. Maybe they should not have characterized it as a re-make and took more license with it than they did. Although they did take a lot.

One thing that really irritates me about sci-fi movies is when the characters do not react to the unrealistic premise in a realistic way. Just because the movie is based on a fantasy that shouldn't mean the characters need to behave unrealistically to the circumstances. The first piece in the movie where I felt like they did this was his first visit with his family. Why was it in their home? Why was no counselor or doctor present? If they could charge him up for a full day of police work why couldn't they charge him up long enough to watch a video with his kid? I have 4 kids and I can't imagine any of them would react like his son did. They would have been thrilled and excited to see him and totally excited and curious about the suit. There would have been a lot of "what does this do?" "What's it like?" The timidity of his son just didn't make sense to me nor did his very timid reaction.

The second issue was the downloading of all the CCTV and police data just minutes before a press conference. That would NEVER have happened. I also don't believe Dr. Norton would have dialed him all the way down in reaction. I'd like to have seen Murphy maybe do something automatically that he had no control of then realize he was not in control. Dr. Norton could then be justified in dialing him down to robot level to keep him under control. They set it up then really didn't do anything with that plot point.

I also found it hard to believe he had full access to his own crime. Maybe download everything EXCEPT details of his own crime or at least believe he had none of that data. Let him find a tiny piece here or there in his memory enough to get curious. Maybe have the partner divulges details to him so that he demands that information.

I thought that Sellars asking Mattox to spy on Dr. Norton was not justified by the circumstances and made it hard to believe. Especially the way Mattox was characterized. This is really the person Sellars would trust? I would like to have seen Dr. Norton maybe conspire with Murphy to give him ALL the data on his own crime scene and Sellars get wind of it. This would make it more reasonable for Sellars to rely on someone like Mattox. I just didn't see Dr. Norton do anything to undermine Sellars to justify the subterfuge the way it was written and the opportunity was staring them in the face.

I think there was a lot of opportunity for more nuance that would have made the story more believable and interesting, but they chose to take the easy road and have characters behave in ways that were just not believable given the circumstances.

They had an all star cast and just really squandered it. It was just good enough to feel like you were in for a real treat and then it slowly started to fall apart as the characters' behavior became more convenient and less believable and for no good reason.