Hollow, but just missed being trashy

I debated for quite some time as to whether to award this film a two star or a three star rating. In the end, I decided to give it a three star. The special effects in the movie sealed the matter.

The premise of this movie is wonderful: what terrifying powers man can wield if no one can see him? The implementation, however, falls short.

It starts off well enough, with the portrayal of Kevin Bacon as a scientist on the verge of making a great breakthrough --- that of successfully making someone invisible, and then turning him visible again. They show Kevin Bacon as a smart and self-centered scientist, smug in the knowledge that he knows best, secure that no one else can come anywhere close to him. A ruthless, cold blooded man, and arrogant and sarcastic to boot.

So he finally makes the breakthrough, tries it out successfully on a bunch of primates. He then decides to move on to the next phase --- trying it on humans. He volunteers for the project himself. And becomes invisible.

Alright. So good so far. Problems however, arise when its time to bring him back. It seems that the reaction which worked on primates does not work with human DNA. So Mr. Bacon is invisible, with no way to make him visible again.

While the other project members are busy trying to figure out a way to crack the DNA code, Mr. Bacon decides to enjoy himself. He breaks orders and goes out, an unreal man in a real world. And starts playing around with people. He becomes so intoxicated with his powers that he decides that maybe it would be best to stay this way, maybe it would be best to never turn visible again. Never lose the power of which he has had a taste. And to go about his objective, to ensure that his discovery remains a secret, he decides to kill all of the other team members, so that word of this discovery does not spread.

The inevitable Big Fight (c) follows, where the bad guy, after almost winning, somehow manages to lose and die anyway.

Predictable? Yes. Boring? Slightly, towards the end. Why then has it gotten three stars? The special effects. They are good. There are lots of small things that stand out, especially one incident when he washes his face. You can see the water mould itself into the pattern of his features in thin air, and then fall off. There are lots of other such scenes that are visually striking.

They could have made this film so much better. The thing that they've done wrong, is that they have not focused much on what terror and havoc an invisible man can cause. Infact, the only thing that our invisible friend does is spy on women while they are undressing. I mean really. Would I spy on naked women if I were invisible? Sure. For the first few days atleast. But then I'd move on to other, more exciting things. Like robbing a bank or two, say.

There are so many things that an invisible man could possibly do. Sadly the film just "hints" at these things, leaving it to the viewers imagination.

Kevin Bacon's acting is good. For the brief twenty minutes or so that he is actually "visible" in the film, he does a good job. As for the others, well, you don't really notice them. At least they don't act bad.

So much could have been possible. The director, Paul Verhoeven, had an empty slate, full of possibilities to work on. Yet so little was actually done. Like one of my friends said as she was coming out of the movie hall....

"IT WAS A GOOD TRY"