‘Crush’ landing

Johnson Thomas

This recasting of the successful original basically flatters to deceive. One of the actors who played a prominent role in the original, Shane Black, takes on the onus of co-writing and directing this rehash but it’s already 20 years too late and the technological upgrade seen here doesn’t look all that hot and happening. Even though this is meant to be a futuristic saga, it seems a little outdated. The film has a brand new cast, several new monsters and same old basic plotline with none of the thrills that the original could drum up. Despite the technicolor gore, immense blood-letting and resounding body count, this remake doesn’t quite enthuse in the way John McTiernan's muscular ( because Schwarzenegger is a hard nut to replace) 1987 original did.

A kind of interstellar cops and robbers saga, this film has US sniper McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) witness an alien crash-landing while in the process of taking out some narcos. He misses out on nabbing the alien but finds some fallen gear which he sends off to his genius son (Jacob Tremblay) -triggering off a riotous rampage that may never be contained. With more decapitations and pulverisations upping the body count, there’s little room for assuaging sensibilities or providing logic. This is nowhere close to the dark, dense and intense experience that made the original such a big hit. Neither the actors nor the director measures up on that scale. There’s a fair dose of humour, but it doesn’t make up for the lack of originality or suspense here. Henry Jackman’s lively score generates a few likable moments but overall, this one just doesn’t take off the way it should have!