EVE OF DESTRUCTION
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A few interesting ideas are lost in the
mindless action and violence in this less than stellar story
of a distaff "Terminator" with a bomb in her chest. Rating:
-1 (-4 to +4).
EVE OF DESTRUCTION is the sort of science fiction film that nobody minds if you call "sci-fi." It is an action film with a poorly thought-out science fiction premise that happens on a few nice ideas, but generally wastes them. It seems that missiles are not a very subtle way to place a nuclear bomb. Instead, the government is going to use a robot who, short of surgery, cannot be distinguished from an attractive blonde. Inside the robot's chest is a nuclear bomb about the size of a soup can. Inside the robot's head are many of its inventor's memories, experiences, and attitudes. In front of this head is the inventor's face. The inventor is Dr. Eve Simmons and the robot's name is Eve VIII. So the robot really is the Eve of Destruction (get it?). Baghdad would know something was up if we shot a nuclear missile at them, I guess, but would never notice anything strange if a tall, leggy blond walked into town. Eve VIII is being tested- -with full nuclear capability!--in real world situations such as going to the bank. Suddenly she runs into the unexpected, her temporary controller is killed, and she starts running lose in the real world like a female Terminator. She is following instructions programmed into her head but also enjoying new-found toys such as Uzi machine guns. Anti-terrorist Jim McQuade (played by Gregory Hines) and Eve Simmons (played by Renee Soutendijk) must team up to out-fight and out-think the robot.
Nice things could still be done with this idea, but nothing really interesting comes out of it. A little if made of the idea that the woman and the robot will have some of the same thoughts, but mostly it is a contrivance to make the needle a little easier to find in the haystack and at the same time to make it a little more dangerous. Eve VIII takes particular exception to being called "bitch" and always uses it as a trigger to go violent. The audience knows that via repetitions, but Dr. Simmons shows no sign of knowing it. And when late in the film, McQuade seems to know the trigger, we can only conclude that he learned it reading the script.
The robot is made of some material that is not greatly damaged in a seventy-mile-per-hour impact, but still feels real in a slow breast fondle. That's the material rocket scientists have been looking for for years!
There is occasionally a little fun here, but overall the film is mostly for a drive-in-style audience. I rate it a -1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzy!leeper
leeper@mtgzy.att.com
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
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