TEKWAR A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2000
Good literature, more often than not, tends to turn into bad cinema. This sad state of affairs, however, has more positive side - same creative processes can use bad literature as inspiration for good cinema. One of such example is TEKWAR series of science fiction novels, written by famous Canadian actor William Shatner in 1980s. For many of the critics, those novels were nothing more than the lame excuse for the famous actor to satisfy his vanity or cash in his STAR TREK charisma. Nevertheless, a decade later, those movies inspired brief series of TV films, starting with TEKWAR, directed by Shatner himself in 1994.
The plot takes place in 21st Century, in a world where chemical drugs got replaced with electronic stimulation devices called Tek. Protagonist of the film is Jake Cardigan (played by Craig Evigan), ex-policeman who awakens after four years of cryogenic sleep - punishment for the crime he didn't commit. Cardigan wants to clear his name and bring back the estranged family, so he joins his ex-partner Sid Gomez (played by Eugene Clark) and two of them agree to work for mysterious business tycoon Bascom (played by William Shatner). Their first task is to locate missing scientist whose research might have brought cure to Tek plague. Cardigan would soon have to face powerful forces behind Tek trade, as well as the world that changed beyond recognition.
Since Shatner not only wrote original novel, but also directed this film, the expectations, based on his previous directorial effort work in STAR TREK V, weren't great, to say the least. However, Shatner did rather decent job this time, giving arguments to those who put all the blame for the failure of STAR TREK V on penny- pinching producers instead of actor-director. With more creative control and CGI technology at his disposal, Shatner created quite believable high-tech world of the near future that looks more "cyberpunk" than other better known examples of that still-born movie genre. Shatner contributed this film as an actor too, with his brief appearance as character whose moral alignment remains the mystery until the very end. Fans of the early 1980s pop music might also enjoy the cameo of hardly recognisable Sheena Easton. All in all, TEKWAR looks like rather good TV pilot, which can arouse interests for future sequels, even among those who don't particularly like Shatner, science fiction or cyberpunk.
RATING: 5/10 (++)s
Review written on October 3rd 2000
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax Fido: 2:381/100 E-mail: dragan.antulov@st.tel.hr E-mail: drax@purger.com E-mail: dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr
Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://film.purger.com
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