THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU
A film review by Jack Choo
Copyright 1996 The Flying Inkpot
Directed by : John Frankenheimer Screenplay by : Richard Stanley & Ron Hutchinson (based on the 1896 H.G.Wells Book) Cast : Marlon Brando (Dr. Moreau), Val Kilmer (Montgomery), David Thewlis (Douglas), Fairuza Balk (Aissa), Daniel Rigney (Hyena-Swine), Temuera Morrison (Azazello) Produced by : New Line Cinema Running Time : 1hr 40minutes Rating : ** out of *****
THE CLASSIC STORY & THE PRODUCTION WHICH RUINED IT
Marking the centennial anniversary of the 1896 H.G.Wells classic, New Line Cinema, armed with a stellar cast and expert make-up effects man Stan Winston (Alien, Predator, Terminator etc) churns out yet another Hollywood film based on the classic novel. Of course, the production is no doubt much more superior compared to the earlier 2 movies, one of which was made back in the 1933 and the other in the 1977, under the title THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (sounds like a much better title..).
The story begins with Edward Douglas (Thewlis), a UN representative sent to oversee a peace treaty somewhere in the south pacific, who is saved from the brink of death by Montgomery (Kilmer) after his plane crashes into the sea. Douglas soon learns that Montgomery is working for Dr.Moreau, who incidently, owns the island and also a reputable geneticist who has been awarded the Nobel prize. His host's reluctance to allow him to freely move around the island becomes clear when he stumbled into Moreau's lab, when a monstrous birth was in progress. Even worse, the other workers in the lab are not exactly normal "people." Douglas stumbles across yet another shocking discovery when he is led to the beast-people community, which considers Dr.Moreau their maker. Using shock-therapy and the Law, Dr.Moreau has long been able to keep his beast-people civilised to some extent but there are a few animal-men who are just too savage to be controlled.
THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU questions the ability of men playing god. Dr.Moreau is a man obsessed with creating a race of beings which is free from hate and violence...but the savage within every beast is not something one can suppress for long. MOREAU has no doubt a very interesting premise within its grasp. Even so, the production has failed to make the most out of it. There are too many characters to put your attention to and the worst thing is, the characters are not "prioritized" so when the audience is led to believe that a particular character is important, before they know it, he or she or it perishes....rather ungloriously at times too.
Perhaps there is some redemption in the development of the beast people, especially Aissa (Balk), the most human of Moreau's creations. The two very important characters, Montgomery and Dr.Moreau himself receive no development at all and it is in this area that the script fails miserably.
More screen time could have been used for character interaction and development. I really would have liked it better if, say, they delved more into Dr.Moreau's obsession, Montgomery's purpose in the story and justification to as why the beast-people had to rebel. Maybe the nature of the screenplay, which incidently, does not incorporate much action sequences in the film, forced the filmmakers to "cut a long story short" and make it more of an action film than anything else (it's still summer, and movies have to be "marketable"). The special effects too, are really nothing for anyone to shout about. At most, I would say the beast-men looked just a bit more realistic than those apes in PLANET OF THE APES.
This H.G.Wells classic really has potential to be a good film. Unfortunately, after 2 adaptations, they still could not decide on how and what to focus their attention on to really bring out that important message which makes up the entire essence of the story. As a third outing, THE ISLAND OF DR.MOREAU accomplishes little and is nothing more than an inferior version of `THE PLANET OF THE APES'.
The Flying Inkpot Rating System: * Wait for the TV2 broadcast. ** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha! *** Pretty good, bring a friend. **** Amazing, potent stuff. ***** Perfection. See it twice.
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