Cast: David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, Ted Levine
Director: Ivan Reitman
Producers: Daniel Goldberg, Joe Medjuck, Ivan Reitman
Screenplay: David Diamond & David Weissman and Don Jakoby
Cinematography: Michael Chapman
Music: John Powell
U.S. Distributor: Dreamworks
The theory and intent behind Evolution were to mine the same rich vein of science fiction satire/comedy ore previously tapped into by the wildly successful Men In Black. Unfortunately, in execution, Evolution missed the mark, instead drilling into the profitless ground already pitted and blasted by Tim Burton's disappointing Mars Attacks! Despite a seemingly winning premise and a marquee laugh-generating director (Ivan Reitman, who helmed Ghostbusters), Evolution is dull and stillborn, taking almost no chances and relying overmuch upon cheesy special effects.
David Duchovny (late of "The X-Files") and Orlando Jones play a pair of college professors, Ira Kane and Harry Block, who are called to investigate when a meteor fragment crash-lands in the Arizona desert. Samples taken back to their lab for analysis reveal that the meteor has deposited countless numbers of a one-celled life form on our planet. The thing is, they're not staying as single-celled organisms; they're evolving, and doing so rapidly. The military, led by General Woodman (Ted Levine) and Dr. Allison Reed (Julianne Moore), arrives to take over, blocking Ira and Harry from access to the meteor. Woodman ignores their warnings of dire global consequences if the alien evolution is allowed to continue unchecked, but Allison is concerned that they may be right. So, without any official aid, Ira and Harry, joined by slacker Wayne Green (Seann William Scott), form a kind of anti-alien posse. Unfortunately, they're outmanned and outnumbered - until they discover a secret weapon.
If it embraced campiness more willingly, Evolution could have served as an homage to the once-popular genre of Japanese monster movies. It has a lot of the same elements. Sadly, although the movie isn't intended to be taken too seriously, the humor is more lame than funny, and the ratio of jokes that work to those that fall flat is embarrassingly low. The script is not entirely without its clever moments (there's a sly nod to "The X-Files" and a reference to the frequent fate of black characters in science fiction/horror films), but I expected a lot more. The energy level is at a low ebb; no one seems to be having much fun. And, because the PG-13 rating must be preserved at all costs, the lone attempt to push the envelope is a "gag" that only a proctologist is likely to find more amusing than uncomfortable.
Few will deny that a comedy works better if you like the characters. Here, instead of individuals, we have stick figures that look like people. It doesn't help that not all of the roles are effectively cast. Duchovny, for all of the charisma and likablity he exuded in Return to Me, is wrong for Ira. His laid back, low key portrayal causes his character to fade repeatedly into the background. He's boring; the only time he shows signs of a pulse are during his semi-romantic encounters with Julianne Moore. Moore, by the way, is tragically underused. Despite her high billing, she doesn't have much screen time. Jones is supposed to be on board for comedic purposes, but his antics seem forced, and there's no sense of chemistry between him and Duchovny. Meanwhile, Seann William Scott looks out of place without a bunch of drunk college-age students to surround him.
As far a product placement goes, Head & Shoulders shampoo gets more exposure in Evolution than it could in a dozen TV commercials. In what is arguably the film's most effective joke, Reitman acknowledges that he may have gone a little overboard in this area. If more of the movie had possessed the moxie of that scene, Evolution might have been salvageable.
These days, the level of special effects has gotten to the point where the only time a computer generated visual is worthy of notice is when it's bad. The effects work during Evolution's climax looks like it was lifted out of one of those Japanese monster movies. It's clumsy and inept. If I thought for a moment this was intentional, I might be tempted to call it ingenious, but there's no contextual evidence that's the case. In fact, Reitman seems to want us to take things half-seriously. He includes too much in the way of plot, but, instead of enriching the movie, the storyline emasculates the humor and leaves the audience wondering if Hollywood has already been taken over by aliens who are trying to numb our minds with mediocre films like this one.
© 2001 James Berardinelli