Virtuosity (1995)
Over-dramatic techno-thrillers like this were all the rage in the 90’s. Nowadays they’re pretty cringeworthy and maybe for an unfair reason. Our relationship with technology has changed dramatically over the last 20 years: We generally want more sustainability, accountability, and respect with our technology, if anything to avoid our computers to start running around in the streets with guns and ideas of their own.
Sadly, this is the case in Virtuosity. Ex-cop Barnes must face off a crazy computer program adorned with a humanoid body and embedded with different personalities – one of whom killed Barnes’ family, destroyed their career and catapulted them into prison. With the police at a loss, it is up to him to face the deranged killer, stop the fucker from killing even more people, and maybe retrieve a normal life in the process.
While routinely dabbling in subjects of crime and technology, the theme of the play is animosity – specifically that of Barnes and his taunting nemesis. Crowe puts on a thorough and excellent job of this, leaping from one insane state of mind to the next; while the unsmiling Washington only appears determined and resentful, robotic and stunned to his counterpart in comparison.
There’s further irony as the story uses the antagonist to exploits flaws in human society. Unlike the stone cold Terminator, this artificial intelligence is narcissistic and eccentric, exploiting and perhaps even criticizing popular television as an influence. For instance, when it hijacks a TV station, kills the staff and puts on its own show, ratings skyrocket!
These interesting discussions and the rest are cut short by the film’s taste for underwhelming fight scenes, crappy story-lining and also an irritatingly intrusive overblown score. The racy and constant editing burdens the perspective of any scene, and the heavy orchestral booming is especially overblown, annoying and tedious.
Possibly the most lacking area is the inability for the script to convincingly generate people capable of choices. Though almost reaching a display of legendary unison between evil and goodness, where both are represented by individuals and neither far apart, instead all the humans are stale, contrived, and predictable against the mad AI. Strangely, it’s that who seemed to be the most human after all.
4/10
Possession Media 