Evolution (Classic Write-Up Review)

Evolutionary Road

I think we take for granted how complex comedy is as an artform, especially quality comedy. Edgar Wright populates his films not only with laughs but also the kind of expert filmmaking that leaves people in awe. Ivan Reitman pulled off a great comedy with Ghostbusters, which also had groundbreaking visual effects and a terrific performance from Bill Murray. Advanced, the 2001 film from Reitman, can only claim being one of the more high-profile projects for Ty Burrel prior to his fame on Modern Family as an accomplishment.

There's numerous factors that blatantly state that Reitman is hoping to recapture the same success of Ghostbusters throughout Evolution, but his failure to obtain that goal can be seen squarely in the primary cast of this movie. The likes of Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson and Dan Aykroyd and their chemistry are nowhere to be seen here, replaced by David Duchovny, Orlando Jones and Sean William Scott. Duchovny, whose vocals in this motion picture sound an awful lot like Jeff Goldblums distinct voice, is stuck with a character whose got no discernible personality to speak of, while Jones is similarly stuck with unexceptional material.

And then there's Sean William Scott, playing a dude whose pretty much got no point to the plot aside from being able to get as firetruck for the epic finale. Considering his character didn't even pass his firefighter exam, I have no idea how he obtained that vehicle, but I guess they needed to justify Scotts involvement here beyond the fact that he was a big deal at the dawn of the 21st century. The slapdash way characters can suddenly acquire firetrucks serves as a strong example of how the overall quality of writing found in Evolution, which puts not terribly funny gags as as priority before compelling characters and internal consistency.

For instance, is there any real need for a sequence depicting Duchovny, Jones and Scott singing Play That Funky Music for nearly two minutes after killing a dragon? It's not hilarious, it doesn't further character arcs, so...what's the point? There's a similar lack of effort put into the designs of the various creatures the characters encounter in this adventure. As the title implies, the numerous creepy-crawlies in Evolution evolve at a rapid rate, going from being single-cell organisms to soaring dragons in a short span of time.

These beasts are brought to life with CGI that's heavily dated, though some ape like creations seem to be men in suits enhanced with CGI. One or two of these monsters have unique designs, though I've got no idea why the towering creation that has to be defeated in the "epic conclusion" is just a generic worm like entity. It's not a memorable design in any way shape or form, and a more interesting alien likely would have taken the kind of effort that can't found in Evolution.