I actually think the original felt more real. The producers of this film created an impossible system of elevators and highways that could never operate and be maintained, and a colony that seemed ripped out of Blade Runner. Whereas thee colony on Mars may seem, at first, impossible - who knows (especially with
Mars One moving along) what might happen in a hundred years, but what I think is evident was that the creators of the original film did was postulate a plausible human colony and then set chase sequences there, instead of creating environments simply for having good chase sequences.
This film did not have the
personality of the original. Cohagen was a non- character until he appears at the last twenty minutes. Combining Lori and Richter into
Lori did neither character favors, and dispelling Maleena's
real connection to Quaid (not just that he dreamed her, but that he
ordered her in his fantasy) did
her no favors. There was no scene here that was quite as
powerful as Quaid walking into the Last Resort and locking eyes the woman he either created himself or knew from the past.
I also didn't like the fact that Quaid didn't know anything useful. That was this movie's twist, and I didn't like it..
It was enjoyable movie. If that's what it was. It also felt like a bunch video game cut scenes smashed together using the threadbare elements of Total Recall....
Verhoven knew how to combine insane violence, with a future world that resembled our own (to comment on it), good one-liners (I'll be home in time for Corn Flakes") with actual science fiction to create a film that holds up. While a new-age lounge-like Rekall might do the trick for audiences now, somehow the whole
Bob McClaine, Used Memory Salesman really was much
smarter.