Many reviewers and casual cinema-goers alike have complained about being put off by this film’s dated CGI and hackneyed story-line. To the contrary, I was quite intrigued by the film’s premise and was excited seeing the film’s early and revolutionary use of computer graphics used for the still-novel concept of virtual reality.
The film’s plot is essentially that of a modernized Frankenstein’s transplanted into the burgeoning virtual reality cyber-culture of the early 1990s. Seeing this film for the first time, I was shocked at some of the ideas introduced into this film, especially considering it was 1992 (even disregarding virtual reality): the evolutionary relationship amongst humans and computers, the ethical dilemmas and repercussions involved with the immediate acceptance of technology into mainstream usage, the digitization of consciousness as a possible segue into immortality… I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to mention that some of the ideas presented here resonate with those of Ray Kurzweil, amongst other futurists and computer theorists. Forget 1992, even today this is some hot new stuff.
The dated effects depicting the VR technology in this movie are still fascinating to watch. Perhaps I’m biased since I’m keenly interested in the evolution of special and digital effects across film history, but watching the often surreal CGI abstractions displayed in this film left me mesmerized considering this stuff came out twenty-five years ago. There is something distinctly artistic about the energetic, free-form CGI in this piece, not at all bounded by the redundant photorealism that all mainstream CGI today seems enslaved to.
Does the movie present these ideas perfectly and seamlessly tie them together by time the credits roll? Well, no. Towards the end of the film the movie spins out of control, to put it lightly, and it tragically hammers in the Hollywood romance subplot without any useful reason for doing so – but as I see them, those are relatively minor complaints compared to what else the film DOES indeed give us: groundbreaking ideas, pioneering and mind-warping visual effects, a novel yet traditional story-line, some heartfelt performances, and purely entertaining scenes that remain distinct to a particular zone of early 90s zeitgeist. Perhaps this film was misunderstood in the pre-Internet days of 1992, but watching it again today it’s clear that this film really sought to grapple with some pretty revolutionary and complex ideas that most studio productions wouldn’t dare touch on today. And for that, I really admire this film.