The Fly (1986)

A short while ago I posted my take on the original The Fly, from 1958. I watched it because my friend noted he had taken in the movie and it was a shame that I've never seen it. So I watched it, enjoyed it, then discovered that same friend actually watched the remake starring Jeff Goldblum, so I had to follow suit.

Goldblum is a bit of a master of playing the brilliantly weird; my first exposure to him was in Jurassic Park. It's quite apparent the previous work he was channeling with the dinosaurs. His transformation is fantastic; at first he's powered up and loving it, but slowly things start coming apart. The way he tries to save himself is brilliant too: he's not thinking clearly. Obviously, if you found out that a fly's genes have been spliced into your own and is slowly taking over, you would find a way to undo it, but his mind goes in the opposite direction. He wants to combine more human into himself, pushing the fly out completely. Obviously this would create all sorts of problems, but perhaps it's the fly thinking here. At one point he tries to lure a woman into one of the tele-pods, unsuccessfully, but the curiosity is there on what would happen if he was successful. And we almost get there too, with a surprise pregnancy which most assuredly would result in a magnificent, stable fly-human hybrid.

Am I becoming a hundred-and-eight-five pound fly? No, I'm becoming something that never existed before. I'm becoming...Brundlefly. Don't you think that's worth a Nobel Prize or two?

Suffice to say, I was very pleased. Whereas the original was slow, plodding and focused on the shocking reveal of a half-man half-fly creation, the modern film focuses on the slow, gradual takeover of the scientist's body as he morphs into a fly. Certainly, the special effects allow for much more, and I wonder if the original film would go down this route if technically possible. But, they are completely different beasts, and if I had to choose it would easily be the modern version as the better. It was less a mystery and more of a thriller, with a more intriguing story and quite frankly, infinitely more interesting characters. The science fiction was heavier too and much more appreciated. I guess they weren't really testing the waters of what they could get away with here, as the path had been well traversed before.

And to top it all off, the fly names himself "Brundlefly." That's brilliant. I love his interaction with the computer responsible for controlling the teleportation. He speaks to it at times, it recognizes but he goes back to typing quickly enough. He understands and tells us computers are dumb: only as smart as what we tell them. In my line of business it's a wish we have that more people understood that. The dialogue is fantastic, the love story is perfectly placed next to the horror act, and the special effects - again - are quite good. In an age where most remakes of classics are absolutely terrible, this one really shines.