Evolution

Two teachers at a local community college discover a meteor fallen to earth which may contain a growing alien organism. They try to keep it secret, but it isn’t long before the government is all over it and Mulder, oops, I mean the two teachers, must work alongside a goofy teenager and a klutzy scientist in order to get to the bottom of things.

An “okay” movie with some very cool, colorful alien creatures, a few laughs here and there, good performances from its leads, but ultimately nothing to go nuts over. I’m guessing that they were going for a MEN IN BLACK-type of thing here, but this film isn’t as funny or as original as the latter. It does however feature a more interesting mélange of actors. Duchovny playing the straight man to perfection as usual. Orlando Jones finally getting a semi-decent role in which to showcase his obvious comedic talents. Seann William Scott, well, just acting like he does in all of his roles and doing it in a very funny way! And Julianne Moore…good for you, girl, stretching those acting muscles as a goofy scientist. All four worked very well in their respective roles, as well as their camaraderie (especially Duchovny and Jones). In fact, their chemistry is probably the main reason why I wasn’t too bored with the first half of this film, which lacked a certain energy and moved a little too slow, in my opinion. Once the aliens got into the picture (literally), things did jazz up during the film’s second half, but even then, it was never to a point where I was blown away or anything.

The movie also delivers some B-movie elements, like its last 15 minutes, which just screamed THE BLOB and films of that sort. A little blue-screen action was also a little obvious. It’s the kind of movie that you will most likely enjoy while watching and then completely forget about an hour after you leave the theater. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just an observation. It will definitely not crack the pop-culture barometer as GHOSTBUSTERS did all those years ago, but you can certainly do worse with other films playing out there right now (now is that a solid recommendation or what?!? 🙂 The film’s also got some pretty neat “boo” scare moments and even a shot of Duchovny’s ass (God knows that I’ve been waiting years for that!). In the end, I guess that I was expecting a “meatier” script with bigger laughs, more action and more moments of suspense, but ended up with something a little less ambitious. This is a simple movie, with sci-fi and comedic elements mixed within a little story and great performances. Not the best movie that you’ll see this year, but certainly not the worst. Wow…I’m really “selling” this one, eh? Sheesh…what can I say, the film was somewhat entertaining while I was there, but not all that memorable looking back. In others words, it’s a toss-up boys and girls…!

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian