Gattaca (1997) Spoiler-Filled Rant/Review: A Fantastic Concept Completely Wasted For A Conventional Blunder

Another rant review this week? Yep, this week has back-to-back spoiler-filled reviews as the core issues of these films were mainly by the story. "Gattaca" was a box-office bomb back in its initial release, but critics and fans began to praise it as an underrated classic. I had no expectations when watching this, but man, was I surprised by all of the hair-pulling mistakes and missed potential from the film. Although there are some positives to note, they are just overshadowed by the overwhelming negatives that it makes this film one that I wouldn't be eager to rewatch anytime soon...

Positives:

• The concept behind the futuristic world, which is practically why this film is considered as remarkable or intellectually charged. In the future, people can be born by natural means or by biometrical means, allowing those born in a lab to be a perfect human with the potential to live longer and having a lack of health problems. This in turn leads to a prejudice in the job market where some careers such as space aviation has a mandatory checklist where an employee needs to be valid/genetically modified, while in-valids/naturally born people have to make do with lower-level jobs and defects. This is a great premise and one that writer and director Andrew Niccol should be proud of creating, as it could be the basis for a fantastic story that can be centred on society. However, as we get to the negatives, it's quite easy to realize that this concept gets wasted by the story that Niccol has written.
• The production design. The film has some great sets and designs of the interiors and exteriors. The future being portrayed feels real as it's not a huge gap of technological advancement, but the world is starting to transition to it with both a mix of new and old technology.
• The score by Michael Nyman. It's good, but is generally overhyped by the fans. It does fit the film, but similarly to "Blade Runner", I'm not going to be remembering it much.
• Jude Law's Jerome Morrow. He's basically the best character in the film. Not only does Law's performance has way more emotion than everyone else in the film, but I did get into the tragic figure and attempting to play the role that Vincent has established his identity as. I also felt that the chemistry between him and Vincent was much stronger than the romantic lead that the two should have had a gay romance. I'm not a fan though of his suicide at the end of the film, as it feels rather forced for some metaphorical conclusion.

Negatives:

• Where do I begin with the negatives? Well, let's talk about the story. The film follows Vincent, an in-valid who has a valid brother. He grows up, wanting to go to space, which is impossible given his in-valid status and his "heart condition". He is then offered to pose as a valid by using Jerome Morrow's identity. As the day where Vincent can go up to space approaches, a murder occurs and a DNA sample of his was found in the area. Vincent has to evade capture until he is allowed to leave Earth. There's more wrong with the story as we go into it, but what exactly is the problem of this premise? Well, the concept about valid vs in-valid goes completely wasted. Vincent has a dispute with his brother, which completely disappears until the end of the film in an unearned scene. The sibling relationship should be the entire centrepiece of the film and theme. Vincent taking over Jerome's identity isn't seen as a questionable ethnic choice. In fact, Vincent never shows any remorse hiding his identity or lying to himself, which doesn't work for this type of film dealing with prejudice. Vincent is supposed to be weaker than valid specimens, but he manages to beat his brother by the end of the film for no reason other than to give the idea that probability can be proven wrong. There's never truly a scene of Vincent confronting the system or getting angry at society, because Vincent, as we will discuss later, is a fundamentally awful character.
• The murder mystery sub-plot. The guy who was murdered was the mission director who literally everyone hated, since he was going to cut funds for the mission. We only see this guy in one scene before he's killed and Vincent is the prime suspect as an in-valid is most likely going to kill someone than a valid. However, Vincent can somehow pass every DNA test that the detectives give him as the detectives themselves are probably the dumbest I've seen in a movie. There's a scene where Vincent has to get a saliva and blood test at a vehicle checkpoint. Because his saliva will get him caught, he somehow convinces the police not to take a saliva test and they let him pass! When all of the employees are forced to get a blood test, Vincent appears to be the only one to freak out during the test and spills his "blood", which is very suspicious. When he flees from a restaurant, he knocks out a cop while his love interest is screaming his name, which would be enough evidence for said cop to inform his superiors. There's even a scene where a detective confronts the real Jerome and is surprised to see him in a wheelchair, given his employment. This detective never thought of exposing Vincent as he is clearly never in a wheelchair. I understand that all of these close-calls are meant to drive suspense, but it's obvious that Vincent never killed anyone and the worst he can face is being fired from the company. Having him arrested would also be a moment of opportunity for him to rant about society and his prejudice in the workforce and such, but this never happens. As for who really murdered the mission director, it turns out to be the other mission director who not only appears in like two scenes, but is dismissed because he states that as a valid, he can't kill anyone. What's so stupid about this reveal is that the film barely gives you enough dialogue to say that it was this guy the entire time and not even a scene where he is arrested. The whole murder mystery story is just a complete waste of time.
• Uma Thurman's Irene. This is probably the worse love interest I have seen in a movie by far. She just takes up interest to Vincent very quickly in the film and doesn't have a character other than that she loves him. Remember that scene I mentioned where Vincent beats up the cop? Well, Irene witnesses this and rather than run away from him, has sex with him at her place before even asking if he was even guilty of the murder. Like, what?!? The moment where she feels "heartbroken" by him when she finds out that he's sharing someone's identity makes no sense as she clearly didn't give a shit when he beat up the cop or might be involved in a murder, but apparently pretending to be someone else is a no-no? And of course, they make up by the end and continue their relationship. Irene is a love interest for the sake of having a love interest.
• The acting in general. Although Jude Law does a good job, Ethan Hawke and Thurman are just awful. The problem is that they mostly have this stilted, monotone acting that makes them robotic in a way. I get it if the valids are designed to speak like this, but Vincent also acts like this. I know someone can say that he has to act like this in order to blend in, but having a bunch of actors being stiff and cold causes you to not get engaged in them as they don't feel human at all. Hawke at times does get some emotion out, but the character of Vincent is written to not really have a distinct personality. If Vincent was characterized to be more shy, nervous or even humorous, it adds to the character's humanity of being an in-valid. However, Vincent might as well be a valid if he acts and is portrayed to be a husk of a shell.
• Andrew Niccol's directing. This was the first film he's made and it clearly shows. That's not to say that he's a horrible director as there are some nice visuals, but you can tell that he's inexperienced and seems to forget how to make coherent storytelling. There's a scene where Vincent and Irene are talking and she gives him a hair in order for him to see her defects. Vincent then says that the wind caught it, which is supposed to show that he doesn't care about what health issues she carries. However, the shot clearly shows the hair being in his hand still, even though we see the hair on the ground afterwards. What's weird is that this scene is replicated by the end where Vincent gives Irene his hair and Irene repeats the same line. However, we actually get a shot of her dropping the hair, whereas Niccol simply forgot to do that earlier. This also reflects in how he doesn't give enough details to the visual storytelling of the film. The way the murder mystery is solved is shot as if they make it seem that the murder was in fact a suicide. Niccol also likes to add characters who appear in one scene and have an unearned payoff at the end such as the mission director or the guy who lets Vincent go on the spaceship. If someone had no audio to watch the movie, that person wouldn't understand what's going on, mainly because a lot of the film has Niccol telling the audience what's going on, rather than visually showing the audience. On top of that, the lighting and day time scenes of the world are just ugly. I know Vincent says that he wants to leave the planet, but unless the world is an apocalyptic wasteland, the bright sunny days shouldn't be this unappealing to look at.
• The ending. After the murder mystery is wrapped up and Vincent beats his brother at his game, he finally leaves to go to space. After he fails the blood test, the guy in charge lets him go because they literally shared one scene at the beginning. As the ship blasts off, the real Jerome kills himself for no real reason, other than to serve a metaphorical conclusion for his character. The main issue with this ending is that the film could actually have been much better if they just did one thing at this moment, which is to have Vincent die instead of Jerome. The beginning of the movie states that Vincent is most likely going to die by thirty from a heart condition. Heck, even his parents tells him that going into space would result in his death. However, because the film doesn't want to show any real flaws with Vincent or in-valids, Vincent doesn't die at the end of the movie. Not only was his death clearly established in the beginning, but his death can be seen as a bittersweet moment for he has accomplished his dream at the cost of his death. But no, Vincent gets his happy ending. The movie just makes Vincent a fairy-tale princess who gets everything he ever wanted from his dream job, girlfriend, and "proving" the system wrong.

The saddest thing about "Gattaca" is that there was so much untapped potential in the concept. Not only that, but you can tell that they had an ambitious project with Jude Law's dedicated performance, the above-average score by Nyman, and the production design being so good that it was nominated for an Oscar. However, the film felt like it needed a complete rewrite as so many issues arise from the story and characters. From the conventional story that doesn't exactly challenge the viewer, terrible murder mystery, Vincent and Irene being just bad characters and actors, Niccol's amateur directing and lighting, and the ending being way too positive on Vincent's end that it makes you question if he deserved all of his good fortune. It's a really hard film to rewatch as it's not only dull and boring, but it's just painful to see all of the premise being shattered before my eyes.

Verdict: 2.5/10. An awful film that had so much potential to be a classic. A prime example of how a concept alone doesn't equal a fantastic film.