Review // EDGE OF DARKNESS - The return of mean Mel

[Update, July 17th-- Okay, a lot has changed since I posted this review. Mel got meaner, crazier and racistyer. The phone tapes that have been trickling out day after day featuring him screaming "whore! cunt! golddigger!" have almost certainly ended his career. But what they've also done is enliven and enrich the experience of watching or re-watching practically every Mel Gibson movie. It'll be virtually impossible to see him pointing a gun and screaming at a bad guy without hearing him shouting, "I NEED A WOMAN! NOT A LITTLE GIRL WITH A DYSFUNCTIONAL CUNT!". True, this likely means that the Road Warrior is now forever ruined. But on the bright side, Forever Young is probably watchable now! Also What Women Want just took on an eerie new meaning. Enjoy! -- Onions]

I'm not going to get into this one too deeply since I wrote a rather lengthy thing on the original BBC miniseries this is based on. I will say that I was very excited for this, Mel Gibson's return to shooting people and barking angrily. However, I knew there was very little hope that Edge of Darkness the 2 hour Hollywood movie could in any way top, or even match Edge of Darkness the 6 hour miniseries, and would likely provide few thrills beyond Gibson's macho homecoming.

The story is transplanted from mid-80's Yorkshire to present day Boston. This is silly for two reasons. One, nuclear power is not quite the hot button issue as it was in the 80's, so the remake skews it a little more toward secret weapons contracts yadda yadda, but it doesn't have quite the same bite as the original. And two, I don't understand why an embattled, fading icon like Gibson would choose to saddle his return to acting with a Boston accent. Of course, I don't get why an embattled, fading icon who has hundreds of millions of Jesus dollars would even want to return to acting, but I will never profess to know the thoughts of rich people. While the last half-decade has seen Mel Gibson become tabloid fodder and a pop culture pariah, he still has the clout to tell workman director Martin Campbell (who is unwisely remaking his own brilliant miniseries) that the movie should take place somewhere that doesn't require a regional accent. It seems that Mel was trying to challenge himself. His Boston accent is obviously a little distracting, but he mostly gets away with it and it recedes into the background, letting the films other shortcomings take center stage. The fact that this movie isn't all that great is not Mel Gibson's fault, so there's that.

Remakes, reboots and re-imaginings have defined Hollywood in the 2000's for better or worse (hint: for worse). What is so striking and maddening about this phenomenon is that in almost every case the remake/reboot/re-imagining is not in any way better or even equal to the original. These films are Hollywood's microwaved leftovers--they have no nutritional value and are often hot on the outside and stone cold in the middle. The motivations for taking on such creatively bankrupt projects becomes even more puzzling and difficult to understand when its the same director remaking his own work. No, Mel Gibson does not kiss the dildo, but that's not the only thing missing from this Edge of Darkness remake. Tons of other powerful elements, interesting plot twists and even super cool set pieces (underground shootout in a nuclear irradiated cave system anyone?) are omitted in order to squeeze down into 2 hours. Campbell had to know from the get-go that this newer version was going to be supremely lacking in comparison to his original. How do you even get out of the bed in the morning and go to work knowing that? Oh yeah, lots of money.

Screenwriter William Monahan, whom by all accounts is high-rolling, Hollywood hot-shit, is here again adapting an original work by somebody else as he did with The Departed. Wanna know what else Monhan's Edge of Darkness re-working shares with The Departed? The last ten minutes consists of everyone getting shot in the head. Getting shot in the head is officially Monhan's signature and with no fewer than 10 projects listed as "in development" on his IMDB page, I would expect a lot more head-shots to come. Okay, I've got all these thin, unlikeable characters hanging around and it's the end of the third act, what should I do? Bingo! Shoot 'em all in the head! That's some gritty shit!

I will say that I was mildly entertained in the moments when Mel is letting his righteous fury bubble to the surface, or directing it outward with bullets. But it wasn't enough to overcome the rest of this remakes laziness. It's a pale, dim reflection of the original. Why the fuck won't Mel Gibson return to Mad Max with George Miller, but he'll do four Lethal Weapons and lukewarm shit like this?