In early 1990s CGI was still too primitive or too expensive to convincingly mimic real life on the big screen. Because of that concept of virtual reality became a convenient way for Hollywood film makers to develop technology by having plots of their films set in crude digital worlds. One of the first and more successful of these was The Lawnmower Man, 1992 science fiction horror film directed by Brett Leonard.
The film is very loosely based on the eponymous short story by Stephen King (actually so loosely that King went to court and had producers remove any mention of his name on the credits). Protagonist, played by Pierce Brosnan, is Dr. Lawrence Angelo is scientist working on virtual reality as a method of enhancing cognitive abilities. Virtual Space Industries, company he works for, has a secret deal with government to use his research for military purposes. When one such experiment with chimpanzees makes its subjects too aggressive and ends in tragedy, Angelo decides instead to use the technology on human subjects. His choice for guinea pig is Jobe Smith (played by Jeff Fahey), intellectually impaired man who works on lawns in Angelo’s neighbourhood. Angelo uses combination of virtual reality simulation and nootropic drugs to gradually improve Jobe’s intelligence. Later, Jobe not only becomes much smarter, but also begins developing telepathic and telekinetic abilities. All that brings attention of sinister government entities, but the real problem for Angelo is Jobe not being able to handle emotions that well. He starts abusing his new powers to retaliate against people who have tormented him and develops megalomaniacal idea that he could rule the world.
The Lawnmower Man is one of those frustrating examples of potentially very good science fiction trying and failing to rise above mediocrity. Apart from trying to exploit the concept of virtual reality, made popular by increased availability of home computers to American teenagers at the time, script by Brett Leonard and Gimel Everett was obviously built on science fiction classics like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Daniel F. Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon. There was even an attempt to speculate how would the emerging technology of online communications and virtual worlds bring both benefits and dangers to humanity. Unfortunately, all that seemingly deep content is buried under horror and conspiracy thriller cliches. What made the film interesting at the time were computer graphics and special effects that took most of the film’s (relatively modest) budget. They were produced by Angel Studios, today’s Rockstar, company known for producing megapopular video games like Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto. Those scenes were quite impressive for the time, but they look awfully dated now, especially in the scenes when Jobe interacts with real life. Even worse is terrible monotonous synthesiser soundtrack by Dan Wyman which makes The Lawnmower Man sound cheaper that it actually is.
The plot and character is almost generic and the conclusion very predictable. Cast isn’t particularly good, especially Pierce Brosnan who actually plays interesting character of well-intentioned scientist who ultimately regrets creating a digital monster; some of his scenes provide terrible overacting that would occasionally future superstar in later stages of his career. Jeff Fahey has more work to do and he does it much better – starting as almost comical simpleton with strange hair and transforming into confident man before he becomes seemingly invincible villain. Some of the supporting players also have good performances – like Jenny Wright in thankless role of a lonely woman who starts relationship with Jobe (and, apart from providing film with some nudity, also appears in one of the first cybersex scenes in history of Hollywood). Fans of Breaking Bad would probably appreciate appearance of Dean Norris who plays director of government agency, whose face is menacingly displayed at huge monitors in company offices.
The Lawnmower Man was mauled by critics but the audience was attracted by novelty of the concept and the film had more than decent box office and home video earnings. In 1996 a significantly less successful sequel was released under title The Lawnmower Man: Beyond Cyberspace. In 2017 Director’s Cut version of the film, with more than half an hour of additional footage, was released, but it didn’t change general impression of the film apart from making it insufferably longer.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
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