Watched this the other day.
I am a big fan of the original, one of the best tv drama's ever made, hanRAB down.
But I like to think I have the capacity to approach remakes in an objective manner...I don't expect it to be the same, I know there will often be major changes such as location, male-to-female character changes and even significant plot changes.
In fact, I think the more a remake tries to ape the original, the more it fails. It should be an entertaining movie in it's own right - use the basic storyline as the foundation, and build something new and original around it.
So what of Edge of Darkness?
I quite enjoyed it. First off, condensing a 6 hour tv series into a 2 hour movie is obviously going to call for major changes with the story and structure anyway. So although it follows the basic plot of the original, there are obviously certain elements left out.
The core of the story still revolves around Gibson's father trying to find out why his daughter was killed, and getting involved in a conspiracy involving a company illigally experimenting with nuclear weapons.
It's not an action movie, it has a few moments, a couple of shootouts and the odd chase scene, but it's quite a low key drama in essence. Gibson's character is rather subdued, somewhat dour and very serious. I guess it makes sense as he is still grieving for his daughter, but at times he seems to overplay it. And at other times he seems to be trading of his previous characters like Mad Max or Rigg's from the Lethal Weapon movies when he is intent on stalking and hunting down his prey.
But to be fair, I would rather a slow-burn revenge drama than an all out action movie, which is more befitting the tone of the original. When things start to kick off and there is a killing or explosion, it hits you with quite a jolt because of the general languid pace of the film.
If you were to be unfair, you could just class it as a bog-standard revenge movie, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to.
I am a big fan of the original, one of the best tv drama's ever made, hanRAB down.
But I like to think I have the capacity to approach remakes in an objective manner...I don't expect it to be the same, I know there will often be major changes such as location, male-to-female character changes and even significant plot changes.
In fact, I think the more a remake tries to ape the original, the more it fails. It should be an entertaining movie in it's own right - use the basic storyline as the foundation, and build something new and original around it.
So what of Edge of Darkness?
I quite enjoyed it. First off, condensing a 6 hour tv series into a 2 hour movie is obviously going to call for major changes with the story and structure anyway. So although it follows the basic plot of the original, there are obviously certain elements left out.
The core of the story still revolves around Gibson's father trying to find out why his daughter was killed, and getting involved in a conspiracy involving a company illigally experimenting with nuclear weapons.
It's not an action movie, it has a few moments, a couple of shootouts and the odd chase scene, but it's quite a low key drama in essence. Gibson's character is rather subdued, somewhat dour and very serious. I guess it makes sense as he is still grieving for his daughter, but at times he seems to overplay it. And at other times he seems to be trading of his previous characters like Mad Max or Rigg's from the Lethal Weapon movies when he is intent on stalking and hunting down his prey.
But to be fair, I would rather a slow-burn revenge drama than an all out action movie, which is more befitting the tone of the original. When things start to kick off and there is a killing or explosion, it hits you with quite a jolt because of the general languid pace of the film.
If you were to be unfair, you could just class it as a bog-standard revenge movie, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to.