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| Who Weekly, 23 June 2001 |
| The X-Smiles Fox Mulder meets Clarice Starling in the pointless and puerile alien-invasion comedy Evolution. By Andiee Paviour If I was a giant, nasty, alien bird in a department store, where would I be?" No, it's not a rhetorical question. It is, in fact, a question posed by an only slightly frazzled David Duchovny (as disgraced dovernment scientist turned Arizona college teacher Ira Kane) around one hour into this wipe-out from director Ivan Reitman (Ghostbuster). The Evolution plot - which makes The X-Files look like a reasonably credible science thesis - grinds into first gear (from which it barely shifts) with the crash landing in the Arizona desert of an alien-gunk infested meteorite. Discovered by Dr Ira and garrulous college Geology prof Harry (Orlando Jones), the gunk proceeds to mutate at alarming speed into a Men in Black-style assortment of extraterrestrial critters - and those babies mean business. The laughs, such as they are (or not), come courtesy of Dr Ira and his wacky associates; wise cracking Harry, would-be-firefighter Wayne (Seann William Scott) and stumblebum epidemiologist Allison (Julianne Moore - what are you doing here??). The ever-evolving invaders are supposed to up the tension ante with their ferocious rampaging but none of it comes together: the Creature Feature quotient is old-hat and the daffy factor tanks. An obvious danger, expansion-wise, for any actor in a successful television series in a successful televeision series is an ongoing association with the character he has played. It's easy to find a post-X-Files Duchovny's muted attitude wasnting, but the fact is that Fox Mulder word that 'tude like a well-cut suit. If Duchovny seems uncomfortable in skivvies (and God knows, the alien-themed material doesn't help), it could be because we, his audience, are uncomfortable with his own evolution. Or could it just be that such derivative twaddle as this reduces everyone involved in it to green-screen support places for inflated special effects. Grade: C |
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