Terry Gilliam’s 1995 thriller “12 Monkeys†may be one of those obscure ’90s sci-fi movies, but people who have seen it, love it. After almost twenty years of obscurity, Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett decided to turn this obscure film into a TV series on SyFy. While adaptations have a lot to live up to, the first episode of this one has the right idea and just barely misses the mark.
In a post-apocalyptic future, 99% of mankind has been eradicated by a plague. James Cole (Aaron Stanford,) a man with a mysterious past, is sent back in time to find a way to stop this plague from ever happening. Along the way he enlists the help of an ex-doctor Cassandra Railly (Amanda Schull.)
The entire premise smells of “Terminator.†Mankind gets wiped out in a bleak future and someone is sent back in time to make sure it never happens. Only this time it’s with a plague instead of killer robots. Fortunately, the first episode does try to spice things up a bit by not having Railly the main reason Cole is there. Railly is more like an accessory to a bigger plan and she’s not that important.
The only real problem is this show does fall into some of the tropes in the genre. There are rules to time travel that are only explained by saying “it’s complicated,†evil scientists, a time machine that’s not accurate and a main lead (Railly) not coming up with a brilliant excuse as to why she’s in a back alley. (Yes, she does say she was with a man from the future. She’s a doctor. She could’ve said she may have been having some kind of delusion due to severe stress or exhaustion.)
The acting is top notch for the most part. Stanford owns his role as Cole and he steals the show. He takes the character of an on the edge time traveler and makes Michael Biehn’s performance in “Terminator†look like a high school play. Everything from his facial expressions down to his speech patterns make him a joy to watch.
Schull’s performance on the other hand fluctuates from brilliance to “Troll 2†hilariously wooden. It brings the entire tone of the show to a screeching halt whenever Schull forgets how to act properly and tries to camp things up a bit. Fortunately, these lapses in talent are few and far between. Of course, she doesn’t have as much of a presence as Stanford does, but she is not overshadowed that much.
For a TV series made by SyFy, it doesn’t look it. It looks like it was made by a competent studio. The sets look right, the effects don’t look cheap at all and the cinematography is spot on. It makes you forget you’re watching a SyFy show. That there a huge leap in the right direction.
The TV series adaptation of “12 Monkeys†has a lot going for it, but it needs some work done. The acting needs to stay consistent, the story is cliché but has potential to great and it has strong cinematography. It’s a love it or hate it show that has plenty of potential.
Leave a Reply