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Rating: 1 out of 5
One of the most iconic villains in fantasy history is Griffin or simply known as the Invisible Man. The Invisible Man is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. The book centers around Griffin, a scientist who has devoted himself to research into optics. Griffin has invented a way to change the body’s refractive index to that of air so that it neither absorbs nor reflects light. Like all scientists, they play with what they have created. He carries out his procedure on himself and renders himself invisible. The only thing is Griffin can’t change himself back. With his newfound power, he starts doing violence against the population.
Hollow is loosely based on the book. This time around, the movie takes place in the present. Dr. Sebastian Caine (Bacon) is a brilliant doctor molecular biologist who has the world’s most oversized ego. The dude is very much full of himself. He has been working on an invisibility serum for the U.S. military and a serum that will return the subject back to visibility. Sebastian and his team consisting of ex-girlfriend Linda McKay (Shue), Matt Kensington (Brolin), Sarah (Dickens), Janice (Randle), Carter (Grunberg), and Frank (Slotnick), have successfully found the way to turn things invisible like a dog and gorilla. Still, the problem has been bringing them back from invisibility. After four long years, Sebastian manages to perfect the formula and manages to bring back a gorilla. Sebastian wants to do human testing after several successful attempts and decides to use himself as a test subject. The experiment was a success but after weeks, changing back becomes a problem. As time goes go, Sebastian’s mind goes from egotistical to being violent. Now the world must stop a man they cannot see.
The best aspect of this whole movie is the special effects. Have they aged well? Nope, but they are one of the main highlights of the entire film. Watching the gorilla or even Sebastian change is quite impressive. You see everything from the muscles in their body to the veins and then the bones. It was a sight to see, along with the use of having certain elements show Sebastian when he was invisible, like him in the water or throwing blood on him. Those effects were really nice to watch.
Now that we have gotten the good out of the way let’s talk about the bad. Rather than having this updated story that the movie did okay with, it turned the whole thing into a slasher film. Sebastian goes entirely off the rails as he seems to develop some intense anger issues. Yeah, he was an asshole and egotistical, but it seemed like the serum made his mood straight-up sadistic and evil. First, he preys on Sarah and sexually abuses her, and then he rapes his next-door neighbor. She is stunning, but you don’t know if the power went to his head or this is his attitude all along. Then in the last fifteen minutes of the film is just a slasher fest where Sebastian kills almost everyone on his team or against him. It was just mindless violence.
Actually, the story is pretty mindless altogether after learning that the serum doesn’t work. The pacing of the story doesn’t make this movie great. We see the transformation, but after that, it’s either Sebastian staring at us, I don’t feel comfortable, oh wait, this dude likes to kill people and sneak out of the room at night. One second it has a tense feeling where it might give you goosebumps to this shit is pathetic, and I can’t believe I am watching this.
Every actor seemed to have zero direction in this film. I couldn’t tell if Kevin Back wanted to do his Footloose act or be taken seriously for a minor second. Elisabeth Shue is okay. I love me so Elisabeth Shue, but she seemed out of place in this film. She looked good, though. Josh Brolin, before his Thanos days, was okay. He really appeared out of place in this film.
This film should’ve disappeared from sight the second it came out. It couldn’t figure out if it wanted to be a mysterious film, a horror film, or just a film to get some unwanted feelings. Overall, Hollow Man is a film that is hollow inside. It has no substance or even thought behind it. If you are looking for some nice visual effects, then this is the film to look at. Besides that, you might as well make this film disappear altogether.
