Keanu Reeves, William Gibson, Dystopia and how much is 160 gigs really worth?

Keanu Reeves, what a guy. A more polarizing Sci-Fi icon you'd be hard-pressed to come up with. Equally revered and condemned for his role as Neo in the Matrix Trilogy, his role as Johnny Mnemonic garnered no such critical disagreement: The "thumbs down" icon was far more unanimously entered. A better argument for the "Dislike" button there may never have been.
     Here's where I stand on the issue. I grew up with Bill and Ted as a "running in the background" constant. While "Excellent Adventure" is familiar to many, far less ubiquitous is the sequel, "Bogus Journey" and its foray into the ultra-weird representations of Heaven and Hell. It's awesome and should be required viewing for any would-be theology or anthropology student. Ted "Theodore" Logan is hard for me to turn my back on, so I'll always give Keanu a little bit more credit than he deserves in any given situation.
     Of course, if he doesn't strike some as the savior of the modern Sci-Fi epic, that doesn't surprise me either.
     "Mnemonic" is an intersection of some really interesting elements, all of which I consider important and iconic,  and remains important to me for combining; pre-90's hip-hop founder(Ice-T), 90's pulp action(Dolph), 90's block-buster and future Sci-Fi savant(Keanu), Ninjas, dolphins with fricking lazers on their heads, the girl from Starship Troopers that isn't Denise Richards and, in my opinion, the Godfather of the Matrix itself and father of the modern science fiction paradigm (future dystopia and the emergence of corporation-states) in the form of William Gibson, who wrote the 12 page short story that "Mnemonic" is based on.
     Basically I'm not sure what all the rush to pan this movie was about in the first place. Keanu is...Keanu. You can't expect someone to be something their not. And he is not a thespian. But Dolph Lundgren turns in what is arguably the performance of his career and there are some really killer action sequences. The ninjas get cool future-ninja technology and do some major f-ing shit up! The lazer-garrot is a particularly awesome touch. For a pulpy sci-fi thriller I think this sweet baby delivers on several fronts. Does it do justice to Gibson's "Bridge Trilogy" world? Yes, in a lot of ways, and importantly visually, it does. We are presented with a dichotomy of haves and have-nots that has reached a biblical scale and the forces of greed and technology have long overridden principles of morality and common decency. I appreciate that "Mnemonic" doesn't bash us over the head with this though, we're simply presented with a world that looks really shitty to live in unless you are really, really rich. And lets face it, most of us can agree that from the looks of things we're headed in a direction much like this. The fact that when the leader of the obligatory underground resistance movement is revealed he happens to be a dolphin is enough to make this movie must-see material on my list.
     When I started writing this I meant for it just be a side column in response to CHUD.com's inclusion of "Mnemonic" on its 365 Days of Bad list, but the more I think about it the more important it is for me to defend this movie vision of one of Gibson's works, a rarity for some reason in this world of hastily-optioned comic book and sci-fi studio properties made even more so by the fact that it just isn't terrible. While I'm still thankful that I haven't been subjected to whatever shit-wash FOX or Sony or some such idiot tank will end up dragging "Neuromancer" through, I think that "Mnemonic" offers a pleasant re-creation of Gibson's ideology without destroying conceptions of perfection most people associate with his flagship work. William Gibson, by my count, stands as probably the most important science fiction author since Orwell as far as presenting a hauntingly real possible future scenario. The original short story "Johnny Mnemonic" was probably almost one of Gibson's afterthoughts, an idea that got cut from the final manuscript for "Neuromancer"(it features the feminine anti-hero "Molly" from the "Sprawl" Trilogy) but the movie version expounds nicely on the basic premise and gives Keanu a great space...to further prove the point that no matter how great of a vehicle you place him in, he will try to crash it.
     CHUD.com is running this monologue that Reeves recites to prove that the character and by extension the movie is no good. I think this monologue is a sad testament to the individualist desperation that would likely exist in an economically and socially debased future environment. Without further ado, the infamous "Room Service" speech...



I can safely recommend this movie to anyone who gets satisfaction from anything involving Paul Verhoeven or John Carpenter...and it reaches beyond there as well, although maybe not too far. Its a genre-specific piece for sure but it's up on Netflix Instant right now. So I think when I get back from the New Deal show tonight, I'm gonna cue this sucker up and check out Keanu's flat top from before he knew Kung-Fu.


-Deuces