| By Carol Cling
Review-Journal It stands to reason that a movie called "Hollow Man" would have a hollow ring.
But it's a letdown just the same.
Director Paul Verhoeven's high-tech take on "The Invisible Man," H.G. Wells' classic cautionary tale, boasts stunning special effects that test the outer limits of cinematic creativity.
As usual in this age of digital wonders, however, the creativity stops at the script -- or, more precisely, short of it.
That's not much of a problem for unabashed no-brainers that want only to rock the multiplex with multiple depictions of stuff blowing up real good.
But "Hollow Man" wants to be so much more -- and never figures out a way to get there.
Like Wells' Jack Griffin (played in the memorable 1933 movie version by Claude Rains), "Hollow Man's" Dr. Sebastian Caine (a smarmy, charmless Kevin Bacon) is a scientist obsessed with achieving a life-altering goal.
In Caine's case, it's a Pentagon-funded, top-secret project to find a way to render humans invisible -- and then reverse the process -- at will.
Thus far, Caine's experimental procedure has worked with a wide range of animals, from dogs to gorillas -- although the phase-shifting serum does seem to heighten hostility and aggression in the test subjects. (But who wouldn't feel testy after repeated injections of a formula that makes its subjects invisible to everyone not wearing thermographic goggles?)
Accompanying the megalomaniac Caine on his scientific odyssey: scientists Linda McKay (a coy, mechanical Elisabeth Shue), Caine's ex-flame, and Matthew Kensington (hunky Josh Brolin); a contrary veterinarian (starchy Kim Dickens); a laid-back lab technician ("Felicity" regular Greg Grunberg); a witty computer whiz (Las Vegas' own Joey Slotnick, a Rainbow Company alumnus best known for his co-starring stint on TV's "The Single Guy") and his data analyst (Broadway's Mary Randle).
Despite their collective breakthroughs, Caine remains impatient to get to the ultimate stage of his research: human experimentation. And to speed up the process, he appoints himself as the first human guinea pig.
Except that reversing his own vanishing act proves an insurmountable challenge for his team -- leaving Caine trapped in the cloak of invisibility he's created.
So far, so good -- as Verhoeven, director of photography Jost Vacano (marking his seventh collaboration with Verhoeven), production designer Allan Cameron (in his third) and senior visual effects supervisor Scott E. Anderson (an Oscar-winner for "Babe" and a veteran of Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers") serve up a dazzling display of visual tricks that promise more ingenious twists, in which the driven Caine will confront his own inability to cope with invisibility.
At least that's what we're waiting for.
After all, writers from the aforementioned Wells to the Brothers Grimm have exploited humanity's fascination with magical invisibility -- not only the freedom it brings but the moral consequences of that freedom.
Yet Verhoeven and screenwriter Andrew W. Marlowe ("Air Force One"), working from a story Marlowe co-wrote with Gary Scott Thompson, provide scant payoff for "Hollow Man's" intriguing setup.
Time and again, they introduce provocative themes -- from professional and personal rivalries to the ever-popular scientist-as-god complex -- only to squander them in a desperate dash to get to the movie's climactic fireworks.
In the process, they fail to exploit the most compelling aspect of the entire concept: the newly invisible man's sudden ability to go anywhere, and see anything, without detection.
Think of the closed doors you could open, the off-limits parties you could crash. The pranks you could pull off -- or the objects of lust you could observe without fear of detection.
But "Hollow Man" speeds through this crucial second-act transition, giving short shrift to the emotional impact of Caine's transformation.
Caine's smug arrogance makes it difficult to root for him from the start. But by skipping over the scenes that would generate sympathy for his plight, if not his personality, "Hollow Man" forfeits its best chance to make Caine a victim as well as a villain.
As a result, "Hollow Man" quickly degenerates into a vacuous rehash of horror movie clichˇs, with the deranged Caine prowling the claustrophobic confines of the project's underground lab, picking off hapless colleagues one by one.
Yes, it's that old standby: the strand-a-group-in-a-room-and-see-who-survives ploy, complete with multiple false endings as the supporting characters fall in approximately reverse order of their billing.
Verhoeven tries to whip things up into a suitable frenzy, hoping his run-and-gun pacing -- along with the movie's eye-popping effects -- will temporarily obscure "Hollow Man's" inherent emptiness.
But all the sound and fury in the world can't disguise that "Hollow Man" is hollow to the core -- in the head and in the heart.
Review
Movie: "Hollow Man"
Running time: 114 minutes
Rating: R; violence and gore, sexual situations, nudity, profanity
Verdict: C-
Now playing: Cinedome Henderson, Colonnade, Desert, Green Valley, Orleans, Rancho, Showcase, Texas, Village Square, Las Vegas Drive-in
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