Mimic [Blu-ray]

The movie tells a story about an army of genetically-altered insects created to destroy a plague of cockroaches in the sewers of New York. Three years later, the bugs have learned to survive by mimicking their worst enemies: humans. Now an entire colony of these creatures is growing under the Big Apple, and they're getting ready to move up.

As you can see, the idea for the plot is very good, and has an interesting edge to it, but in the end, the filmmakers decided to exploit it through simple action sequences, with a lot of "Aliens" on the back of their minds. Mira Sorvino is very good as the doctor who created the monsters and is now tortured by the idea of her creation being loose on the world. But her character is the only one with at least some depth in this whole story. All the others are just background people, who play basically three roles: "partners" for our main hero, "victims" that need to be rescued (children are perfect for this), and "meat", so we can witness the destructive power of the giant bugs.

The real problem with "Mimic" is that, even though it has a very original idea, the script suddenly decides to play it safe, since it gives you absolutely no surprises. By the end, you know exactly what's going to happen, basically the same thing that happens in "Aliens": you know that the good guys will find their way through the colony, find the source of all the creatures, and blow it up with the biggest explosion their budget can allow. Fortunately for us, at least it's a big budget (the design for the creatures is award-worthy).

The DVD itself is no good, unfortunately. It includes the theatrical trailer, but absolutely no bios or commentaries. Lack of features is a curse among DVD's, and I'll never get tired of saying it.

In conclusion, I recommend the movie because of its original idea and some cool special effects, but you're warned in advance that you won't find anything new once the story gets going. How they managed to pull off a sequel is still a mystery to me.

The action, which mostly resides in the trademark underground railway tunnel, is inventive, and there are some genuine shocks and twists along the way. The messing with nature theme has been done before (Jurassic Park), and the film is very similar to The Relic. But there is a strong environmental message that, while good, thankfully isn't heavy-handed and doesn't get in the way of some cool bug-splosions and hapless kids getting munched. Disgusting fun.