The Force Fed Sci-Fi Movie Podcast

The Force Fed Sci-Fi Movie Podcast


Evolution (2001 Film)

August 27, 2019

This week, join us as we discuss Evolution (2001 film)! Learn our thoughts (and criticisms) as we go over the Evolution film cast and characters, give our Evolution film review and rating, how wrong evolution is portrayed in the film Evolution, and more!
Evolution Movie Summary and Synopsis
After a meteor crashes in the Arizona desert, two local scientists investigate the rock as it slowly becomes an alien encounter and the creatures that emerge begin to evolve immediately. Soon afterwards, the military takes over the crash site and the two scientists are joined by a military aide and a firefighter trainee to battle the aliens before they take over the world.

So, right off the bat, the film is oozing with science fiction. There’s a meteor crash, aliens, evolution (obviously), and government oversight. What more could a sci-fi fan want from this? A better movie would’ve been nice … more on that in a bit.
Evolution Film Cast, Characters, and Crew
Directed by Ivan Reitman: Reitman is best known for directing comedies such as Animal House, Stripes and Ghostbusters, but we feel like he fell a bit short of his past work. It’s important to note the similarities between Evolution and Ghostbusters. There are four main characters, three are qualified to deal with their situation with a civilian tagalong, there’s military/government oversight and a battle involving a giant creature at the end of the film. If Reitman was going to go for a Ghostbusters sequel, maybe he just should’ve gone for that.

David Duchovny as Dr. Ira Kane: At this point in his career, Duchovny was well-known for his portrayal of Fox Mulder on the cult hit TV show, The X-Files, but much like Ivan Reitman, Duchovny seemed like he was phoning in his character. The only time he really emotes is when he’s trying to get to know or sleep with Julianne Moore’s character.

Julianne Moore as Allison: Thankfully Moore offers up a great performance compared to the rest of the actors she’s surrounded. She’s struggling to deal with her male military bosses and she’s often overruled during meetings until she works up the nerve to leave and join forces with Ira. She’s also dealing with her emotions toward Ira and her animosity to him eventually turns into a ham fisted romance.

Orlando Jones as Harry Block: While most of the comedy in this film comes from Jones’ delivery and performance, his character is certainly problematic while looking at it through today’s lens. He’s clearly using his position as a professor to potentially sleep with one of his female students, he uses his colleague’s computer to look at pornography and he cracks jokes about taking showers with his female volleyball players. As Chris points out in the podcast episode, if he were a real world person, there would a Sports Illustrated expose about how terrible he was.

Seann William Scott as Wayne Gray: Prior to starring in Evolution, Scott also starred in the teen comedy American Pie and he continued his line of playing goofy yet loveable characters and Wayne is no exception. While he’s a bit of a dope in here, he does come through in several dangerous situations and proves to be an essential part of this group.
Our Issues with Evolution
There was a lot our hosts pointed out as having problems with: Sean’s lens flare included portrayals of the education system along with the military....