Evolution

Ira (David Duchovny) and Harry (Orlando Jones) are two professors that go to study an asteroid that crashed during the night. They go down into the cave to take samples and Ira notices that there are plants growing in the rock. Back at the school, Ira discovers single celled organisms but by the time he goes and gets Harry they've already evolved into multi-celled organisms. The next day there are flatworms around the asteroid. There is also a gas that the flatworms can't live without.

The two of them go back the next day to discover the military have taken over the site. It turns out that Ira used to work for the military and they have been keeping tabs on him just in case he finds something useful. The two of them are  barred by General Woodman (Ted Levine) and  by Dr. Allison Reed (Julianne Moore) from the CDC. It takes them two weeks, but Ira and Harry manage to sneak back in to discover an entire primitive ecosystem with plants and insects.  They get caught and Harry gets an insect inside of his suit, which leads to one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

Ira is concerned about the rate that the organisms are evolving at, but the General is unconcerned thinking that they have everything secured. What they don't know, and what Harry failed to mention, is that there is a huge under ground cave system that stretches for hundreds of miles. The asteroid crashed right in the centre. The organisms have been making their way out, and evolving differently trying to adapt to the air. This is brought to the attention of Ira and Harry by wannbe fireman Wayne (Seann William Scott). Now the three of them go hunting the ones that made it out.  They once again try to bring it up to the military and Governor Lewis (Dan Aykroyd). They are slightly more concerned now because the organisms have evolved to primates, which attack the governor. The military decides to use napalm. Ira and Reed try to talk them out of it, because they don't know what the effects will be, if any, but they are ignored. Reed then joins Ira's gang and now the four of them go back to the school. Ira figures out that dandruff fighting shampoo is what will kill them and so they load up a fire truck with the stuff and head off. Unfortunately they aren't in time. Fire, it turns out quickens the evolutionary process and turns the many life forms into one giant life form.  Buts that's okay because they still have a truck load of shampoo and they are able to inject it directly into the creature and it dies. Yay!

This movie is stupid yet funny. I was watching this movie with a friend of mine and she, being a science student, was outraged that they didn't even test the shampoo theory before they went into battle. That is true, considering that they had a viable test subject two feet away from them.

I don't understand what the hell Wayne was doing there. He had no purpose in the movie. He wasn't that funny and he barely helped them at all. Random students at the school were more useful and funnier than he was. If he had been an actual fireman I can see him getting a fire truck, but he failed the test, so it doesn't make sense how he was able to get one. All his scenes were stupid and pointless too. They could have done without Wayne. They could've done without Duchovny too. I'm not a huge fan of that man. I never really got into the X-Files  and he hasn't really done anything since. His character here was on the same lines as Mulder, so he was believable, just not that great. He doesn't really have the range of facial expressions to play anything other than these types of roles.

Other than those two details, the movie was great. It was light and funny with good writing, cool special effects and good acting. I would like it if just once the American military wasn't portrayed as ignorant, arrogant morons. They can't all be like that right?

......never mind.    

Grade: 7/10