futureworld

Three years after the massacre at Westworld, the most advanced amusement park in the world is set to re-open with a splashy new attraction. But is history doomed to repeat itself? Futureworld (1976) stars Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner (Gwneyth Paltrow’s mom) as a pair of Woodward and Bernstein-type reporters invited to the grand re-opening to ensure that the facility is safe and trouble-free – much like Sam Neil and company in the first Jurassic Park. Only instead of rampaging dinosaurs, our heroes uncover a robotic conspiracy to replace all the world’s leaders in a bid for global domination.

Or something to that effect. Actually, the motives behind Delos, the company in question, are a little vague. They have the technology to create perfect human replicas this time around, not just robotic gunslingers and sex slaves; an improvement upon the android assembly lines in Michael Crichton’s original Westworld (1973). But the sequel drops much of the satirical edge in favor of a rather routine investigative journalism story with sci-fi appeal. It almost feels like a TV pilot, which ironically came about a few years later with the short-lived Beyond Westworld, lasting only five episodes.

Yul Brynner, the best thing about the first film, gets maybe 3 minutes of screen-time here as part of a dream sequence wedged into the story to get his name on the poster. Fonda and Paltrow are likable enough leads, but it’s not until the finale, which has each of them facing down their identically engineered twins, that the film generates any real dramatic tension. Up until that point, one must be content with some nifty gadgets (including a Star Wars-type living chess board and a replica rocket launch) and endless scenes of poking around a generic factory soundstage.

Unfortunately, without Crichton’s magic touch, Futureworld suffers by comparison. Shout Factory’s blu-ray is a stunner, though and includes a still gallery, trailer and promotional radio spots.