Mimic presents a valid warning to scientists seeking to fine-tune the ecosystem. Caring researcher Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) saves millions of New York children from a deadly virus by releasing genetically altered cockroaches that decimate the disease carriers. Three years later evidence suggests that the new strain of 'Judas cockroach' developed by Sorvino has not died off as planned, and instead has mutated into a completely unexpected forms. Ambitious slum kids and nervous sewer workers bring in terrifying evidence of insects as big as people. The search for the creatures leads Sorvino's husband, Center for Disease Control doctor Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam), into the vast maze of abandoned subway tunnels under Manhattan. Uncooperative transit cop guide Leonard (Charles S. Dutton) is surprised to find no homeless people living in their usual haunts. For that matter, the investigators see no rats, which should be everywhere in the dark tunnels.
The screenplay by del Toro and veteran Matthew Robbins saves the last half of the movie for a harrowing descent into the monsters' lair. They learn as they go. The new super bugs have evolved lungs, allowing them to grow much larger than ordinary insects. Like many insect species, they are masters of disguise: the adult monsters have developed the ability to roughly imitate humans, and habitually creep around the dark margins of the city without being noticed. Susan applies the same tactic for her counter-strategy. When her fellow humans smear themselves with bug excretions (!) the killer insects fail to recognize them as enemies, and pass them by. Little Alexander Goodwin, the son of a shoeshine man played by Giancarlo Giannini, imitates the insects' clicking by playing the same staccato patterns on his spoons. The noise serves as an insect "password", allowing the boy to avoid the fate of some other unlucky children.
This Director's Cut rearranges some scenes and adds others, allowing del Toro to flesh out concepts cut from the shorter Theatrical Version. A subtext suggests that man's tenure as ruler of the Earth may have expired, and that the insects will take over. Susan and Peter are having difficulties conceiving a baby, a procreation problem not shared by the incredibly fecund bug monsters. The creatures are well on the way to consolidating their nest and overrunning the city.
Del Toro's expert direction encourages us to accept everything on view, before considerations of realism and effects work come into play. Special makeup effects expert Rob Bottin (The Howling, RoboCop) was tapped to design some of the all-too-credible bug monsters. The elaborate underground sets are equally convincing and include a vintage electric subway car that the humans must hot-wire to make their escape. The expositional dialogue is unusually good save for a few scenes in which Susan explains basic aspects of insect life to children, informational points that of course become crucial in the later monster siege. Some of the juvenile dialogue is also on the weak side, as when a slum kid tells Susan, "whatever peels your banana."
Mimic will remind viewers of the underground battles with giant ants in the vintage Sci-fi classic Them! There's even a search for a lost child seized by the monsters. Susan's instinctual female warrior suggests another monster classic, 1979's Alien with Sigourney Weaver.; as she's pregnant, Susan is defending her unborn progeny as well. Guillermo del Toro's exciting film reinvigorates a discredited genre by reviving qualities long absent from monster movies. The story is intelligent and sympathetic to its characters, and none of the killings are cynical or gratuitous. These human heroes deserve to survive. Mimic is a smart, suspenseful thriller that never insults our intelligence.
Lionsgate's Director's Cut Blu-ray of Mimic is rich, colorful and detailed. Its appreciation requires the full resolution of HD, for cinematographer Dan Laustsen dotes on images of dark monsters creeping out of dark shadows. Any lessening of detail and the proper impression would be lost.
Guillermo del Toro appears visibly pleased by the opportunity to revise Mimic to better reflect his original intentions. He contributes a full commentary, a video introduction and appears in a featurette to explain the changes from the theatrical version. Also included are a behind-the-scenes short subject and a separate examination of the film's special effects. Galleries contain three deleted scenes, storyboard development animatics, a gag reel and the original trailer.
The prolific Del Toro hasn't finished with the classic Sci-fi vibe: his coming project Pacific Rim is said to show humanity constructing huge robots to battle giant alien monsters, as in the Japanese Godzilla fantasies. He promises that it will be "the biggest monster movie ever."
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by Glenn Erickson
