The new version of "Total Recall", which hit theaters across China on October 20, further shakes my faith of remakes and enhances my belief that remakes are always about money and never about doing something better.

The new film starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel is visually lush, but plain and paper-thin character depiction is a serious problem. The story drags on and on, and the two-hour film feels like a four-hour marathon. I couldn't help wondering "when will this thing end?" If you thought the original film was fun, this will definitely be a big bore.

The 1990 original film, helmed by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven and starring former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone, imagines a futuristic, weird and totalistic world inspired by Philip Kindred Dick's short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale". The miscellaneous visual elements such as mutants, the Martian world and futuristic vehicles and gadgets make the film highly enjoyable even today, despite decades' old special effects. Schwarzenegger shows his great sense of humor and delivers many memorable punch lines. The story, with strong social comments, makes a lot of sense and is thought-provoking as well. Director Paul Verhoeven showed his distinctive visual style and gave the audience a great ride.

This time around, however, all the fun elements are gone. Director Len Wiseman re-imagines the whole world. There is no Mars anymore; everything happens on the Earth, a post-apocalyptic, grey world where people travel through the Earth's center. The film looks much more serious. But the story is diluted and short of nuances and social comments, failing to match its serious looks. All the movie focuses on is fighting, shooting and chasing. At the same time, its appearance and futuristic vehicles are too familiar and reminiscent of such films as Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report".

All the characters are deadly serious too. But they are flat, dull and barely memorable. Irish actor Colin Farrell is good as usual, but his acting cannot save his poorly written role. The two dames, Beckinsale and Biel, serve to be easy on the eyes and prove to be expert killers. But truth be told, they could be replaced by any other beautiful actresses.

The film keeps several scenes from the original, for instance, the famous triple breasted prostitute. But other scenes are poorly executed compared to the original. One of the key scenes in which Lori and another character try to persuade Douglas Quaid to believe that Quaid is trapped in a dream implanted by the Rekall Company did not only lose its original magic, it verges on laughable absurdity.

As a Chinese film enthusiast, I cannot help noticing the dominant Chinese elements in the film's art design. The city block where Quaid lives is quite literally a Chinatown. The buildings' exteriors and decorations are an interesting combination of futurism and tradition. The designers may have got their inspiration from Chinese southern waterside towns. These may constitute attraction plus for Chinese audience.

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