Michael Ironside is simply magic playing entertaining bad guys. He can take schlock (Highlander 2, Spacehunter) and make it a cheezerific feast. Sure, he's not all-powerful (sorry, Terminator Salvation), but his powers are mighty. So when he is coupled with material that works, playing the psychotic psychic, er, Scanner, Darryl Revok, whose evil will literally blow your mind, the result is a good time at the movies.
So, let's go over to Cameron Vale, who is apparently another one of these "Scanners", people with various kinds of mind powers, described as remote connecting to nervous systems of others. Most Scanners are unhappy people, who can't control their powers, and are flooded with information they can't control. So they end up neurotic and anti-social. Dr. Paul Ruth is a scientist employed by a particular corporation who is seeking Mr. Vale. He recognizes Vale's potential, sees his need and sees him as a potential counter-weapon against Revok and his organization. Revok, btw, is gathering Scanners underneath is fold for reasons to be determined.
So you have all these elements in play, with these powered people drifting in the world. They have no focus and are a threa to themselves and others. If they find focus, they achieve power and influence in the world. So, like all gatherings of power, when said power is manifest, how will it be focused?
Probaby heads will explode when the answer is revealed.
Ironside is his usual bad self. Patrick McGoohan (Number Six in The Prisoner) makes a great morally adrift Professor X type, training the Scanner Vale and seeming to treat him with kindness. The location of his heart, though, seems a bit suspect.
This is a good, gory thriller that has some deep thoughts murmuring under the visceral pyrotechnics. I recommend.
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