MIMIC: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT Blu-ray Review

I'm gonna be honest here, it has been a long time since I saw Mimic in it's original cut. That means it will be difficult for me to remember what material existed in which edition. I do remember enjoying the original somewhat, it wasn't the masterpiece we've come to expect from Guillermo del Toro, but it was a solid creature feature if I recall correctly. Anyway, what I came away with after going through this entire disc from soup to nuts isn't what a great film Mimic is, though it is an uncommonly good creature feature, what I came away with is what a marvelous package this is. Del Toro really spent a lot of effort on this Blu-ray of his first Hollywood film, and we are the beneficiaries. I'm going to spend this review adoring this disc in all of its splendor. But first, a word from the back of the case...

GUILLERMO DEL TORO (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) presents MIMIC like you've never seen it before in a visually stunning Director's Cut.  Starring Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite), Charles S. Dutton (A Time to Kill) and Josh Brolin (True Grit), MIMIC brings the epic battle between man and nature to life when a team of scientists discover that their experiment in genetic engineering has gone horribly awry.  Recut and presented with in-depth special features that take you inside the film, MIMIC:  THE DIRECTOR'S CUT restores Guillermo Del Toro's vision for this chilling modern cult classic.

Okay, with that out of the way...

THIS IS AN AWESOME GODDAMNED BLU-RAY!

Mimic: The Director's Cut is the rare combination of quality film and exceptional bonus features that we expect from a high end company like Criterion or Masters of Cinema. You may scoff at the comparison, but I'd throw this package up against Criterion's heavy hitters any day of the week. Let's start at the beginning...

Video Prologue with Director Guillermo Del Toro (HD): This brief feature allows Del Toro to prepare the viewer for what they are about to see. Apparently this version of Mimic is significantly different from the version audiences know. My memories of the original were vague enough to suggest that there was certainly room for improvement.  One thing I really like about all of the behind-the-scenes material on this disc is that at no point does Del Toro lay the blame for his film's "failure" at anyone's feet but his own. That is an easy out for any director unsatisfied with the way their film comes out, but Del Toro doesn't do it. He talks about compromises he made and their effect on the finished product, but he doesn't step away from responsibility.

Reclaiming Mimic (HD): This is more of the stuff from above.  Del Toro takes us on a more detailed trip through his attempt to reassemble something close to the film he initially wanted to make.  He wasn't able to do it perfectly, as some of the things he had in mind he didn't even get to shoot, but he seems pretty confident with what he's got here.  The tone of the film is different, the look of the film is more unified, and the themes are more clear cut. These are all conscious decisions that Del Toro made in this recut of Mimic, and here he takes us through the process of re-editing the film and inserting a lot of first unit photography that was scrapped to make the film more "exciting" for theaters.

Then the disc moves on to some archival material, mysteriously missing from any previous DVD editions.  The two archival features are "A Leap in Evolution - The Creatures of Mimic" and "Back into the Tunnels - Shooting Mimic". The only evidence that these are archival is that every one in them is about fifteen years younger, including Del Toro, oh, and they are all presented in SD. Where they find this stuff and why it wasn't available before is beyond me, but I especially enjoyed the featurette on the creature effects.  This being a fifteen year old film, most of those effects were practical, and the care that went into creating lifelike and anatomically practical effects is incredible. This must've been a model makers dream come true.  Absolutely riveting stuff for those of you out there like me who love watching FX technicians do their thing. By the way, these are all marked as new, but they were obviously shot at the time of the production, so I'm considering them archival.

The real crown jewel of the set is the commentary track.  Guillermo Del Toro packs the commentary with good information, he doesn't just riff about what's on screen.  We learn startling facts, including the fact that the screenplay underwent rewrites from no less than John Sayles and Steven Soderbergh among others. We learn that most of the second unit photography was done and included without Del Toro's blessing, so much so in fact, that this new edit is approximately 95% first unit footage, which is a MASSIVE percentage for a studio film. Again, probably the most endearing thing about the commentary is the fact that Del Toro makes no excuses either for his original cut nor how he managed to get it on screen in the first place. He certainly prefers this cut, and "owns" it, as he says on several occasions.  However, he also mentions frequently that any compromises he made were his choice, and that he could have walked away at any point. It's rare to see or hear a director man-up about something like this, these days when director's cuts are more often seen as fuck-you's to the studio than recalibrations of a film gone wrong.

Following that masterful commentary (which makes me want to listen to all of his other commentaries immediately), there are a few deleted scenes, a gag reel, and some animatics.  All of these little pieces are worth watching, but feel incidental next to the superb quality of the commentary.  This is really stellar stuff.  The amazing thing is that this is $10 on Amazon right now, that is an absolute steal for a package of this quality. Even if you STILL don't like Mimic after watching the Director's Cut, there is enough solid bonus material to be worth $10.

The image quality of the film itself is a bit uneven at times, with the re-inserted footage often looking sharper and more defined than the original footage when they are edited together, but overall it is a superlative transfer for a late '90s medium budget creature feature.  The audio is more consistently impressive, with a DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio track that immerses the viewer in a dank subterranean world and makes you feel like you are surrounded by the Mimics in the creepiest way possible.  On the few occasions that the film does resort to explosions and gun shots, you definitely feel them with a very aggressive low end that will wake the neighbors.

As you can see, I was absolutely floored by this disc.  Lionsgate's Mimic: The Director's Cut on Blu-ray is WAY better than it has any right to be, and I thank them for allowing Guillermo Del Toro the latitude to do this, it has really paid off.  If only Peter Jackson put the same care into the lackluster Dead Alive disc we got this month...

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