Michael Crichton's Forgotten '80s Sci-Fi Movie Beat Tron To This Computer Graphics Milestone

It's no exaggeration to say the late Michael Crichton was a pioneer in genres heavily revolving around medicine and technology. His influence, both as an author and a filmmaker, was monumental — he gave us such classic and incremental stories as "Westworld" (whose villain inspired Michael Myers from "Halloween"), "Jurassic Park," and "Twister," in addition to setting the blueprint for medical dramas on television with NBC's "ER." Although he wasn't as prolific at making movies as he was at writing (he published 25 novels while alive, and five more posthumously), he did direct eight films, including the original "Westworld" with Yul Brynner, "Coma" with Michael Douglas, and "The Great Train Robbery" with Sean Connery. Due to his background in medicine, he was in love with biotechnology, which a lot of his work dabbled in.

Given all that, it hardly comes as a surprise that he was obsessed with technological inventions and advancements, so much so that his fifth film, 1981's "Looker" (which Crichton wrote and directed), was the first movie to feature an entirely computer-generated human character using shaded 3D CGI. The movie accomplished a milestone that was extensively used a year later in Steven Lisberger's visually arresting classic sci-fi "Tron" (which was banned at the Oscars from running for best visual effects since the Academy considered the methods of its visual effects "cheating"). Despite its technical achievements, however, "Looker" failed to capture the zeitgeist and was quickly forgotten after its release. Critics loathed it (the feature currently has a 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), and it didn't fare much better commercially either, grossing only $3.2 million domestically at the box office (via The Numbers) against its $8 million budget.

Crichton's script follows an accomplished and wealthy Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, Dr. Larry Roberts (Albert Finney), whose clients are mostly gorgeous female TV models. After he performs cosmetic procedures on them to fix their physical imperfections, many of them start mysteriously dying around the city. An investigation is launched by Lieutenant Masters (Dorian Harewood), who questions Roberts and finds out that several of his patients' medical records are missing. 

Shortly after Masters leaves Roberts' office, one of his clients arrives upset, asking the doctor to reverse the operation done on her since all the models he helped look even more beautiful are dying. Already suspicious, Roberts attends a fundraising dinner held by billionaire businessman John Reston (James Coburn), who introduces him to Jennifer Long (Leigh Taylor-Young), the head of Digital Matrix Inc., a company using experimental visual technology to recreate models' physical appearance entirely via CGI. As the killings continue, Roberts invites one of his dear patients, Cindy (Susan Dey), to stay at his apartment, and the two soon realize that Long and DMI likely have something to do with the murders.

Despite the decent cast and visual prowess, the final result wound up pretty underwhelming. As critics highlighted, Crichton's screenplay was convoluted and often confusing due to glaring plot holes and inconsistencies that rendered it unconvincing. Some even called the film Crichton's worst, which might've worked somewhat better as a novel. Apart from its singular visual achievement, it's probably better for all involved that "Looker" has succumbed to obscurity and nobody talks about it anymore. If you want a through-and-through Crichton film, you'll probably be better off choosing from the ones he'd done before "Looker" in the 1970s.