William Gibson wrote the screenplay for Johnny Mnemonic based on one of his short stories, but you get the impression it changed a lot from what he had written to what ended up on the screen. A lot of the tech seems to be glossed over, and with an hour-and-a-half runtime, this film feels like a mess.

Sorry Keanu.

Keanu Reeves is Johnny, a data runner, he carries it in his brain which has been wired to accept inputs, but he’s overpromised on this last deal, and there is the threat of seepage and rupture if he doesn’t get it out fast.

Unfortunately, the data is illegal, stolen from a pharmaceutical company that is holding the cure for a plague that is ravishing humanity, caused by its incessant tech use. There is an A.I. in a computer, a literal ghost in the machine that is haunting the head of the company, and working desperately to get the cure out to save people.

Johnny is helped by his bodyguard, Jane (Dina Meyer) to find the connections he needs to get the download out of his head before it’s too late. Unfortunately, corporations have joined forces with the Yakuza, and they are on the hunt for Johnny, throw in a bio-enhanced preacher (Dolph Lundgren) and you have a lot going on.

Throw in a rebellion led by J-Bone (Ice-T), and there is even more.

Nothing is given the attention it deserves, the visual effects are shoddy, even for the time, and the production design and lighting make everything look flat, and more like a 90s television show than a cinematic experience.

Everything flounders, the action beats are horribly staged, and Reeves who would become one of the greatest action heroes ever is next to horrible in this one. Nothing works. There are so many cool ideas here, laws about A.I. and their residency, bio-ware and more, and some are probably closer to fruition than we realize, but it’s all executed so badly.

There’s an unimpressive score, some iffy modelwork, and all I can do is question every one of the director’s choices, and that doesn’t seem fair, because at least he made the movie, all I’m doing is looking at it and judging it.

The sad thing is, I saw this in theatres when it first opened. But even then, I knew it was a misfire. I wonder what Gibson’s original screenplay was like, and how much of what ended up on screen was because of studio interference.