Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To - io9 Comments

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

GenXCub — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:33:51 PST

@ElijahDProphet: I've always appreciated that the differences between Blade Runner and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep are very subtle. You can say it's not faithful because BR leaves out a lot of the religious soul searching of DADoES, but if you view it as a character piece of Rick Deckard, it's really spot-on. I've only come to this conclusion after the recent release of the DVD with its new version. The theatrical ending was just wrong, but the director's cut left out a lot of the despair for the rest of the film and tacked it on at the end.

GenXCub

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

ThatGuyOverThere — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 05:48:07 PST

@graphicwave: Oh sure, it was a fine movie, if you've never read the story. Kind of like how "The Golden Compass" was a pretty good movie, if you've never read the trilogy. Also, box office receipts suggest that "Jurassic Park" was a great movie, but it was merely similar to the book and nowhere near representative.

In all three stories they changed some pretty critical plot points just to make the transition from well established story to 90-120min of pop film a bit easier. Sadly, this is how it always seems to be.

ThatGuyOverThere

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

raincoaster — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:12:55 PST

@GospelX: I'm with you: I wanted to like it, but couldn't. Script aside (and it SHOULD be aside, thrown there with great force) the production values were terrible. It looked like it was cheap video, shot by some talented fourteen-year-olds. God knows how they spent all that money. I saw it in a theatre in Vancouver and the crowd eventually amused themselves by just yelling out the name of each location as it came up on screen. "Railtown," "SFU" etc, etc.

raincoaster

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

DCI Gene Hunt — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:47:35 PST

I saw this after being awake for 34 hours straight. I needed to kill a couple of hours and this was the only thing showing that seemed remotely entertaining.

Then I saw it on cable a few months ago, and realized that it was much, much better when you're sleep-deprived.

DCI Gene Hunt

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

graphicwave — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:59:21 PST

I liked Paycheck. I don't know what everyone's problem is about it. I thought Next was spiffy, too, so bite me.

graphicwave

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

tetracycloide — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:57:44 PST

the problem with polt lines like this is that they assume that forsite, even sciencetifically based foresite, is no better than a horiscope. the reason the fortunes that were revealed by the machine were selffulfilling prophicies is because they were never more complete than what you can typically find in the back of the local paper next to the crosswords...

tetracycloide

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

Thieu — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:40:24 PST

@ElijahDProphet: It pretty much went under the radar but Impostor stuck more closely to its PKD origins.

Thieu

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

ElijahDProphet — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:15:29 PST

The sad thing about Paycheck is that, until A Scanner Darkly, it may have been the most faithful PKD adaptation ever made. I mean, yeah, it was only about 30%, but still, that was the tops at the time.

ElijahDProphet

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

Gospel X — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:23:10 PST

I saw this crap when it first came out. I was disappointed, but I wanted to like it because it was based off of a Philip K. Dick short story. It wasn't until, literally, this past weekend that I finally read the story and saw how great it was.

Imagine if the movie had stuck to the short:
-The machine is a mirror and scoop (so you can see what happens as well as literally PLUCK small items - like the ones the character used)
-Affleck's character is somewhat corrupt and wants in on the operation, resorting to blackmail if he must
-Thurman's character is not to be trusted at all
-John Woo wasn't involved

Gospel X

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

the earl of weaver — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:21:33 PST

@extracrispy: really? paycheck? did you not see windtalkers?

the earl of weaver

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

extracrispy — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:58:38 PST

@charliejane: Well, almost everyone.

extracrispy

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

extracrispy — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:56:59 PST

Ahh, the movie that finally convinced everyone that John Woo is a hack.

extracrispy

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:53:51 PST

@braak: I forgot to mention that John Woo totally wasted his amazing talents directing this film. He's an action god.

Charlie Jane Anders

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

braak — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:42:02 PST

I like that Phillip K. Dick stories keep getting turned into non-stop action thrill-rides.

I don't know who keeps making that decision, but it's hilarious.

Also?

The best way to end a Mexican stand-off while standing over subway tracks is to drop the clip out of your gun, so it will fall on the third rail and EXPLODE. No one has ever had an idea as good as that.

braak

Ben Affleck Sees The Future, So You Don't Have To

zerofritz — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:36:51 PST

Paycheck, the movie that bounced

Bless you, Charlie Jane. Bless you.

zerofritz