I finally found the time to check this out at the cinema and was pretty damned impressed.
The first thing that struck me was how faithful an adaptation it is to Philip K Dick's original novel (he also wrote the books that inspired Blade Runner and Total Recall) - parts of the dialogue were taken straight from the book and the story followed the sequence of events quite closely. Even things like the '18 speed bike' scene were retained, along with the rest of the techobabble and dopers' banter. If I hadn't read the book first I would have probably found it a bit confusing though.
It's not often I say this but Keanu Reeves' performance was pretty good. I know he's a really nice guy and all that but I just don't rate him as an actor. He always comes across as a bit dense and for some reason is given the line "but...why?" in every film he stars in (this one was no exception! ) Robert Downey Jr.'s take on Barris was very good indeed too - it captures the slightly unhinged, manic personality of the character to perfection.
Richard Linklater uses the same visual effects that he did in Waking Life - the 'painting over' of the frames to make it look animated. This was perfect for the rendering of Arctor's scramble suit, as well as the more trippy moments! Overall a very strange but interesting film. Well worth watching.
Good source for an avatar too.
The first thing that struck me was how faithful an adaptation it is to Philip K Dick's original novel (he also wrote the books that inspired Blade Runner and Total Recall) - parts of the dialogue were taken straight from the book and the story followed the sequence of events quite closely. Even things like the '18 speed bike' scene were retained, along with the rest of the techobabble and dopers' banter. If I hadn't read the book first I would have probably found it a bit confusing though.
It's not often I say this but Keanu Reeves' performance was pretty good. I know he's a really nice guy and all that but I just don't rate him as an actor. He always comes across as a bit dense and for some reason is given the line "but...why?" in every film he stars in (this one was no exception! ) Robert Downey Jr.'s take on Barris was very good indeed too - it captures the slightly unhinged, manic personality of the character to perfection.
Richard Linklater uses the same visual effects that he did in Waking Life - the 'painting over' of the frames to make it look animated. This was perfect for the rendering of Arctor's scramble suit, as well as the more trippy moments! Overall a very strange but interesting film. Well worth watching.
Good source for an avatar too.