> My only apprehension is that the director will try to relieve the absurdity by making it comedic, when the best way to handle it is to just have it be openly ridiculous without apologizing for it.

The Fifth Element did this _excellently_, and yet there hasn't been a similarly themed movie since AFAIK.

Oh man, the tone of that movie is excellent. Really sorry Valerian ended up such a dud. Snow Crash with a high quality 5th element vibe would be pretty amazing.

Valerian had so much potential, and its intro sequence is one of the best I've ever seen.

I still enjoyed it though, it's no so bad that it's unwatchable, ,just a let down from what it could have been.

I don’t keep up with sci-fi culture so I watched it not knowing how bad everyone thought it was. I actually really liked it in the same way I liked fifth element. I also enjoyed watching Prometheus for the same reason.

I feel when you’re aware of the zeitgeist it messed a ton with your expectations.

The Fifth Element is one of the few movies where, back when cable was a thing, when it was on "TV" you could watch it no matter where you started. It's weirdly charming, in all of it's absurdity.

Just like Shawshank Redemption.

I wonder if there's some narrative parallels there somehow, since Shawshank is definitely what I would call Oscar Bait and Fifth Element is really just a cult sci-fi flick.

French romp but Sci-fi

Agree. If they play it like “Mad Max: Fury Road”, it has the potential to be a masterpiece.

you liked fury road?

Easily the best Western action film I’ve seen in a decade (maybe best period, I’d have to think about it) so... yes? I mean just using action for anything other than spectacle, which it does constantly for just about the whole run-time, would put it in rare company, but then the spectacle is also great. Action aside “is well-constructed“ plus “respects the audience” aren’t even individually common traits, especially in an action flick, but it manages those, too.

[edit] to be clear that doesn’t mean everyone has to or should like it, of course, but it’s possible to recognize the things a work does right and understand why a lot of people might like it as a result, even if it’s not to one’s taste, and so not to be surprised when people like it. It’s certainly possible to recognize when one likes something that’s kind of terrible—I like lots of things to which that apply. These perspectives are useful particularly when making recommendations to others.

97% on the Tomatometer: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mad_max_fury_road

IMDB Top 250: https://www.imdb.com/chart/top

10 Academy Award nominations, 6 wins, made lots of money, on lots of top-of-the-year and top-of-the-decade lists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max:_Fury_Road

Approximately everybody liked it. It's fine if you don't, but you shouldn't be even vaguely surprised that others do.

I didn't either but I've only watched it once without much focus, because I expected it to be designed exactly for that. I've heard we're missing something.

I didn't enjoy it on the first view either. A friend of mine totally loved it. He pointed out that I should keep a watch on how your eyes are lead through the movie. If you follow the hints you will always look at the right place on the screen.

Obviously this happens unconsciously on it's own. Watching fury road you will never feel lost in the action but always directed towards it.

I found that fascinating, but tbh I will never love this movie as said friend does.

> Watching fury road you will never feel lost in the action but always directed towards it.

Miller directed the movie off storyboards and not scripts, leading to a lot more difficulty and spontaneity. Good recent article [1] on the rivalry between Theron and Hardy during filming, they mention being frustrated at this switch in direction but your comment reminded me about how storyboards capture that visual leading like scripts rarely do.

[1] https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/05/charlize-theron...

It was critically and commercially successful, most people liked it.

you didn't?

Late comment. There is an audio book of Snow Crash that strikes the right tone (a bit flat?) and the humor of the work is not lost. Makes for the right amount of background noise for some coding activities if you've already read the book.

I am not looking forward to the TV show because it will be a different experience. (I watch very little TV these days anyway.) I will probably just avoid it. Altered Carbon had some success but I believe the second season is terrible despite it being my favorite book.

Something stylistically along the lines of Southland Tales would work I think.

hell ya. love the positivity. keep featherin' brother.

If they get a bad writer, he will read the plot summary on wikipedia, go over to tvtropes.com and pick out some rough matches to the plot summary and start writing. I would not be surprised if this is how Man in the High Castle got converted into a T.V series.

I was pretty psyched for the Catch 22 adaptation, but that was terrible. A big part of the books narrative is how every chapter is out of order. It starts in the middle, and ends at the end, but the story progresses by revealing future and past events as you go through it. I watched the first episode of the adaptation, saw perfectly linear story telling, immediately lost interest and never bothered with the rest. Which is a shame, because it was big budget and had a great cast. But it hasn’t left me with much faith that weirder books should expect decent screen adaptations.

Exactly - it gets better later though. Does this loop thing where the end leads you to the beginning of the show. It was enjoyable, had its moments...