Book review: A Scanner Darkly

[da]

I just read Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly, to try and decide whether I want to see the movie.

It was an... OK (long) short story. It certainly met the weirdness quotient I look forward to in PKD, and the shifting perceptions of what's real. But it was a complete throwback to the 60s/70s, with hippie sensibilities and language, that really made it tough for me to believe it was set in the "future" 90s.

It's not half as good as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, it's possibly as good as Minority Report as a short story.

But both of those, I think, were enhanced by becoming movies.

From the preview clip, the film Scanner Darkly looks like Waking Life but instead of lucid dreams, psychodelic drugs and a mystery involving split personalities. I believe the only sci-fi aspects are: the drugs, the feds' "scramble suit" and their holographic detection devices. Meh.

I liked Minority Report. I love Blade Runner. I didn't like Total Recall. I never saw Screamers, Paycheck or Imposter (any recommendations there?) At present, I don't plan to see Scanner Darkly.

Comments

[kraig.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't bother seeing Paycheck - I think Ben Affleck is terrible when he's not in Kevin Smith movies, and he didn't do much to repair his reputation in my mind in that movie. Maybe with some other lead actor, it would have been ok, but I'm also not convinced that John Woo is the best guy to direct PKD movies either. It's not terrible, but it isn't good either.