book is better only just though (A Scanner Darkly (DVD))

Member Name: lemonjim

Product:	A Scanner Darkly (DVD)
Date:	15/10/09 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: questons weather we are in a reality or not

Disadvantages: not as good as book

Usually my view point is, when people say the book was better than the film I just say the film was better than the book, and you know why? Because I didn't have to READ it!

I could never be right in this case as the book actually was so amazing especially compared to the film. I think the film was good though but the book is my favourite of all time so can not compare.

The great thing about the Film is it has the perfect actor for the job, Keanu Reeves, as the main character Bob Arcter, he has a calm, pessimistic ambiance about him and that fits nicely in to Reeves nature.

The other great thing is the effect used on the entire film. It is a carton type affect which dips in and out of have an almost pastel coloured picture over everything. This is to show the disjuncture between reality and fantasy.

The film follows Bob Arcter, a police detective, who needs to infiltrate the drugs culture and make his way up to the top. The reason? Ne new drug called Substance D which is a hallucinogenic which slowly turns you psychotic. The only way to get to the top of the drugs ecosystem is to become an addict. Or so we are told.

With a gripping script and story line the film is a perfect futuristic dystopian sci- fi film and you often get the feeling of Blade Runner through out it.

This is perfect as when you read the book you can become so involved, here the effects used over the film helps you to understand and clearly see how out of reality the characters are.

The film does not do the book justice and there are a lot of bits that are changes slightly - I do not know why though - which does not make it any better. But the film managed to capture some of the scenes perfect and the actors chosen are brilliant.

The 'scramble suits' in the book which let your imagination run wild are hard to actually understand what they would actually look like, in the film it has created the effect immaculately.

the film is a bit before its time in a way as with the more recent films 'Sin City' and '300' have that glazed look as if out of an actual comic, A scanner Darkly goes one step further to suggest that what is happening in the film is testing how real reality actually is!

It is a one to watch but not before reading the amazing book. The nice thing about the film is it captures the ending perfectly and still makes you crave more and re-watch t see if you missed any lines or any scenes

Summary: one to watch but check out the book first