Meh. Too often falls back on nudity to make up for failure to develop a more immersive environment. Said in another way, they used nudity to make up for a small CGI budget.
Altered Carbon – All the DNA of great science-fiction with some missing links
31–40 of 52 posts
Re: Altered Carbon – All the DNA of great science-fiction with some missing links
#32Lost interest in the first 30 mins. What I saw was a contrived story timeline inconsistencies (people protesting 1960s style outside the building - really?), flying cars with drivers (who can drive and land badly - really?), stacks stored on spines (and only the richest can afford the cloud - really?), squaller living on the planet with rich living on the towers (not original by any stretch), one special living person better than everyone in the universe (again, original?, really?), a police department functioning like the 1990s, a woman detective have inexplicably drives Neo (sic) to the super villain and will inevitably be romantically involved with Neo? Please people - watch some Black Mirror and plethora of short Sci-fi films on Youtube for intellectual entertainment.
Re: Altered Carbon – All the DNA of great science-fiction with some missing links
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Personally, I really liked altered carbon. The acting was good, the sets great, and the story intriguing. The show doesn’t go out of its way to surprise you like GoT, but it had enough mysteries and twists to keep things interesting. The only lesser part for me wasn’t the story but the technology. I’m ok with unexplained advanced tech, but it has to make sense. Why are the only things run by advanced better-than-huma…
I re-read the book a few weeks ago in anticipation of the series. The inconsistencies that you notice are real and present in the source material. I didn't notice them so much the first time I read the book 10+ years ago. The relentless action was fresh the first time around and helped paper over weaknesses in the logic of the world. Also I've apparently become less able to overlook internal inconsistencies with time…
(Oh man, Star Trek... Artificial gravity that no one ever talks about. Gravity control would be a total game-changer.
Also, One day I realized, how does the Klingon disintegrator ray stop at the soles of the boots? It never disintegrates the floor.)
Re: Altered Carbon – All the DNA of great science-fiction with some missing links
#34The show is mostly _fun_, but I definitely wouldn't call it a _great_ or well-made show, apart from the visuals. Too much clunky dialogue and half-baked subplots. In particular, there's a certain traumatized daughter whose plot never makes sense at any turn. The show seems to expect us to already know and have a major emotional investment in a character who we've never seen speak and who seems to have almost no tangi…
Laughably bad, actually, esp. if you cut your teeth growing up on Neuromancer, Snowcrash, etc. I honestly thought it was written by a teenager, the scene with the Ai's playing poker was when it went off the cliff for me. Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams, however, is worthwhile and a nice bookend to the new season of Black Mirror.
I've only seen about 20 minutes of the first episode and couldn't enjoy it. I'd like to at least finish the first episode before I make judge for myself whether this one's worth my time (though I'm gonna first watch The Man in the High Castle). Generally though as a rule of thumb: Nice CGI doesn't make up for a terrible story, but a good story can make up for the lack of good CGI. E.g. I did not find the story good in the follow-ups of The Matrix.
I fully underline your statement regarding PKD's Electric Dreams as well as all the Black Mirror seasons. Furthermore, let us not forget that several other of PKD's works have seen a movie adaptations. I can recommend Total Recall (both; watch older first), Blade Runner (both; watch older first), A Scanner Darkly (if you can stand the art style; personally, I loved it), Minority Report, and The Adjustment Bureau (Screamers was OKish). There are series adaptations as well. Check Wikipedia for all the adaptations [1]
I'm not aware of any motion picture adaptations of Stephenson's or Gibson's works. Although I just found out via Wikipedia that the game Netrunner [2] is a derivative work of the Sprawl trilogy, and also The Matrix heavily "drawn" from the Sprawl trilogy as well [3].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_adaptations_of_works_b...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android:_Netrunner
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer#Literary_and_cultu...
Re: Altered Carbon – All the DNA of great science-fiction with some missing links
#35The show is mostly _fun_, but I definitely wouldn't call it a _great_ or well-made show, apart from the visuals. Too much clunky dialogue and half-baked subplots. In particular, there's a certain traumatized daughter whose plot never makes sense at any turn. The show seems to expect us to already know and have a major emotional investment in a character who we've never seen speak and who seems to have almost no tangi…
What needs to make sense of her plot, exactly? She (or her sleeve?) was damaged or had an issue to the extent that all that was left was her stack. It was fascinated to me to see a AI help bring a human back as an individual & use methods it thought would help someone the best.
Re: Altered Carbon – All the DNA of great science-fiction with some missing links
#36The show is mostly _fun_, but I definitely wouldn't call it a _great_ or well-made show, apart from the visuals. Too much clunky dialogue and half-baked subplots. In particular, there's a certain traumatized daughter whose plot never makes sense at any turn. The show seems to expect us to already know and have a major emotional investment in a character who we've never seen speak and who seems to have almost no tangi…
Personally, I really liked altered carbon. The acting was good, the sets great, and the story intriguing. The show doesn’t go out of its way to surprise you like GoT, but it had enough mysteries and twists to keep things interesting. The only lesser part for me wasn’t the story but the technology. I’m ok with unexplained advanced tech, but it has to make sense. Why are the only things run by advanced better-than-huma…
I don't think it was hard to make backups, but that it was expensive, cost prohibitive by the 'have nots' who are unable to afford or acquire the ability to say, clone themselves on demand.
Re: Altered Carbon – All the DNA of great science-fiction with some missing links
#37The show is mostly _fun_, but I definitely wouldn't call it a _great_ or well-made show, apart from the visuals. Too much clunky dialogue and half-baked subplots. In particular, there's a certain traumatized daughter whose plot never makes sense at any turn. The show seems to expect us to already know and have a major emotional investment in a character who we've never seen speak and who seems to have almost no tangi…
Personally, I really liked altered carbon. The acting was good, the sets great, and the story intriguing. The show doesn’t go out of its way to surprise you like GoT, but it had enough mysteries and twists to keep things interesting. The only lesser part for me wasn’t the story but the technology. I’m ok with unexplained advanced tech, but it has to make sense. Why are the only things run by advanced better-than-huma…
To add to your list of questions,
Since it is so trivial to fake video evidence or transfer to a new body, why would a video confession have any value? And why on earth are their bank accounts DNA-locked when they can and do change bodies like they change cloths?
In the future so technologically advanced, why would a contract need to be physically printed and stamped?
Who holds the power in this universe? One episode Meths are gods, untouchable by mere mortals. The next, police show up and easily arrest not one, but two of them. One week a nobody can slaughter an entire clinic and walk away with impunity, the next a Meth is arrested for what can be arguably called a manslaughter, under influence no less. Who is the ultimate untouchable, Meths or CTAC? It seems it changes from episode to episode.
If people can live in the virtual, why wouldn't more people do so instead of simply dying? Living in the virtual should cost nothing or close to nothing. Why isn't everyone who can't afford a new body at the end of their natural lifespan simply move to virtual for the rest of eternity, or until they gather enough money for a new body?
I can go on and on. Nothing about the show made sense. The visuals were great, but everything else was terribly lacking.
Re: Altered Carbon – All the DNA of great science-fiction with some missing links
#38A very faithful adaptation that reflects most of the strengths (and weaknesses) of the source material. For example the ending felt a bit like a false summit. Solving the Bancroft murder should have been the climax of this detective novel, but the story keeps going and feels awkward afterwards. I had forgotten how badly the story lost me in the books until I was watching this show and I couldn't remember what I shoul…
We're complaining about Rei's actress? Such a beautiful woman deserves our devotion, haha. If anything, I was annoyed by the casting of Bancroft. It's like someone saw James Purefoy in "The Following" & decided "Yes, we want this crazy guy in this series". Sure he wasn't around for quite a bit & wasn't too central to anything other than "main good guy, solve my murder!" but his...essence bothered me. But I'm biased ;)
Re: Altered Carbon – All the DNA of great science-fiction with some missing links
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Personally, I really liked altered carbon. The acting was good, the sets great, and the story intriguing. The show doesn’t go out of its way to surprise you like GoT, but it had enough mysteries and twists to keep things interesting. The only lesser part for me wasn’t the story but the technology. I’m ok with unexplained advanced tech, but it has to make sense. Why are the only things run by advanced better-than-huma…
To add to your list of questions, Since it is so trivial to fake video evidence or transfer to a new body, why would a video confession have any value? And why on earth are their bank accounts DNA-locked when they can and do change bodies like they change cloths? In the future so technologically advanced, why would a contract need to be physically printed and stamped? Who holds the power in this universe? One episode…
We (wife and I) quit watching halfway through the second show. The plot didn't make sense.
Why would someone who is effectively immortal care if a body was destroyed?
Aside from "plot point", why was the update of the meth's upload 48 hours? Why not also local, and uploaded to the cloud?
For anyone who can upload, which seems everyone except Catholics (plot point), why can't people trade bodies as needed? 7 year old gets old person body - why can't they trade as needed?
And of course, add in the appropriate amounts of violence and "Game of Thrones" forced sexuality. I guess pandering to the masses is a thing. :/
Re: Altered Carbon – All the DNA of great science-fiction with some missing links
#40Heh, I just started watching this. I wondered about the DNA-linked line of credit - how's that work if you can change bodies?