Saw The Adjustment Bureau the other day.

[SheilaT]

It was practically flawless, in my opinion. The internal logic was exquisite, much better than is usual for any movie, let alone a science-fictional movie.

Has anyone else seen it?

[phantom power]

1. was it exquisite in a solipsistic sort of way, or a more clever way?

[SheilaT]

2. Let me pput it this way:

Usually when I get out of a movie I grouse a lot about the flaws, the illogical plotting, the lapses in logic. I can be quite annoy to attend a movie with.

After this movie there was nothing to complain about. There was no point where I was stopped in my tracks, saying, "Whoa, Dude! THAT doesn't work like that!" There is a minor detail that all of the people in the Adjustment Bureau are men, and given our supposedly egalitarian society today, and that you find women in pretty much all occupations, it was noticeable. But not in a way that made me disbelieve in the story being told.

I'm at a bit of a loss for words here, since I usually notice and complain about lots of flaws in virtually all movies, and there was nothing to complain about here. At least not for me.

What frustrates me a lot when I see most s-f movies is that they're made by people who certainly know how to make movies, but who seem to know very little about science fiction.

[phantom power]

4. The writing is a pet peeve of mine.

You could hire really good writers for, like, the cost of the catering. In fact, you could probably have them write and pay them in catering leftovers.

And why can't they at least drop a few thousand bucks to have somebody consult on the technobabble? I realize that 9/10 people will never know the difference, but then why not write *good* technobabble? For the love of god, throw a damn bone to the other 10%.

x(

[SheilaT]

5. I long ago decided that people in Hollywood

are sufficiently insulated from what the rest of us know as the real world, that they really, really don't get it that there are a surprising number of people out there who know stuff, and who get irritated when they get basic facts wrong.

The other thing is that they don't understand that sticking a little closer to the truth, or to actual physics, will in the end make a much more interesting story.

For instance, I love time travel stories, and it does not bother me in the least that time travel itself probably is not possible in our universe. Just don't go back in time and have some factual thing wrong in the past, UNLESS you clearly set it up as an alternate history, or a change that the time travel occurred.

I just got the Dick collection that contains the story The Adjustment Team from the library today, and I plan to read it at work. Lucky me, I have a job where I can do some reading while on duty.

[Dr. Strange]

3. Saw it.

I went and got my PKD collection out to re-read the story it was based on, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Anyway, I liked it, although I thought it was somewhat funny that the two main characters were fighting (well, Matt Damon, really) to get together. Like they were determined to find love, against the Bureau's wishes, when in fact it was the Bureau's original plan that was causing them to keep finding each other. That should have made their brains melt.