Poll: dystopian fiction, stages of grief, comedians, eating animals, ladies,and security

[deeplyunhip]

I'm feeling like I'm not terribly behind on everything today, which is an unusual feeling for me lately. In any case, this means it's poll time. :D

Comments

Never ask me to elaborate on films or comics, tl;dr will ensue

[matitablu]

Gattaca is a movie starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law. Basically it's set in a future where genetic engineering has made the birth of "perfect" people possible. This basically creates a class divide between people born the natural way and those who are the result of eugenics. Hawke's character is natural-born and has a heart condition that is likely going to kill him before he hits 30, and makes him unsuited for the space program he dreams of joining. So he buys the identity of Jude Law's character (blood and urine tests included), who is genetically flawless but became disabled after an accident. Then there's Uma Thurman who befriends/falls in love with Ethan Hawke at the space program. Her genetic profile is considered "valid" but only barely so, so in a way she is right in the middle of the genetic class divide. This is the premise, then other things happen :) I haven't seen this movie in ages but I still recommend it, I found it fascinating - not to mention visually very pretty.

As for VfV... well, aside from the usual problems with adaptations - compressed storylines, secondary characters being cut, etc., which is understandable - the comic was more radical, in a way that probably wouldn't have been acceptable in a post-9/11 film, so again, I can see the reason for the change, but I can't help but feel the movie is a bit bland in comparison. But most of all I guess I was bothered by V and Evie's characterizations. Comic!Evie is little more than a child, poor, scared and kept ignorant by the regime. Meeting V is less about her gaining political awareness than it is about her coming of age story. I'm not saying that's entirely missing from the movie, but film!Evie just feels like a different character to me most of the time. She's an adult with a respectable job and her "issue" is that she tries to fly under the radar and live her life instead of directly opposing the regime, but that's pretty much it. Again: it's a valid choice in the context of the movie, and I think that such a character represents the majority of people living under oppressive regimes, so it's an interesting POV to explore. But with the comic in mind, to me it feels like movie!Evie just had to climb a few steps to get to her final evolution, while her comic counterpart had to climb - if not crawl, in the beginning - up the whole staircase. It just goes straight to your guts, in a way that the movie never quite achieved for me (though the Valerie letter scene is appropriately heartwrenching even in film form).

V himself is more ambiguous and less nice in the comic, and his relationship with Evie reflects this... while I feel in the movie it was more distinctly romanticized, telling too many things about V when he is supposed to remain kind of an enigma. Etc. etc. haha, I have So Many Feelings about this book, I read it first at an impressionable age and it shows, I guess!

Re: Never ask me to elaborate on films or comics, tl;dr will ensue

[deeplyunhip]

What you call "tl;dr" I call "answering the question(s) in an awesomely thorough manner". ;)

Gattaca does indeed sound fascinating, as hard as it is to believe that someone as gorgeous as Ethan Hawke is not one of the genetically superior elite. :X I'm putting it on my mental "things to see" list, for sure. :)

And yeah, changing the entire personalities of the two main characters - I can see why you have issues!