alt Hacker NewsNeuromancer is my favorite book. Not one of, but the one.
After watching the trailer I must say that the overall vibe is substantially off. Very pretty, but it lacks the perpetually disoriented, if you will, atmosphere that dominates the narration in the book. It's all too clean and predictable in the trailer.
But it is a difficult book to adapt, I will give them that.
Replies
The best books usually are quite difficult to adapt. It's a lot easier to give characters internality because you can just say what they're thinking in a book quickly in a way that's jarring in a show or movie. I can't remember the last time I heard an internal dialog on a show.
It's disoriented because Case is disoriented; he is a pinball being hit by bumpers and levers.
Except when he's in cyberspace; that's where he has enough expertise to have agency. But he's still, mostly, being used.
Yeah, this is what I bounced off hard when I watched the trailers also - too clean. No edge. Where's the punk in any of this?
No thanks. Pass.
Trailer doesn't match the way I pictured it when I read it as a kid (which wasn't that long after it was published).
That's fine, that's usually the case, few adaptations get close to what you build in your head (The Expanse did, it pretty much nailed that which is I suspect why I liked it so much) but yeah, the world looks too clean.
Looks bad. It does not look nowhere near as dark and dystopic. Looks like a comic con in NYC. Altered Carbon S1 nailed it, also Ghost in the Shell (the live action film with Scarlett Johanson)... that's like peak cyberpunk aesthetic in recent years, this looks like too pretty on purpose. Cast looks weak as well.
Agree. Had this conversation with a good friend; we both very much enjoyed the books.
My main problem: it feels far too clean and fan-servicy, which is weird to consider, given I’m a fan of the source material.
I don’t want to be pandered to, as a fan. This feels too safe and polished. I don’t want the Apple Store version of The Sprawl.
Yeah, i'd agree looks way to clean.
I think the trailer has a generic action movie vibe which feels offputting.
William Gibson himself worked on it so my hopes are high. All great books are difficult to adapt and none of them will ever match what we imagined ourselves while reading them.
Trailer here: https://youtu.be/g79GPZSQHBk?si=pKhadWftcz8WMjyW
Waaaaaay to clean. The video started in 240p and looked promising but no. Also whatsup with the Gaspar Noe title screens
Neuromancer is my favorite book. Not one of, but the one.
Same.
After watching the trailer I must say that the overall vibe is substantially off.
Possibly. I'm not sure the trailer give us enough to really conclude that. But here's the thing... at least for me: it doesn't matter. I mean, I don't expect an adaptation of Neuromancer to be an exact match for my mental image of Neuromancer. It is, after all, an adaptation. It's going to be different. And - up to some ill-defined point - that's OK.
I just remind myself that if I want Neuromancer the way I see it in my head, I can always just read the novel again. But watching this show, I'll be trying to remind myself that it is its own work and that I shouldn't judge it by what's in my head. Hopefully I can just sit back and enjoy it and not spend too much time thinking "Oooh, that's not what the Chat is supposed to look like" or "He doesn't look like Ratz", etc.
Is there a line "too far" where it might be so different that it makes it hard to impossible for me to enjoy? I suppose. But at the very least I'm not going to make any assumptions off a 1:10 long trailer.
But it is a difficult book to adapt,
Indeed. I'm no screenwriter, so maybe this doesn't mean much, but I can't even really begin to imagine how you would adapt this and really capture all of what makes it so unique. I'm just hoping they did a reasonably credible job.