Terrible is an understatement. Every day I eagerly scan tech news site in the hope that someone will have invented a time machine so I can warn my past self to avoid delving into that godawful word turd.
I can't even begin to imagine how shitastic the film adaptation is going to be in all it's saccharine glory, with Spielberg at the helm.
I can appreciate RPO for what it is. Here on GAF was the first time I'd heard just how shitastic it is. Almost overtly so. It was a unique take on a dystopian future, with lots of pop culture references told through a VR lens, with a premise/treasure hunt that kept me engaged enough that I wasn't at all disgusted I'd spent the time reading it. A bland main character, and a terrible romance though. It ended up in the realm of that was alright. A light entertaining read. The 80's nostalgia is reaching a threshold I admit, I grew up during that time, so the nods to 80's pop culture had a higher amount of resonance. If you've developed a growing resentment for it, I can see where the disgust comes from its everywhere. Cline's writing isn't the best prose, not by a long shot, but the novel's premise and popularity, especially given recent VR developments like Occulus definitely lent to its appeal. It was clever enough to end up attracting Spielberg who has contributed to the pop culture the novel idealizes. And as someone who adores his films, especially those during the 80's, even,his most saccharine films, I was pretty happy learning he was tackling it. I liked that shit when I was a kid, and I still like that shit as an adult.
Still, the adaptation has to make some decent changes to transition to film, and I hope they've cracked it, but I think it could work. Immediately discounting its possibility seems a bit too rigid, the premise IS pretty damned cool. There isn't many directors that could actually do it, and have it work, but definitively, Spielberg is one of them. I hope he has a blast with the material, deftly navigates some of the dumb stuff in the book, and brings us a solid pop culture scifi adventure.
