it's the rare trilogy that saves the biggest ideas for the second half, and the ending just somehow expands without losing the theme, at the exact point that most writers start mechanically stitching up loose threads
just curious because a few trusted friends did bail out before the end of book one. I totally get requiring plausibly human dialogue - maybe that's a translation / cultural thing, but like the Foundation trilogy, much of that is also the point when the main subject is history, haplessly served by the characters. one scene that really stays with me is the tombstone as perceived by the ant crawling around on it, allowing you to read the tombstone without leaving the frame of ant consciousness. "you're bugs!" etc
definitely recommending it to just about everyone but it is huge, so... hopes were high for this film being watchable. I think most US watchers might find the action-movie structure imitative and sub-Marvel, but for me right beneath the surface style, every cultural / visual marker gave food for thought. would watch again in the right context (& especially on a bigger screen - the visuals were ridiculous - if they did this for $50 million, it is admittedly a wake-up call)
― Milton Parker, Monday, 13 May 2019 22:03 (four years ago) link
Only halfway through this so far, but I don't think the visuals are all that great. I mean i like the grander, planet-sized vistas, but every sort of close up all-CGI scene, like the vehicles racing around the world, look like sub-AAA videogame cutscenes. I did spend 10 minutes at the start of the movie engaged because it felt a little off, and a big blockbuster feeling a little off, a little unlike what's expected, is welcome. But from then on the characters just got dumber and more one-dimensional, the acting is bad and the action unexciting.
Let's see how it ends!
― abcfsk, Tuesday, 14 May 2019 07:36 (four years ago) link
xp the friend I recommended it to also got stuck early in book 1. the comparison to Foundation is a good one - both are much more focused on ideas and systems than characters or dialogue, and I'm not surprised to see people dislike them on those grounds. somehow Three-Body has even less memorable characters than Foundation, not that it hurt my enjoyment of it at all
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 14 May 2019 09:04 (four years ago) link
Re the trilogy, I was enjoying it with reservations until the end of book one properly introduced the aliens, and they were as boring as fuck.
― And according to some websites, there were “sexcapades.” (James Morrison), Wednesday, 15 May 2019 01:26 (four years ago) link
lol this film is so good
― mark s, Thursday, 7 May 2020 22:03 (three years ago) link
I started this:
We Are Bugs in this thread for The Three-Body Problem 三体 and its various adaptations
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 28 July 2023 05:03 (eight months ago) link
Saw this yesterday v enjoyable.
"and casually breezed-through plot points like 3.5 billion being considered expendable -- wow is that Chinese"
Thought this one was OK to explain away with the drawing of lots but maybe people couldn't build underground cities fast enough, plus a lot of ppl died in events like floods
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 14 April 2024 08:54 (one week ago) link
Thought a lot of that section is the nearest to the kinds of things that are coming with climate change :-(
But it had to zap through. Didn't understand a lot like, what is Moss' game here? It was very funny how he was overcome, biggest laugh from me.
Quite like to read the story.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 14 April 2024 09:04 (one week ago) link
apparerently it's abt three bodies and this problem they have
― mark s, Sunday, 14 April 2024 13:18 (one week ago) link