Fahrenheit 451 (2018) - A tame vision of the future - 6/10 (22/10/18)

Fahrenheit 451 was an imaginative dystopian science-fiction novel written by visionary Ray Bradbury. Despite its age, the content of the novel in times of omnipresent social media and overtly influential politicians has become more important than ever. The idea to merge the core idea of the novel with our contemporary society sounds like an exciting idea on paper. However, the movie is only good at best and doesn't capitalize on its enormous potential.

On the positive side, the movie evokes a realistic near future with social media and modern technology that look rather close to what we already have nowadays. The film evokes a constantly gloomy atmosphere that suits the sinisters topics that are dealt with. This movie has enough similarities to the novel yet adds a few fresh ideas here and there to make it stand on its own. While this has been criticized by fans and critics alike, I prefer a cleverer and more free-spirited adaptation of a novel than a film that blindly follows a story written half a century ago. Being creative and pushing the boundaries are key messages of the source material and it would have been ironic if the movie hadn't respected these by just projecting the actions and dialogues written such a long time ago onto the big screen. Those who criticize director and writer Ramin Bahrani that he hasn't understood the novel are actually quite wrong and have probably not understood the novel themselves.

Still, the movie has enough other flaws to discuss. First of all, the story is lacking depth and details. The explanations about the background story leading to the events portrayed in the movie remain vague. The personal story of the protagonist could have been a little bit more fleshed out to make him more sympathetic. The love story between him and the female lead character remains shallow and just ins't credible. The acting performances are at times lacking depth. The protagonist could be a little bit more profound and emotional. The female lead character is less developed than certain side characters. One could have expected more stunning special and visual effects from a movie that takes place in the future but the modest budget might be to blame here. The soundtrack could have also been more impressive and memorable. One shouldn't ignore the fact that the market has been flooded with dystopian science-fiction films since the beginning of the millennium and a movie of this kind needs to be particularly well-executed to leave a mark. This one here doesn't leave a mark.

In the end, Fahrenheit 451 is an entertaining movie but will soon be forgotten because it fails to add anything fresh to a genre which I adore but that has been overtly popular over the past two decades. If you look for a movie with similar motives that has more depth, you should watch Equilibrium instead.