I’ve started reading Jumper by NameDoesNotMatter. I would like to formally apologise about all the harsh things I’ve ever spoken about that film.

Fine, the cast is unlikeable and the action scenes are just fisticuffs in the air, but my god, in comparison to the teenage dreck that is the book, it’s a masterpiece. At least they tried to build a credible back story for the main character.

In the book, he literally thinks everyone is out to sexually assault him (and somehow they seem to), he solves his problems by throwing money at it, instead of any actual creativity, and the author desperately tries to portray him as a mature-for-his-age adult, despite the fact that his first reaction to anything is crying followed by petty revenge.

I’m just flicking through the pages, pausing at any plot bits, and then flicking on.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
    412·
    7 months ago

    Starship Troopers was a far different story in each medium, but I think the movie is much more worthy of your time

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
        291·
        7 months ago

        I think the story and messaging of the movie is just amazing. We get to see the decline of Rico into a fascist mouthpiece, the casual disregard for human life and the way society warps us all. What starts out as perceived funny-ha-ha jokes in the opening act (the kid saying “I’ll serve too”) is retroactively depressing by the end of the film where Herr Commisar NPH shows how trivial the whole war is.

    • tetris11@lemmy.mlOP
      42·
      7 months ago

      +1 the movie is pure epic satire

      I do like PKD as an author, I just never quite liked Starship Troopers the book, even though it’s got some nice Forever War vibes to it

      • livus@kbin.social
        13·
        7 months ago

        Probably because Starship Troopers isn’t PKD. It’s Heinlein.

        Kind of funny to imagine what it would have been like if it had been written by PKD. Johny Rico would have spent 1/3 of the book going through a divorce and the troopers would have all been on halucinogens.

        • tetris11@lemmy.mlOP
          51·
          7 months ago

          oh whoops, I’ve made that mistake for X years then. Solves a mystery too - I hate Heinlein. Stranger in a strange land was dull.

          • pearable@lemmy.ml
            4·
            7 months ago

            The only book of his I’d recommend is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It’s quite Anarcho Capitalist, and sexist in places but it’s an interesting revolution story regardless and has some interesting ideas in it

      • soli@infosec.pub
        81·
        7 months ago

        Starship Troopers is Heinlein not Dick, and it’s fascist nonsense. Verhoeven was right to throw the book in the bin after two chapters and the movie rules.

        • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
          121·
          7 months ago

          Heinlein experiments with loads of social structures and governments. Starship Troopers is the fascist example, not an example of all his work.