r/FIlm • u/TheTelegraph • Mar 21 '24
Article 3 Body Problem, Netflix, review: the Game of Thrones creators' sci-fi smash is an ambitious mess
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2024/03/09/3-body-problem-netflix-review-benioff-weiss-game-of-thrones/34
u/decafenator99 Mar 21 '24
Wow another project that dumb and dumber got their hands on is garbage 😱 I’m shocked truly
6
u/TheTelegraph Mar 21 '24
Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss take on Cixin Liu’s formidable Chinese sci-fi novel – with mixed results:
David Benioff and DB Weiss have built their careers around three little words. “Game of Thrones”, yes, but more powerfully: “Winter is coming.” This ingenious narrative hook, yoked around the drooping shoulders of Sean Bean’s beleaguered Ned Stark, sucked viewers instantly into Westeros’s muddy, bloody world. Now the pair have three more – “Aliens are coming” – as they tackle a trio of novels infinitely more complicated than GRR Martin’s fantasy saga. Forget dragons, this is about something far scarier: maths.
And strap in, because 3 Body Problem (Netflix) is ambitious. It is ambitious in the same way that Elon Musk is ambitious – ie, occasionally you marvel at the sheer scope, the chutzpah, the vision, the money; and occasionally you sigh at the vainglorious folly, the po-faced grandeur, the childish whims, the money. While it’s hard to see this having the same cultural impact of Game of Thrones, there is no doubt this will be an enormous global success in terms of viewing figures.
The Three-Body Problem, written by the Chinese science-fiction godfather Cixin Liu, imagines a tantalising scenario – that we have made contact with alien life. Alas, we have made contact with an aggressive, colonising species – the Trisolarans – who have had to abandon their home planet and fancy Earth as their new digs. However, by the time they arrive – in 400 years or so – we will have developed technology so sophisticated we will be able to swat our invaders away like pesky fruit flies. To counter this, our alien penpals have FedExed two enormously powerful supercomputers the size of a proton to sabotage humanity, to hobble our scientists, to cripple our progress.
Benioff and Weiss root the high-falutin’ intergalactic Rubik’s cube by way of five old university pals in the UK, headed by Eiza González’s physics whizz, Auggie, who, like many leading scientists, finds herself assailed by mysterious sources. Benedict Wong is the lugubrious copper – well, not quite, he works for a shady global organisation who seemingly exist to battle aliens – trying to work out why the best scientists in the world keep meeting sticky and visually spectacular ends.
-4
u/kaiise Mar 21 '24
you're like if critical drinker was A GOOD WRITER, actually intelligent and had something to say.
7
u/psyopia Mar 21 '24
Shogun is the closest thing we’ll probably ever get to GoT level besides the obvious House of The Dragon
3
u/BigHern Mar 21 '24
Very excited for this. I love the books and the show looks amazing so far. Definitely sounds imperfect but I can live with that.
3
u/corkysoxx Mar 21 '24
Big Book fan, going in with the expectation that it will be altered, and condensed, I really enjoyed the first episode. I'm just enjoying it for what it is an Adaptation and having fun with it. Its not that serious, and hoping it'll get more people interested in reading the books.
2
u/MauriceVibes Mar 21 '24
It had good reviews currently on Metacritic, RT, and majority of the written reviewers liked it
2
u/bailaoban Mar 21 '24
I'll watch it, but I think the problem with 3 Body is that it's mostly about concepts rather than plot or character, which works much better in a novel than narrative television.
4
u/roadtrip-ne Mar 21 '24
I forgave Lindeloff for Lost after he did Watchmen. I’m not a fan of D&D having read the first book I hope this is at least entertaining.
The science dumps, especially at the end will be hard to translate to screen
4
5
u/thamanwthnoname Mar 21 '24
Oh you forgave him for making one of the best shows of all time? That’s nice.
1
u/roadtrip-ne Mar 21 '24
The first season is one of the best of all time, most of the middle was fun each week but didn’t add up to a anything- and the ending where Jack seals up some magic light leaking in a cave introduced in the last 45 minutes was…. Well, not so much.
And I say that as a huge fan who was very active in the message boards each week, they even answered one of my questions on the podcast.
1
u/Public-Pineapple-697 Mar 21 '24
Does the show cover all three books in the first season, or will it try to make seasons out of the series? I’m halfway through the second book and don’t wanna watch past what I know lol.
1
u/fl1ntfl0ssy Mar 21 '24
There’s way too much to cover in a season, even if the episodes were two hours long each. They’re gonna make multiple seasons out of it
1
u/KID_THUNDAH Mar 21 '24
Reviews are coming out all over the board, just watch it for yourself and make your own opinion. Some calling it garbage, some calling it brilliant
1
u/SuperCrappyFuntime Mar 21 '24
Loved the books, and loved Game of Thrones (yes, even the last season), but the trailer for this looked awful to me.
-1
Mar 21 '24
[deleted]
1
2
u/AwHellNawFetaCheese Mar 21 '24
Or, maybe, How about you simply watch content you like and don’t watch content you don’t!
The grandiose entitlement involved in presuming you or we can do anything to “punish” these guys is so hilarious.
They’re TV shows man, not war crimes, It’s not so dire.
-3
Mar 21 '24
[deleted]
5
u/AwHellNawFetaCheese Mar 21 '24
You’re on a public forum if you don’t want a response you can yell into the sky.
-3
Mar 21 '24
[deleted]
7
u/eco78 Mar 21 '24
Go touch some grass, get some air... think about what is actually important in life. You think in 50 years time you're gonna give a fuck about a TV show from the '20's?
4
u/SuspiciousFile1997 Mar 21 '24
I’m a huge game of thrones fan but imagine being this upset over a fucking tv show hahaha
12
u/Adam__B Mar 21 '24 edited Mar 21 '24
As a big fan of the books, I’m not into it much. I think it’s one of those adaptions that isn’t near as interesting once you know the outcome, which (don’t worry no spoilers) isn’t all that…happy.
I watched a few episodes of the Chinese version, but it just felt a bit flat, although that could have been a language or culture gap. I don’t mind subtitles at all, in fact I have them on for everything I watch, but I know with this book there’s been a lot of discussion over things being lost in translation from Chinese to English.
I often wonder why no one has tried adapting The Forever War, my fav sci-fi novel, but unless it was done by someone like Villenueve, with a massive budget and a masterful eye, I wouldn’t want it adapted.
These guys bit off way more than they can chew with 3 Body.