My Thoughts: The Adjustment Bureau

I was hesitant of The Adjustment Bureau when it was first released. From what I gathered, it looked like a different version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But then again, I've been skeptical of most movies. When I first saw the preview of Inception, I saw The Matrix meets Dark City. And then when I saw Inception and was just blown away.

The Adjustment Bureau is loosely based of the Philip K. Dick short story The Adjustment Team. Dick passed away in 1982, but many of his stories would adapted into films, which included Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report. Dick enjoyed playing with the future, science and politics and some of those elements transfered to the films. Blade Runner with the use of androids, Total Recall with its clash between real and false memories and Minority Report with the concept of thought police. So, the idea of an organization that was in charge of destiny intrigued me. It was also then I realized that this was not Eternal Sunshine.

I enjoyed the movie. The visual effects were really good. Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie and Terrance Stamp gave good performances. I want to say I liked the plot, and well...I liked the idea of the plot...but there was just something missing. Compared to the other adapted films, this one just didn't quite meet my standards. It was better than Scanner Darkly, but by no means did it reach Blade Runner. Like I said though, there was just something missing from the story that could have put it over the edge for me.

I know that director George Nolfi was trying to go with this message of fate, destiny, free will and borderline religion, but I felt he could have pushed the envelope more. It wasn't as thought provoking as Children of Men or The Matrix.

The other issue is, after Inception, it will be hard for me to watch other science fiction movies. Just like after The Dark Knight, my expectations of comic book based movies changed.

But, it still was a good movie for me, held my interests and was very enjoyable.

The next Philip K. Dick adaptation that I know of will be another version of Total Recall. But it won't be an exact remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film, as producer Neal Moritz said it will be more close to the original story. This version will have Collin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Bryan Cranston and Jessica Biel. It is scheduled for release on August 3, 2012.