Nice visuals but loses most of Philip Dick's story

Rating: 4/10 (8 May 2008)

OK, so this is supposedly this great sci-fi noir classic of our time. Ridley Scott did do well with the visuals for the time, but most of the "deep" stuff of Dick's story is gone as well as even the simple slang and feeling that gets you there. So much of the original story is discarded or else traded for cheap skin shots that it really should be remade with some integrity to the great story is supposedly derives from. This is about as close to "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" as the horrible Starship Troopers film is like the book. The whole concept of the pet animals is missing and the reason for the Andys to come to earth is completely wrong. The androids or andys as Dick calls them are trying to find a spiritual experience the way humans flock to Mercerism. Even the excellent idea of the mood organ is gone. Lots of screen time is spent on stupid shots of the probably expensive to construct scenery that could have been used to actually insert more of the original story elements. I recently viewed this again after rereading the book and couldn't wait for this sci-fi shooter to be done. Read the book or listen to the unabridged audio-book and you'll agree.