in some ways better than the novel, in some ways worse, but a very beautiful adaption

Rating: 10/10 (15 September 2013)

after recently finishing the novel i decided to give this movie another watch. i watched it in theaters when it came out and liked it a lot, and my opinion of it improved even more with the second watching
why this bombed at the box office i cannot understand. special effects, cast and acting are awesome, and while i like long movies in general i have yet to see another movie that seems so short and without any lengths even though being 3 hours long.
time just flies by as you watch a mesmerizing whirlwind of character archetypes playing out their roles again and again through different times. compared to the book, the repetition of motives and actions by the same kind of people stands out even more in the movie, thanks to the nice trick of using the same actors for same personalities through all times.
the movie heavily changes the plot line in many of the sub-stories, which was a necessity since the novel would have been impossible to make into anything less than 8 hours long otherwise. some of the changes are made out of necessity of shortening and simplifying individual plot lines, some of them actually improve the story by adding even more deja-vues and connections, like Vivian Ayrs the composer living in the same house later used as aurora home for the elderly, instead of living in french- speaking Bruges like in the book. adding another language would have been pushing it too far anyways, since the movie is already demanding with its multitude of dialects spoken throughout different times.
some changes seem a bit forced however, such as the oil industry instead of nuclear power being the big evil in the 70s plot line, a change that ended up not making much sense at all, and just served to push an agenda, like the inclusion of global warming in the Neo Seoul plot line. the post-apocalyptic plot line in the far future gets changed the most, and ends up making not much sense at all (why do the Prescients not just fly up the mountain? why do they not use their advanced weaponry to help the valley people fight the Kona? why do they need to send a signal for help to colonies? the whole concept of outer space colonies saving mankind from earth makes little sense scientifically), however i have to say that the book had its logical flaws as well, and these can be overlooked in a work of this scale.
one of the main topics of the book, the rise of a corpocracy and the description of the future in Neo-Seoul, was basically dropped from the script in favor of more action, a decision i find understandable since there is not that many chances to have special-effects-laden action scenes in the other plot lines, and which ends up working okay in my opinion.
the topic of slavery is even more pronounced than in the book, and although i disliked that the movie chose to simplify here and stereotypically show white people as the enslavers of Atua in the earliest plot line, instead of Maori people like in the book, this can be excused with the necessary streamlining and simplification of all plot lines.
all in all, this was a way better movie adaption of a nearly unadaptable book than anyone could hope for. i liked both the movie and the book, they both have their strengths and weaknesses. the book might be overly long at times, while the movie might sometimes be overly simple and not making much sense. but overall it is a masterpiece, and way better than anything anyone could expect from the Wachowskis after they totally botched the matrix sequels.
why it gets so much hate is clear as well: it offends a lot of people with its esoteric concepts like re-birth, and maybe even moreso with homosexuality and trans-gender themes. but if you are not a close-minded bigot, and are not annoyed by the constantly switching between plot lines, i see absolutely no reason why you should not love this movie.