It took me over two years to watch HBO’s remake of one of my most beloved novels, Fahrenheit 451. I wish I had waited 20 years to watch it because now that I have seen it, I can not unsee it.
I could have filled this review with a long list of swear words, but I am a much better writer than that. I can’t say the same for Ramin Bahrani, who wrote and directed this dumpster fire of a movie.
Words will never be able to describe the hatred I have for this movie. Bahrani took a brilliant story, way ahead of its time, and tried to give it an even more modern spin. In my honest opinion, he did a terrible job at it. I want to think that Ray Bradbury turned over in his grave when he finally had a chance to watch one of his masterpieces go up in smoke.
I can’t even blame the main cast, including Michael B. Jordan, Michael Shannon, and Sofia Nutella. They probably read the original book and watched 1966 for research, but were already signed onto the project and needed the paycheque.
No one will ever be able to convince this modern take of the story is excellent. That the concepts Bahrani came up with, like The Eels, were something that Bradbury couldn’t have come up with when he first wrote the novel. I’ve seen many futuristic movies, and even those concepts are not as stupid as those depicted in this film.
Those of you who know me personally know that I was a volunteer firefighter for several years while pursuing my education in the field. Movies about firefighters have always had a special place in my heart. Backdraft was my favourite movie for almost two decades, so I was pretty upset how lame Backdraft 2 turned out to be. Fahrenheit 451 also holds a special place; however, this 2018 version of the story is leaps and bounds worse than the sequel to the most fantastic firefighter movie ever made.
My personal and professional advice is to never watch this movie. Don’t give HBO the benefit of the doubt. They can produce many great things, like Game of Thrones, but even they dropped the ball in the final season. Here, they took one of the greatest sci-fi stories of our time and lit on fire and walked away. 1/10 (Totally deserved a zero)
Ten Stars or Less 