If you've been waiting for a truly decent adaptation of a classic Heinlein novel, you'll have to wait a bit longer. Netflix's newly-released take on "The Door Into Summer" is another sad botch job, taking what was a thoughtful and interesting (though incestuous) novel and turning it into a goofy romantic/comedic/high-schoolish mess.
A few problems with this film:
1) Actors who look to actually be in high school and whose talent shows it.
2) Changes to the plot (probably to keep the production costs to a minimum) that end up ruining the story. Rather than being set in 1970 and 2000, it's set in 1995 and 2025. The problem here is that the protagonist is a roboticist who's created household robots that don't yet exist and is put into commercial cryosleep, a process that also doesn't exist. These plot devices worked for a novel written in 1957, where 1970 and 2000 were both in the future, but not a movie made in 2021. I suspect this was all done, again, to keep costs down, but it makes the story nonsensical.
3) The addition of the character Android Pete. Done, I would guess, because the original novel is largely a one-person show, but the addition of Pete changes the protagonist from a solitary, independent thinker/actor into a wide-eyed goofy doofus. They also blew most of the special effects budget on Pete's 'open the chest and see the cool glowing battery' scene.
4) The dialogue straight out of anime. At times it literally caused me pain.
5) The rest you can find for yourself. You'll probably be hitting the forward 10 seconds button quite a bit because the movie is leaden-paced.
Someday, someone may create a film adaptation of Heinlein that's worth watching. He certainly wrote enough novels that would make excellent movies. Any of his juveniles, for instance. Or a version of "Starship Troopers" that actually follows the novel and doesn't turn it into a ridiculous farce. Probably not "Stranger in a Strange Land", for obvious reasons. Maybe there's a parallel universe where "Tunnel in the Sky" or "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" exist as film classics. I like to think so, because Heinlen's works deserve better than they've seen in this universe.
At least they didn't make this one into a series...
A few problems with this film:
1) Actors who look to actually be in high school and whose talent shows it.
2) Changes to the plot (probably to keep the production costs to a minimum) that end up ruining the story. Rather than being set in 1970 and 2000, it's set in 1995 and 2025. The problem here is that the protagonist is a roboticist who's created household robots that don't yet exist and is put into commercial cryosleep, a process that also doesn't exist. These plot devices worked for a novel written in 1957, where 1970 and 2000 were both in the future, but not a movie made in 2021. I suspect this was all done, again, to keep costs down, but it makes the story nonsensical.
3) The addition of the character Android Pete. Done, I would guess, because the original novel is largely a one-person show, but the addition of Pete changes the protagonist from a solitary, independent thinker/actor into a wide-eyed goofy doofus. They also blew most of the special effects budget on Pete's 'open the chest and see the cool glowing battery' scene.
4) The dialogue straight out of anime. At times it literally caused me pain.
5) The rest you can find for yourself. You'll probably be hitting the forward 10 seconds button quite a bit because the movie is leaden-paced.
Someday, someone may create a film adaptation of Heinlein that's worth watching. He certainly wrote enough novels that would make excellent movies. Any of his juveniles, for instance. Or a version of "Starship Troopers" that actually follows the novel and doesn't turn it into a ridiculous farce. Probably not "Stranger in a Strange Land", for obvious reasons. Maybe there's a parallel universe where "Tunnel in the Sky" or "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" exist as film classics. I like to think so, because Heinlen's works deserve better than they've seen in this universe.
At least they didn't make this one into a series...