Admittedly, the book Johnny Mnemonic is complicated and any film without a gazillion dollar budget is unlikely to come close to conveying the all-out weirdness of the book. I mean, have you read it? So much stuff packed in there, in William Gibson’s characteristically lean prose. Sheesh! It’s the same hard problem with making Dune into a decent movie. It’s not even the unavoidable cost of a worldbuilding movie, it’s the concepts underlying everything therein that have to be made interesting and understandable.
Sometimes I think of the film Johnny Mnemonic as the warmup run for Keanu Reeves’ lead in The Matrix. I have quibbles with the casting of its minor characters.
It’s true the movie does have some of its moments. I think Reeves’ got some poor direction from Robert Longo. Reeves’ performance in Johnny… lacked nuance and if you look at the film itself, you see that the set dressing and human dressing (“costuming”) refer to Longo’s artwork. Longo’s performance art pieces probably did ok–I have no idea–but maybe having him direct a feature length film was just not a uh… perfect outlet for the man’s creativity. Some things do get lost in translation.
Imagine if the film had been directed by Ridley Scott, or James Cameron, or Stanley Kubrick, or Adrian Lyne. Or even the folks who brought us the [British] pilot episode of Max Headroom. No idea who gave it to Robert Longo to direct, but what was she/he thinking?
ETA: included a link re worldbuilding
ETA again: Keanu has the last name “Reeves” not “Reeve” --sorry Keanu if you are reading this! I corrected it! Don’t be sad!
