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Self-Punishment

To be fair -- and because I'm slightly masochistic when it comes to SF -- I watched Three-Body, the Chinese 30-episode version of Netflix's 3 Body Problem that I so disliked. I preferred the Chinese version, as it seemed to have less finger wagging and more story (I found out later it's also more faithful to the book.) The gender of one of the main characters was flipped, and there were a lot more characters in this one. It still proved rather disheartening. It's also very slow and doesn't get to the point as quickly.

There were a couple of outlandish bits of technology that required so much suspension of disbelief that I couldn't really accept them in the Netflix version, and they're back in this one, so they must come from the novel. No, I'm not reading the book, either. The technology is utterly ridiculous no matter how you dress it up or change the characters. Actually, the pivotal scene with one was basically identical to one of the more gruesome scenes in the American horror flick Ghost Ship. Finally there's a scene with a police officer shooting a nuclear device that is so beyond what would actually happen if that were done that I cringed a bit. Okay, that's all my gripes.

On the upside, the special effects were more interesting and involved in this one. You get a true sense of the antagonist, but also why they got there. There's one character who annoyed me from the start (the cop) and ended up being my favorite of the entire cast. I also found it startling that they basically criticized so much of the communist movement in China during its fledgling years; I never would have thought they'd get this past the censors.

I'm on the fence as to if I want to recommend this story in any form to anyone, but I'm glad I got another perpective on it. If you don't mind all the gripes, the silly technology, the disgusting scene and the depressing aspects, it's available to watch on Viki.com.

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