Riverworld (2003)

Wonderful character development!

Undescribable Perfection

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Should have been Everybody that ever lived on Earth is Resurrected naked and virgins incapable of procreating on the shores of a River. They have a metal container attached to them named a Grail, only the owner can open the "Grail".Large flashes of what appeared to be lighting strikes at only one location are seen, the Resurrected go to investigate, there they discovered a mushroom shaped "Grailstone". Using the Grails, the person that opened the Grail had food that was familiar to them (not like in the TV Series Pilot, baby food), and many other items bits of cloth, cigarettes, narcotic gum. Three times a day (breakfast, lunch, supper) the flashes occur coming from the Mushroom shaped Grailstones after the Grail Owners place their Grails on top of the mushroom shaped Grailstones. Rarely a "Open by Anybody" Grail appears on top of the Grailstones.Language was the biggest barrier, there was no Universal Translator (like in the TV Series and Movie), everybody learns Esperanto.Explorer Richard Burton wakes up naked on the Shore of the River. Being an Explorer he starts to travel, he gets killed and ends up further down stream hundreds of Miles away from where he died. Instead of walking Explorer Richard Burton commits suicide repeatedly traveling hundreds of miles downstream each time to areas occupied by Races, Cultures, Empires, of different time periods of Earth History.During his numerous times of committing suicide and being resurrected, something happened, he woke up before ending up on the shore naked. He observed a chamber of countless people in clear pods (coffins) still not resurrected.Richard Burton commits suicide and is Resurrected again, this time he is visited by a cloaked figure that warns him that by committing suicide so many times (hundreds) he has become noticed, and that the next time he might not be Resurrected. The cloaked figure tells Explorer Richard Burton if he wants answers he must go to the Polar Sea to a Tower.Explorer Richard Burton meets Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain. They compare what the had seen, there is almost no metal to make anything at "Riverworld". No Animals were Resurrected so travel by foot is the only current means or committing suicide. Riverworld has the River going north to south completely around the Entire Planet to the Polar Sea. Samuel Clemens is searching for his Wife Livy. It took a very long time for Samuel Clemens to build the Riverboat, the cloaked figure that Samuel Clements named "X" arranged a metal rich meteor to strike near where Samuel Clemens was at, causing widespread destruction and over 300,000 deaths, among the dead is his Wife Livy. Samuel Clemens starts Mining the metal, and for protection made a deal to be Allied with King John, they then formed a Nation. Samuel Clements Riverboat is built.They encountered other Explorers, one group had actually saw The Dark Tower (Stephen King must have read Riverworld), a very large black tower located in the center of the polar sea, while searching for the source of the River. Some died after seeing The Dark Tower, and were Resurrected all over Riverworld, as to how word spread so quickly.The Nation created by Samuel Clemens starts construction of an Airship, the size of the Hindenburg Airship. Built airplanes and a helicopter launched from and recovered by the Airship.They fly to The Dark Tower in the Airship. Only to discover the entrances are protected by a force field. One of the Explorers makes it into The Dark Tower, Explorer Richard Burton and Samuel Clemens suspect he was an Agent for the Creators of Riverworld they named "Ethicals", and that they have been infiltrated.Samuel Clemens and King John become Enemies.A Battle occurs between King John and Samuel Clemens, two Riverboats destroyed each other. King John is killed during aerial combat fighting Samuel Clemens, Samuel Clemens airplane crashes into the River and dies of a heart attack.Explorer Richard Burton uses a remaining ship and gets to the Polar Sea."X" is called to The Dark Tower to Stand Trial. "X" kills everybody in The Dark Tower to end the Resurrections, this also stopped the Grailstones from providing food, in the Chaos half the population of Riverworld gets killed fighting for food.Also damaged at The Dark Tower, the Computer that holds everybody's Souls that died at Riverworld, and will not be Resurrected if not repaired, their Souls will be forever lost to the Universe."X" starts killing the other Creators "Ethicals" and Agents of the Creators outside The Dark Tower.Now Pacifist Herman Goering of the Church of the Second Chance attempts to repair the Computer and is immediately killed. Alice bypasses the security and Loga repairs the Computer."X" reveals that he is not a Creator of Riverworld and had been Resurrected Centuries ago, trained by the Creators "Ethicals", and that Riverworld is a Moral Test for Humanity to become "Enlightened", those that have not become Enlightened after the Test will have their Souls released to be lost to the Universe forever.The Survivors must now figure out what to do with The Dark Tower, capabilities of the Creators of Riverworld.

An obvious "Made For SciFi Channel" movie. Although completely controlled by clichés and incongruous chances, it is a quaint and cute movie. Many of the famous/successful sci-fi writers have used many of the ideas here for basis for their works. Riverworld is a conglomeration of many good stories. It is some what of a shame that many of the main characters (good and bad) had to be formed in such a hurry at the beginning. Most of the characters were performed well by the actors. Some were a bit silly - which only takes from a good story. Luckily the script was OK, scenery was super-excellent (New Zealand I guess), and very good 'store bought' props.

RIVERWORLD is the collective title of a series of short stories and novels about life along the banks of, and on and in, a vast river where everyone who was ever born is reborn and watched over -- and occasionally manipulated by -- unseen aliens. PJ Farmer wrote some fascinating stuff in the first two or three books and then worked the theme to death, continuing on when he should have stopped. The first book in the series, TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO, is a classic and readily available in most major bookstores. The rest of the series is is no longer completely available, more's the pity. I used to own the complete collection in paperback. Next to ER Burrough's JOHN CARTER OF MARS series, the first book of which (A PRINCESS OF MARS) also is readily available and another series I also used to own in paperback, RIVERWORLD is the greatest sci-fi collection you can possibly own. Suffice it to say, the Sci-Fi Channel's adaptation of the first book or two is an abortion, and bears little resemblance to the source material. The main character, the legendary adventurer Sir Richard Burton, is missing as are several other key historic figures. The lead here becomes a typical American hero who does not exist in the books, played by Tom Berenger-lookalike Brad Johnson, who has trouble acting his way out of any paper bag he may encounter along the river. Mark Twain is on hand, but he is not the Mark Twain of the books. The magic and mystery of Farmer's novels is completely missing. Read the first three books, if you can find them, and skip this atrocity.

It could mean that I'm a bad person, but I enjoyed this movie.It probably helped a lot that I didn't read the books when viewing it. Without prior expectations from reading the book this is a good adventure story with a very interesting premise, good plot-turns and the usual weaknesses: the mandatory love-story (if you can call it that) is off-the-peg, and the hero is so bland and all-American that the only explanation is a file marked "all-purpose hero" which US film-makers get first day in their "shouting at actors 101" course. (But hey, if it works for 300 million movies, why not use it for another one.)And of course a couple of logic-holes, but all of that is too common for made-for-TV fantasy movies to really complain about it.But the supporting casts is, in my opinion, a joy: I love Sam, and the alien, and of course the main baddie. In the case of the baddie because I'm just a sucker for athletic evil bad guys making moves on the damsel in distress, extra bonus if the villain knows how to handle a sword.Sam, because he is everything an interesting hero should be: you get to learn his whole story only after a while, and he has the doubts and weaknesses and moments of indecisiveness that the first-billed character lacks. And the female lead is pretty good, too.Compared to the books or to recent LotR-movies this certainly is disappointing. Viewed as a made-for-TV movie, it's entertaining, uses original ideas and is clearly above the average. Pity the series was never made/aired.**For those who read the book before:** The movie doesn't follow the books, and for good reasons. The books were award-winning, not bestselling because they were too realistic, too thought-provoking. Too many things in them would blow the chances of a TV series pilot to smithereens. Using some dead European guy most US-Americans never heard of as a protagonist wasn't half of the problem, but keep in mind how irreligious and pragmatic he was (remember his idea on how to get strips for binding material? See what I mean?) and the occurrence of drugs, sex and violence and it should be clear that changes had to be made. I prefer whole-hearted changes that create new heroes and situations to half-hearted ones which leave a shell of the book-character.As it is, the movie isn't retelling the book, it's just loosely based on it. It uses the settings and some plot ideas of the book, but with changes to make sure that main stream audiences won't be put off. If that's acceptable to you, this might be an interesting movie for you.