A Scanner Darkly

Dick's dark visions are faithfully imprinted on the film form. I appreciate how Linklater can play with hints and leave many motifs to the audience’s imagination, just as this iconic writer liked to do with his readers. On the other hand, the film lacks a more authorial approach that would have pumped the film up into a more distinctive position, and the original creative aspects are not good enough in this case because it soon starts to get bogged down in the rambling narrative style. Regardless, P.K. D. would be pleased. 3 ½. (11/21/2009)

What Blade Runner represents in the field of live-action film, A Scanner Darkly represents in the world of animated film. It's one of the few films that can materialize the world of the leading author of the sci-fi genre, Philip K. Dick, and present it in all its complexity. It is the essence of all the motifs and elements that appear in Dick's work. A paranoid atmosphere where the viewer doesn't know for a long time who is who, what are the motives of the story's characters, which side they are on, and what they are fighting for. It is a world of drugs that Dick was intimately familiar with - there is probably no drug that he didn't inject, ingest, or inhale. The motif of a superior who plays their own game - Philip K. Dick was immensely distrustful of authorities of this kind. Similarly, the motif of hallucinations, when the protagonist, at a certain moment, doesn't know what is real and what is imagination. A Scanner Darkly has a captivating atmosphere and interesting visual execution, where live actors were scanned and their animated counterparts are faithful replicas of their prototypes. Overall impression: 90% - as a fan of Philip K. Dick, I simply have to give a high score. (01/12/2009)

An outstanding schizophrenic paranoid sci-fi that met my expectations. The Dick-style atmosphere works perfectly here and this is surely the best ever film adaptation of his books yet. More than action (Minority Report, Total Recall) we enter a twisted world full of people trying to come to terms with it. And Scanner Darkly is a picture about addiction, victims and primarily a world which, if people are going to be in charge, will never be fair. (03/03/2007)

Richard Linklater is a film visionary and uses the medium in a way that couldn't be replaced. Well, in this case, it could perhaps be replaced by comics, but it's precisely that movement and specific animation that are important. Maybe even more so than the content of the film itself, which is a shame in itself. (11/11/2014)