You won't be disappointed!

Brilliant and touching

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Farmer's novels were brilliantly imaginative, exciting, and captivating. Everything this trash is not. This is not an adaptation of the classic work, it corrupts and blasphemes what Farmer wrote. The characters have been changed and now are lifeless stick figures. For a story that deals so deeply with the concept of the soul, this junk is amazingly soulless. The producers and writers were delusional when they came to the abominable conclusion that they could "improve" upon essential details of the saga but keep a perverted version of the basic premise. All the majesty and vision of Farmer's masterwork is gone, the heart of what made it truly great cut out until it has no life at all.

Riverworld is an strange alien world with one large river where everyone on earth who dies wakes up around the same age and speaking the same language or rather that they all understand each other's words. There are metal cannisters which contain clothing and dispensers which give food. People who have resurrected earlier have built primitive societies some of them barbaric.Riverworld is based on the 5-book series by Philip Jose Farmer which had a very interesting concept but was poorly executed, terribly padded, bland characters, and had a very anti- climatic ending.This movie actually got me interested in reading the series to see how it ended but I quickly realized that this film adaptation was actually better than the book.For one thing the hero in the film is a 21st century astronaut who is familiar with technology and the concept of aliens and thus was the audience's go-between into this strange new world with famous people in history. In the book it was the 19th century explorer Richard Burton. The human villain in the film is the megalo-maniac Nero whereas in the books it was King John who was not a very convincing bad guy historically or even in the book series.Already I saw the hero-villain aspect had been improved from the book. The astronaut guided by the mysterious beings of the planet wants to travel down river while Nero wants to establish a new empire for himself.It's a shame the series never got off the ground because I would have liked to see how they would have improved upon the original concept.All in all I recommend this film for a lazy Sunday viewing - however I cannot recommend the book series. While the first book is interesting, it quickly goes downhill from there and is not worth the time.

Though clearly in the minority in this forum, I liked the movie.Entertainment is successful when it stirs us (usually emotionally). Books do that by tickling our imagination and letting our minds fill in the blanks with whatever we choose. Cinematography stimulates us with (ever improving) visuals and still lets our minds fill in the blanks.It seems that Riverworld did just that for me. The movie provided two hours of entertainment and stimulation that left me wanting to see more. Exactly what I want in a movie.The movie ended with only part of the story having been told. Just like the Star Wars and LOTR movies, the story finds a natural break but doesn't complete. I doubt that a second movie will be made, but I'd like to see The SciFi Channel pick it up as an abbreviated series much like they did we The Dead Zone, Grey's Anatomy, etc. The real test will be if they can produce a series that earns a second season.As far as the variance from the books, I don't care. That's inevitable.

Fans of Farmer's remarkable novels will be sickened by the butcher job done by the producers of this turkey. Outside of borrowing a few character names and the basic premise of the world-girdling river, the movie has practically nothing in common with the books. Every important story development concept is thrown away in favor of seemingly endless violence. And what isn't gory is one stale cliché after another. (The engine room scene near the end is taken lock, stock and barrel from at least a dozen Star Trek episodes). The ending obviously left itself open for a sequel or two. God, I hope not! A tragedy second only to Hollywood's rendering of Asimov's "Nightfall".