In a near, dystopian future ‘firefighter’ Guy Montag burns books and other ‘graffiti’ on behalf of the state. When he starts to challenge what he’s doing, he sees the world through a different set of eyes.

HBO’s starry adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s classic novel is a tasty prospect on paper. Boasting Michael B Jordan (Black Panther) as lead Guy Sontag, Michael Shannon (The Shape of Water) as squad leader Captain Beatty and Sofia Boutella (Star Trek Beyond / The Mummy) you can’t question the talent, and director Ramin Bahrani also promised to deliver something a little different. The novel has only been filmed once before – in 1966, directed by Francois Truffaut, with Oskar Werner and Julie Christie as Sontag and Clarisse – so a new version 50-plus years later was certainly overdue. So what a shame that ultimately it’s just OK.

Back in 1953 when the novel was published (just four years after Orwell’s 1984) Bradbury’s story would certainly have resonated with cinemagoers as a cautionary ‘what if’, with memories of the Nazis’ book burning and the paranoia invoked by the McCarthy witch hunts still at the fore. Sixty-five years later and in a strange way it feels like the battle for the books has already been lost. There’s a scene in the movie  (skilfully translated from the book) where an old lady kills herself through self-immolation; she has a suicide vest of novels strapped around her waist. It’s a stunning image and we watch in horror as The Grapes of Wrath, Mein Kampf and the works of Henry Miller and Frank Kafka burn when the paper reaches a temperature of Fahrenheit 451. But I can’t help feeling that a large section of the digital generation viewers will go ‘Sure, but it’s only books.’

To bring the story up to date, Sontag is a social media star, his exploits being shared across the web and projected on the side of buildings. The manner in which the resistance are trying to preserve literature is also a modern twist involving electronic DNA, but I’m really disappointed that the mechanical hounds have been ditched from the book (think of the ones in Black Mirror) as they would have looked great with current visual effects technology.

I have no great issue that the ending has been changed, though this did somewhat surprise me, and it’s a fun nod to the book title that Sontag’s father’s fire helmet has 451 emblazoned on it as the badge number. Elsewhere, the pyrotechnics look great and the pace is decent. As with The Handmaid’s Tale, the place to go is Canada, which evidently isn’t under this regime’s jackboot and where the treasured books need to be smuggled. But wouldn’t they have their own copies already?

Verdict: The 1966 version remains the superior adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s classic tale. Modern tweaks and an A-list cast just aren’t compelling enough reasons to justify this 21st Century version, which ultimately just merges into the slew of other dark, miserable, dystopian media we’ve been treated to of late. 6/10

Nick Joy