I haven't seen it, but I really liked the book so I was thinking of giving it a try.

I'm willing to give movie adaptations some leeway, as long the changes are meaningful and the overall movie is good. I thought the first Fahrenheit 451 (1966) was stylish & artistic, even though the story was changed... some of the changes were lame Hollywood type clichés like the whole Montag-Clarisse relationship/love story, even though it was barely a footnote in the book. But overall a decent flick.

So without giving away any spoilers, did this movie's changes have anything worthwhile to offer? Or did it just "dumb it down" for entertainment value like a lot of movie adaptations go?

To tell the truth. I haven't read the book in the a long time. So i don't remember all the details of the book. But they definitely added thing related to social media and modern technology. Frankly im not sure how you stop people from reading books when the internet exist. Also the ending is completely different.

Haha gotta agree with you there, the Internet kills the whole no-books thing. Not possible.

It's been a while since I read the book too. One thing I remember is that some printed words are allowed, like signs, technical manuals, etc. But almost all other written words are banned. The 1966 movie took it a step further (which I thought was really cool) and ALL printed words were banned. So for example you'd see Montag reading the newspaper and it's all pictures & drawings.

If the internet exists, that sorta defeats the purpose of total censorship. The internet is basically one giant book.

I would say the internet is like a massive library. Even with the Great Firewall of China. People find a way around it. I really don't know why they need to update everything for modern times. Somethings make more sense when there not updated. I think that especially true when it comes to this movie.