A
Wrinkle in Time
First View Review by Z
Factor
SPOILER-FREE
As someone who has never
read the book or series by Madeleine L'Engle, I jumped into the
recent A Wrinkle in Time movie with absolutely no attachment
to the source-material. I was entirely drawn by curiosity, especially
after hearing the mixed critical response and general audience
distaste. I decided to come to a conclusion for myself whether or not
the movie was worth the consensus of disapproval. I am a film critic
after-all, I shall form my own opinion!
For context, A Wrinkle
in Time was given a Rotten Tomatoes critical score of 40% and an
audience score of 33%. Essentially, the average critics rated the
film 5.2 stars out of 10, and audiences averaged at 2.4 out of 5.
Also, on IMDb, the film is listed with a rate of 4.2 stars out of 10.
Broadly, it was considered beautiful, artful, but over ambitious.
Some people argued it received such a low audience score because it
took its own liberties with the source-material and did not adhere
strictly to the novel. However, since I have never read the books, I
am writing this review from an opinion formed only by the movie
itself.
To start off, it should be
acknowledged that though this review is looking at the movie itself,
how it stands on its own apart from the novel, it is worth noting
that any adaptation is challenging and almost an impossible task.
There are simply countless examples of movies adapting books and
leaving people disappointed. Yet there are those stand-outs, like the
Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003) entire trilogy, which
managed to diverge from the books slightly enough in order to create
a legacy in film history. It is almost impossible, but not entirely
impossible, to make a great movie out of a great book. It just takes
the right director who knows how to not only envision, but execute.
Without any knowledge of
how the movie differs from the book, it is clear that Ava DuVernay
directed with vision and not necessarily execution. The entire film
is a masterpiece of aesthetic beauty and eye-catching visuals which
are breath-taking and inspiring. Absolutely stunning cinematic
imagery filled throughout the whole movie—quite magical. It was
this work of art which kept my eyes open and engaged through the
nearly two-hour long movie.
However, everything else
was rather lacking. I am guessing the movie did not live up to the
story-telling within the books, for the movie was rather plain and
simplistic in plot, character, and theme. Some reviews claim the plot
was confusing and jumbled, but in my opinion, it was too easy to
follow. A typical kid's action adventure film, but how is that
necessarily a bad thing? Though the story and characters were bland,
the movie had a flavor and sense of wonder, imagination and
creativity, which reminded me of my own childhood favorites, The
Neverending Story and Labyrinth.
Except, while A Wrinkle
in Time is bland and simplistic in plot and character, its also
not as clear and cohesive as those two films. There is a problem
underlying in the protagonist, Meg, who doesn't willingly embark on
her journey but is a reluctant and passive character. In contrast, Sarah, in the
Labyrinth, chooses to rescue her brother and embarks on her
adventure, choosing every single action she takes. Meg, on the other
hand, is pulled by others into most situations, until the end where
she decides to save her little brother. She is also hand-held for the
majority of the film by the supporting characters. Thus, Meg isn't a
very strong hero or protagonist, which makes the story hard to engage
in, since Meg herself wasn't very engaging or engaged.
A Wrinkle in Time
had so much potential to be an incredible movie. The cinematography
and visuals carry the film, instead of being a part of the
story-telling aspect and be the icing on a cake. Without a strong
foundation of story and character, the film suffers tremendously. It
follows cliches, typical stereotypes and one plot beat follows
another, yet each frame is gorgeous to watch. It is not a bad movie,
or at least not as bad as people have made it out to be. It's simply
not a great film. It's actually a pretty good kid's film. Sure, it's
no classic like The Neverending Story, but those are rare
anyway. A Wrinkle in Time may have disappointed much of its
audience, but at least it did it with style.
As far as action-adventure,
fantasy kid's films go, A Wrinkle in Time is a good one and I
would recommend it for a rent to watch with the family. See it in the
theaters? Sure, if there's nothing else you want to watch this
weekend, but there's a lot hitting theaters at about this season. I'd
rate it a 3 out of 5 stars, simply because it wasn't as bad as people
think, and yet not as awesome as it could have been.
-Z Factor
-Z Factor
Sources:
I very much enjoy the flow of your writing. Your sentence structure is splendid, my dear one. You do inspire me to see the movie.
ReplyDeleteThough I do long for more of Wesley Hogsnatcher, your movie critiques do suffice for my thirst, dahling. :)