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A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

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Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#51: Mar 3rd 2018 at 3:30:35 AM

[up] Sadly yes....a sequel we will most likely never get to see because they keep botching up the first movie. And I actually like the second book the best.

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#52: Mar 3rd 2018 at 6:24:41 AM

It’s a bit early to put the nail in the coffin; the movie isn’t even out yet and you’re acting like it’s a guaranteed failure.

thatindiantroper Since: Feb, 2015
#53: Mar 3rd 2018 at 6:50:34 AM

I heard somewhere that Disney didn’t even invite most critics to an early screening. If this thing was solid they’d be screaming it from the rooftops.

Still, might be wrong on this.

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#54: Mar 3rd 2018 at 7:36:58 AM

Maybe...I admit, I have a confirmation bias there, because I wasn't pleased with a number of decisions they made. I didn't like the choice of director (nothing against her, just not for this particular project), didn't like the cast (all too good-looking), didn't like the trailer (hard to explain, but they went big, and the books actually aren't big, they are overall quite small, which is exactly what makes them work so well).....and with the early reviews being mixed, well, I just don't expect to be surprised.

HamburgerTime Since: Apr, 2010
#55: Mar 7th 2018 at 3:13:41 PM

45% on RT. Interestingly, the majority of female critics gave it a Fresh and the majority of male critics a Rotten. Will still probably see it as what seem to be the chief criticisms ("too weird," "too twee and happy-dappy") aren't things that bug me much.

edited 7th Mar '18 3:13:55 PM by HamburgerTime

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#56: Mar 7th 2018 at 3:15:15 PM

Yeah; reading through reviews so far I’m getting a strong impression of certain male reviewers dissing it for being girly, basically.

Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#57: Mar 7th 2018 at 5:34:31 PM

The preview screening kind of had a split like that too. It’s kind of weird.

...maybe some of the positive critics saw the terrible TV movie version Disney made back in 2003 and are realizing how much better this version is?

Pseudopartition Screaming Into The Void from The Cretaeceous Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Screaming Into The Void
#58: Mar 7th 2018 at 7:01:56 PM

'Friendly' reminder for International Women's Day that things that are coded 'feminine' are seen as been worth less. Hooray!

To be fair I've also seen comments to the effect of it being kind of all over the place; but it's not like that's something that's not in the source material. That's what made the books fun. So I'm going to reserve judgment until I see it.

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#59: Mar 7th 2018 at 11:39:53 PM

The review in the Guardian was positively savage. But reading some reviews I got the impression that exactly what I feared would happen, happened. The movie is focussing so much on the insecurity angle that everything else becomes incoherent.

MegaJ Since: Oct, 2009
#60: Mar 8th 2018 at 9:07:01 AM

So I was worried about the reviews but now seeing the split between female and male reviewers, this looks like a Girl-Show Ghetto situation.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#61: Mar 8th 2018 at 3:58:55 PM

Well, Fox News Hates it, so it has that going for it.

Oprah's ultra-PC ‘Wrinkle in Time’ stung with bad reviews as ‘cringeworthy’ $100M Disney movie could bomb, experts say

edited 8th Mar '18 3:59:22 PM by megaeliz

lalalei2001 Since: Oct, 2009
#62: Mar 8th 2018 at 4:01:39 PM

The last adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time didn't fare so hot either.

I checked out the art book and was annoyed at some of the changes they made, like calling IT "the IT," adding action scenes in the Camazotz wilderness, and having IT reside in an organic cave instead of the central city. No problem with the actors or special effects, though.

edited 8th Mar '18 4:01:50 PM by lalalei2001

The Protomen enhanced my life.
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#63: Mar 8th 2018 at 4:08:58 PM

Eh, I doubt that it is just anti female bias. Disney held off the reviews for so long for a reason.

Ultimatum Disasturbator from The Wiggle Room (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#64: Mar 8th 2018 at 4:18:23 PM

There probably IS a bias though

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
MegaJ Since: Oct, 2009
#65: Mar 8th 2018 at 4:33:28 PM

[up]probably not amongst the critics; but there was a contingent rooting for the movie to fail due to “forced diversity” or whatever.

Maybe bias is the wrong word for the male critics, maybe the film just resonates more with women, therefore they scored it higher. IDK, I’ve wanted to see this for awhile so I’m going either way.

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#66: Mar 8th 2018 at 4:36:39 PM

The NY Times liked it pretty well.

Like Mrs. Which and her colleagues, “A Wrinkle in Time” is demonstratively generous, encouraging and large-spirited. Though it is full of bright colors and passages of visual dazzle, it trusts words more than images, spelling out messages about love, courage and self-acceptance with the conscientious care of a teacher reading aloud to a class. (It also makes canny use of music, both Ramin Djawadi’s score and songs from of-the-moment pop and hip-hop artists.) Nobody will miss the lessons of the movie, and they are fine and timely lessons. Those who take them most to heart will find their way back to Madeleine L’Engle.

I’m not gonna expect perfection from every movie; I’ll take some sincerity and hugs for my inner child.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#67: Mar 8th 2018 at 6:29:12 PM

I just saw it, and it was fine, I guess. There was nothing too objectionable about it, and it was better than the 2003 made for TV version.

Honestly my biggest problem was that it was just kind of slow. Everything felt a bit too slow paced, and the amount of time it takes to get to the actual story, doesn't really help. It also skipped over a lot of the more nuanced aspects of the book, and stripped Camazotz of a lot of it's satirical edge.

edited 8th Mar '18 6:40:24 PM by megaeliz

thatindiantroper Since: Feb, 2015
#68: Mar 8th 2018 at 6:40:22 PM

I read that they filed off the Christian influence that was heavy in the book, which seems...wrong.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#69: Mar 8th 2018 at 7:20:32 PM

[up] I feel like they sort of missed the point of Camazotz too, honestly.

At the time it was written, it was a commentary of the worst aspects of 50's suburbia and conformist culture, with a bit of Soviet style authoritarianism thrown in for good measure.

This almost completely drops the satirical aspects of Camazotz, and makes it loose a lot of it's edge and relevance. I feel like there was a missed opportunity to update it a bit to reflect society today, honestly,

edited 8th Mar '18 9:22:28 PM by megaeliz

lalalei2001 Since: Oct, 2009
#70: Mar 8th 2018 at 7:34:06 PM

A couple modern reviewers of the book took issue with Meg being somewhat weak and whiny, but I thought that was kind of the point of her character, that she could be indecisive and needy but still stand up when it counted.

The Protomen enhanced my life.
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#71: Mar 8th 2018 at 7:36:33 PM

I agree. Male characters get to be flawed and whiny and still worthy. So should girls.

lalalei2001 Since: Oct, 2009
#72: Mar 9th 2018 at 10:29:27 AM

Is it true that Aunt Beast was Adapted Out? :( She's one of my favorite characters.

I liked the design they had for her in the art book—it wasn't accurate to her description in the book but you could tell they put a lot of thought into it.

edited 9th Mar '18 10:29:34 AM by lalalei2001

The Protomen enhanced my life.
Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
JoieDeCombat Since: May, 2009
#74: Mar 9th 2018 at 2:49:49 PM

Aunt Beast and Ixchel get a blink-and-you-miss it glancing mention during the Happy Medium scene, but that's all. Presumably they cut the escape from and return to Camazotz because pacing.

Honestly, while there are some good bits and some great visuals, this film adaptation mostly misses the point. It characterizes Meg's problems as largely rooted in her grief and anger over her father's disappearance (with a garnish of adolescent awkwardness and self-image problems), where in the book her struggles go back much further and are, as mentioned earlier in the thread, partly of her own making.

Aside from a reference or two to his intelligence, Charles Wallace is almost a complete opposite of the character from the book: instead of being a thoughtful, articulate child who is so withdrawn around most strangers that he's thought to be a moron, he's precociously gregarious and unfiltered. His personal character arc is completely absent and his sibling bond with Meg takes a back seat to Meg's desire to get her father back; he's basically in the story to persuade Meg to join in the adventure and then need Meg to rescue him in the last act. Also, I'm sorry, but how on earth do you make an adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time and not include any reference to Charles Wallace's psychic abilities?

I did think Calvin was well-cast, but he also doesn't get a whole lot to do. The whole adventure is much more haphazard even in comparison to the book, and this version does the same thing the 2003 adaptation did with regards to making Camazotz and "the IT" the source of the darkness that threatens the universe, rather than Camazotz being just one example of a world that has succumbed to evil. This version at least doesn't claim that Meg defeated the IT, though. Camazotz itself is just a collection of surreal imagery and vague menace, neither retaining the book's period-relevant themes nor updating them to a more contemporary sensibility. IT wants Charles Wallace and particularly Meg for... some reason? and what IT intends beyond that is entirely unclear.

The one point where I felt like the movie almost hit the mark was the sequence at the Happy Medium where the children are shown how the darkness influences people on Earth and its results (with Mr. Jenkins, what's her name the Alpha Bitch, and Calvin's dad as cases in point), but since the themes of the greater universal conflict against the darkness and how it can be fought in many ways were otherwise mostly abandoned in favor of Meg's personal insecurities and a handful of random action sequences, there wasn't any particular follow-through.

I went in expecting there to be differences from the book and hopeful that it could still capture the spirit of the story, but I was pretty sadly disappointed.

lalalei2001 Since: Oct, 2009
#75: Mar 9th 2018 at 2:56:59 PM

Aw man, Ixchel got about 10 pages in the book! It was beautiful!

The Protomen enhanced my life.

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