This film is trying so freaking hard to be unique, dazzling and special, but it doesn't know what it's doing. Most of its inventions and visuals are needlessly different, and what little it gets right is great, but there's not enough of that.
Meg is okay. She's a bit less sullen and surly than I imagined her, but she's moody and defensive like she should be. The film adds some racial subtext to her outsider mentality, and it's actually pretty clever and done perfectly.
Charles Wallace is precocious as he should be, but just doesn't feel that interesting to me. He definitely seems to be less wise in his social behavior than in the book.
Calvin might as well not be there at all. Even his bizarrely philosophical, "too-much-even-for-John-Green" personality is mostly absent.
But by far, the greatest casualties are the Mrs. W trio. They're inappropriately modern, disappointingly young, and dressed up in hideous fantasy-vomit costumes and makeup that have no soul to them, trying desperately to be interesting but fail utterly. Mrs. Whatsit is now an airheaded young woman, who doubts Meg and dampens her spirit repeatedly, rather than a kindly eccentric old lady who is always by her side. Her majestic angel-centaur form is now a lettuce flying carpet with a cabbage head. Mrs. Who is no longer an ethereal old lady in white, and her spectacles are barely important. I do sort of like that she pulls from modern quotes now, but it feels wrong for that to be played for comedy like it is. And Mrs. Which is perhaps most disappointing of all. They only barely hint at her signature problem with materializing, and she's not a witch and she's often gigantic here, and just why? There's no gravity to her or any of them, no mysterious wisdom behind them. They are now token-feminist "warriors" rather than genuinely inspiring guardians.
The plot follows reasonably closely, but several good sequences are lost. Ixchel is only a throwaway mention, the Happy Medium is a comedy bit, a man, and a waste, and the Charles Wallace/IT confrontation is cliched. The street scene on Camazotz is almost perfect, though the break of the rhythm is omitted, and the Man with Red Eyes is also reduced to a marionette and misplaced in a beach scene. IT is now addressed as a "The" and is a neural network, also serving as the Black Thing. Interesting extrapolation of "gross brain", but IT was not the darkness itself. While the book is very Christian-influenced, the story struggles with being a generic cosmic tale now that they lack the religious side.
Perhaps the best scenes are with Meg's father, and how he interacts with his family. It's just the fantasy side that's mangled.
If you like interesting visuals and have a passing interest in the book, check this out. If you're a fan of the book, just keep your expectations low. Knowing the director's work and seeing her hand within this mess makes it clear that it got beyond her control.
These wrinkles just don't iron out.
This film is trying so freaking hard to be unique, dazzling and special, but it doesn't know what it's doing. Most of its inventions and visuals are needlessly different, and what little it gets right is great, but there's not enough of that.
Meg is okay. She's a bit less sullen and surly than I imagined her, but she's moody and defensive like she should be. The film adds some racial subtext to her outsider mentality, and it's actually pretty clever and done perfectly.
Charles Wallace is precocious as he should be, but just doesn't feel that interesting to me. He definitely seems to be less wise in his social behavior than in the book.
Calvin might as well not be there at all. Even his bizarrely philosophical, "too-much-even-for-John-Green" personality is mostly absent.
But by far, the greatest casualties are the Mrs. W trio. They're inappropriately modern, disappointingly young, and dressed up in hideous fantasy-vomit costumes and makeup that have no soul to them, trying desperately to be interesting but fail utterly. Mrs. Whatsit is now an airheaded young woman, who doubts Meg and dampens her spirit repeatedly, rather than a kindly eccentric old lady who is always by her side. Her majestic angel-centaur form is now a lettuce flying carpet with a cabbage head. Mrs. Who is no longer an ethereal old lady in white, and her spectacles are barely important. I do sort of like that she pulls from modern quotes now, but it feels wrong for that to be played for comedy like it is. And Mrs. Which is perhaps most disappointing of all. They only barely hint at her signature problem with materializing, and she's not a witch and she's often gigantic here, and just why? There's no gravity to her or any of them, no mysterious wisdom behind them. They are now token-feminist "warriors" rather than genuinely inspiring guardians.
The plot follows reasonably closely, but several good sequences are lost. Ixchel is only a throwaway mention, the Happy Medium is a comedy bit, a man, and a waste, and the Charles Wallace/IT confrontation is cliched. The street scene on Camazotz is almost perfect, though the break of the rhythm is omitted, and the Man with Red Eyes is also reduced to a marionette and misplaced in a beach scene. IT is now addressed as a "The" and is a neural network, also serving as the Black Thing. Interesting extrapolation of "gross brain", but IT was not the darkness itself. While the book is very Christian-influenced, the story struggles with being a generic cosmic tale now that they lack the religious side.
Perhaps the best scenes are with Meg's father, and how he interacts with his family. It's just the fantasy side that's mangled.
If you like interesting visuals and have a passing interest in the book, check this out. If you're a fan of the book, just keep your expectations low. Knowing the director's work and seeing her hand within this mess makes it clear that it got beyond her control.