DCfnaf Movie Reviews: A Wrinkle in Time
DCfnaf A Wrinkle of DisappointmentIt is hard to deny that the animators working for Disney are gods. They are brilliant at what they do and they have created several notable, iconic animated films that people of all ages can watch and enjoy. However, there is another side of Disney's filmography which does not accumulate as much positive attention, that of course being their live-action movies. With the exception of 2016's visually captivating The Jungle Book, their live action works are almost always lackluster, especially since most of them are inherently pointless remakes of their original animations which never improve on the original work or add anything substantial to it.
Thankfully, their latest attempt, A Wrinkle in Time, directed by Ava DuVernay, is not a pointless remake, but rather a film adaptation of the popular science-fiction novel written by Madeleine L'Engle. However, that is not saying much because this family adventure is a disaster.
Seeing as it is a very popular novel with a large audience, it was inevitable for A Wrinkle In Time to receive its own just like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings before it. And it really is no surprise as to why it would; it is a thrilling adventure through space and time with themes regarding love and determination to accomplish one's goals. It only make sense that people would want this universe they could merely imagine be brought to life on the big screen. Unfortunately, the film adaptation simply is not up to par with the book it is based on.
Like the book, the film centers on insecure high-schooler, Meg Murry (Storm Reid), who goes on a journey through time and space to find her long lost father. Accompanied by Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and Calvin O'Keefe (Levi Miller), she meets three celestial guides, Mrs. Which (Oprah Winifrey), Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling), and Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), who bring them to the planet Uriel. There, the three kids are informed on tessering, the equivalent of teleporting in this universe, and they meet their adversary, the IT, a dark mass who is responsible for holding Meg's father hostage. When the guides later decide it would be best if they brought the children home, Meg's strong desire to be reunited with her father prevents the guides from tessering them back home and instead transports them inside the IT. Sadly, the guides are unable to stay with them because their energy drains in the IT. Now that the guides are out of the picture, Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin must find the former two's father on their own, inside the dangerous entity which is hiding a lot of evil tricks up his sleeve.
Thankfully the film's story has some similarities to the book's, so it does not look like there was no effort put into researching the story, but it feels as if the writers just read a Wikipedia summary and simply used that to create the script. In other words, a lot of the characters and story events are written incorrectly.
It is not necessarily ill-advised for film adaptations of popular novels to add in their own original scenes or change up a few things including the characters' personalities, as it gives those who have already read the book more of a reason to go see the movie. But with A Wrinkle In Time, there are many inaccuracies between the film's narrative and the novel's. In the novel, the wisest of the three guides is Mrs. Whatsit while the least intelligent is Mrs. Which. In the movie, their roles are switched for reasons inexplicable by man. The same thing can be said about the Black Thing, the name Madeleine L'Engle originally gave to the large cloud of darkness. The IT is an entity of evil within the Black Thing, but it is not the entirety of the Black Thing. Another inaccuracy involves the character of Calvin O' Keefe, who has a major role in the novel, being shoved into the script in what seems like a last minute effort to put him in, only to be thrown to the side to focus on literally every other character. These mistakes are baffling because they could have been easily fixed by simply switching the roles of Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon, referring to the IT and the Black Thing as two separate entities, and providing more lines as well as personality to Calvin. It is not like the entire script would make no sense if these changes were done, so why not give a significant majority of your audience—the people who read the book and enjoyed it greatly—what they are paying for?
The people who portray our crazy batch of characters do not help matters. Regardless of the fact that Storm Reid, Levi Miller, and Deric McCabe are all inexperienced minors who would inevitably have this issue, all three were awkward on set and looked like they were simply reading from script cards on set without thoroughly practicing their lines. It especially felt that way with Levi Miller, whose acting was so spectacularly stiff that it felt like he was just thrown in at the last minute and they never shot any retakes of his scenes. Then there is Deric McCabe's performance, which was way too over the top, especially when he tried and consistently failed to be witty. Scenes which attempt to be emotionally gripping are brought down by the melodramatic acting as well, and sometimes they are unintentionally hilarious. The result of such acting is a film that looks amateur and is simply agonizing to watch.
There is no visual appeal for A Wrinkle In Time either. Green screens are not hard to spot due to the painfully lacking visual quality of the backgrounds in comparison to the rest of the settings' designs and looks. The settings themselves are not pleasant to look at either, as the film is overdosed in CGI to the point where the live-action actors do not convincingly blend with their artificial surroundings. Furthermore, the amount of time dedicated to having the viewers gaze at the visual effects compounds the problem because it makes its atrociousness much more noticeable. One scene on Uriel serves absolutely no purpose except for showing the audience horrendous-looking flowers which float into the air. Aside from the fact that the flowers don’t blend with the grass or live-action characters like just about everything else on the screen, this is just filler which could have been scrapped out of the film entirely and this time could have been used for a story aspect that was left out. It’s as if the editors were choosing to prioritize the spectacle of the film over its narrative, but not only is the spectacle absolutely abysmal, but the film was once a book with the narrative being the main focus. It is truly disappointing that such a large amount of potential was wasted because this movie could have looked beautiful.
Final Thoughts/Recommendation
A Wrinkle in Time is an insult to Madeleine L'Engle's enjoyable novel, and it is an absolutely egregious piece of work. From the jarringly abysmal visual quality to the horrendous acting, it greatly disappoints, and will certainly ruin the afternoons of those planning to watch. Fans of the novel should continue to be fans of the novel and nothing else associated with its name. One will not have wrinkled through time from exiting the theater after this two-hour experience; all they did was waste it.
2 -- Disaster ( A Wrinkle In Time has absolutely no good qualities to speak of. Practically unwatchable abomination.)
🍅 40% from critics, 31% of audiences liked it 🍅
💁🏻♂️How I Review Movies: https://www.thetoptens.com/#/a/56694
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🎥Next Movie Review🎥: Avengers: Infinity War (Most Likely)
Comments
A Wrinkle in Time is my favorite Space Oprah because of Michael Peña from CHiPs. 11 flying lettuces out of 10. - nerffan8000
Totally agree. It is iconic in that regard. - DCfnaf
Absolutely, renting it as soon as it's released on DVD. I don't need to watch Sharkboy and Lavagirl's unofficial sequel in theaters. - nerffan8000
Well, this took quite a while to write up. You can thank 11th grade for that one. - DCfnaf
You forgot to mention the "blackwashing" - 445956
I intentionally ignored it. I generally have no interest in bringing up controversial political topics up in reviews like this, unless the film itself actually focuses on it with regards to the storyline. - DCfnaf
Wasted potential. - visitor
Can you PLEASE do a review on Star Wars: The Last Jedi!? You can do it tomorrow! Get it? May the 4th? May the 4th be with you? - visitor
To be honest, I barely even remember Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I also feel like everyone has said what needs to be said about it, good and bad. - DCfnaf
Excellent like always, your reviews are a treat and are very enjoyable. - visitor
Yeah, I didn’t like this movie. I haven't seen Ava Duvernay’s other works, but after seeing this one, I don’t have interest in watching them. - MegaSoulhero
By the way, Ava Duvernay actually blocked me on Twitter recently. - MegaSoulhero
Well, that’s not surprising. Why did she do that? - DCfnaf
I saw how much money Disney lost on A Wrinkle in Time, not that it matters now since Disney earned billions of dollars with Infinity War, then I decided to Tweet to Ava saying that maybe she shouldn’t be making big budget films since it’s out of her comfort zone. I haven’t seen her other movies, but I’ve heard things about them. I wasn’t trying to be harsh, but I guess I shouldn’t have directly told her that she shouldn’t be making movies like this. - MegaSoulhero
I remember seeing the trailer for A Wrinkle in Time back when I was watching Coco last year in theaters. And now that I've seen your review and how it did with reception and the box office, I must say it was truly a letdown to see what looked like a spectacular trailer turn into a disappointment. - visitor
I love how Meg was acting so casual when a giant Oprah Whifley in her garden, I would have pissed my pants - iliekpiez
Infinity War, Deadpool 2 and Solo have all come out. Will you do reviews on them? - Gangem
I currently have a lot of stuff to deal with, but I'll try to do one for Deadpool 2, seeing as that is the one I care about the most. - DCfnaf
Wow all that potential from the main cast and it was wasted! Why does Disney do these things sometimes? - visitor
I mean it - visitor
Worst movies of 2018:
(From what I have heard and seen from the entire movie or trailers )
1. Fifty shades freed
2. Ant-Man and the wasp (generic feminist movie, making the female superhero complain about the male superhero)
3. Small foot (An animated movie that looks okay but I never have hopes for these types of animated movies)
4. Solo: a star wars story - B1ueNew
Have you seen ShowDogs? - iliekpiez
This everybody, is the last DCfnaf review ever. The blog post series will live on in memory. - iliekpiez
Erm...no. But I've got a lotta crap to do rn, so the next review will take a while. :/ - DCfnaf
I feel like A Wrinkle in Time has some scenes full of wonder - iliekpiez
It was DC's last review - iliekpiez
DC can you lick my massive lips like you lick wario's please
-gamermike - visitor