Disney’s “A Wrinkle In Time” premiered over the weekend to audiences around the world, but it may not meet the standards we have come to expect from the major studio.
Directed by Ava DuVernay, “A Wrinkle In Time,” while a sincere attempt at modern adaptation of the acclaimed and classic novel, did not live up to its source material.
The film was inspired by Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 novel “A Wrinkle In Time,” which upon its debut was critically applauded and won many literary awards.
This film is actually Disney’s second attempt at a film adaptation based on the novel, the first being a television movie in 2003.
The film itself follows Meg Murry, played by Storm Reid, and her adventures with her brother to save her father who has disappeared several years earlier and who is now held captive by a universe-spanning evil.
Along the way they are helped by cosmic entities, as well as a fellow student from school.
Children acting can be a hit or miss in film, and depending on their role in the film, can make or break it. Fortunately, the acting here was superb.
The acting was carried well by Reid, who gave believable performances when the scene called for them. All of the supporting cast followed suit as well.
Visually, the film was interesting, though the overuse of computer generated imagery was apparent.
One of the visuals, a landscape with floating chunks of rock, is a tired trope in CGI landscapes and showed a lack of originality on the part of the design team.
But, for the planets and worlds that were shown, was what one would expect from a film of this type, and did not do anything to exceed that expectation. Just generic movie planets that showed no real creativity.
The diversity of the film’s cast was portrayed very well, which is something that is currently lacking in Hollywood as of right now.
What was great as well as interesting is that this is the first film directed by a woman of color that cost over $100 million to make.
The film, however, was not without it’s faults. Where it really struggled was in the plot and overall story.
The plot suffered from uneven pacing, unclear events, and a somewhat underwhelming final confrontation with the antagonist.
The story had a very slow start, being nothing but exposition. The real meat of the story didn’t kick in until the second act.
Events that were important to the story we’re glossed over too quickly. In one such case, a main character ends up in the home of the villains.
Before the audience has a chance to realize the gravity of the situation, we go into an action scene all too quickly.
The motivation and actions of the characters was also somewhat muddled and unclear.
Characters make decisions that are somewhat contradictory to their established personalities, and make the audience confused.
The character of Meg’s brother is particularly uneven, going from an adorable fountain of plot exposition to something trying to be an unconvincing antagonist.
This unfortunately did not really match up with the character and was not believable. Without going into too many spoilers, making him the mouthpiece for the bad guys did not fit because of the character that was developed beforehand in the story.
Because the plot is the central part of a movie, and the writing of this film was not up to par, it failed to impress.
Though it did have some redeeming qualities, such as the acting and theme, as well as the diversity of the cast, which made it somewhat worthwhile, it was not enough to be the best movie that could be done with the material. This leaves the door open for future, and better, adaptations.