A
Wrinkle in Time, based on the novel by Madeline L’Engle, tells the story of
a young girl named Meg, who wants to know where her father has been these past
four years, after disappearing suddenly. When three astral beings come in the
form of the Misses, Meg must now travel the universe with her little brother
and friend, Calvin, to find her father, and defeat the darkness approaching
rapidly.
Let me clarify, that I have not read
the book the film is based on, so my judgements are purely as a movie. Even
with that in mind, I was curious to see how Disney would attempt A Wrinkle in Time after a decade. Back
in 2003, Disney had put out a made-for-television movie, but it sadly wasn’t as
big with audiences; what resulted was Disney losing the rights, and only being
able to retain them back after the sad passing of Madeline L’Engle in 2008.
Disney was just so eager to spit on L’Engle’s grave, weren’t they?
Now from what the trailers were
showing, all I could think was “This looks mediocre,” and part of me was
expecting it to turn out the same as John
Carter or Valerian and the City of a
Thousand Planets, where they try to create this lush and beautiful world
that looks stunning, but doesn’t have anything else to back it up. However,
unlike those two examples, A Wrinkle in
Time doesn’t engulf you into its world or philosophy in anyway, nor do they
even get you interested in this adventure. The film spends so much time on how
it looks and what it’s trying to represent for its female audience, that it constantly
forgets that it’s supposed to be telling a story.
The dialogue is painfully forced, as they say what’s happening on
screen, what the characters’ motives are, and tell us what the message of this
movie is so much, it actually made The
Meteor Man look subtle. Hell, if I hadn’t known this was coming to theatres
and I listened to this, I would have assumed it was another lame Disney Channel
movie, like Descendants (it’s that
bad). Don’t believe me? They make a Chris Tucker reference in the movie…I repeat:
A WRINKLE IN TIME, a KIDS movie, based
on a book from the SIXTIES, makes a Chris Tucker reference. And it was Mindy
Khaling saying “Daaang!” as Reese Witherspoon strips and transforms into a
Salad Falkore. I don’t necessarily put the blame entirely on Jennifer Lee,
despite the fact that it’s her script, because I put most of the blame on Ava
DuVernay; the way she directed the film, she doesn’t know where to put the
focus on the visuals or have the characters’ dump exposition, every five
minutes. And when you finally get to “not Pandora,” it’s such an empty space, even
with some of the CG flowers and giant Oprah Winfrey they insert. The amount of CGI
used in this film, even from something as simple as filming in a FIELD, looks
painfully obvious, and even the blue screen effects are a heavy reminder of
that, as some of it looks unfinished. It gets so distracting and completely
takes me out of the experience. Same can be said for the rest of the worlds, where
some of them looked like it was something out of Fant4stic. It’s so dull and it has plotholes everywhere.
The
three misses barely do anything in this movie, and at the points when they
actually try to do something, it ends up being completely pointless to the
movie; they spend so much time on sequences that either take forever to get to or
go nowhere, you could have easily cut most of their scenes and it’d be the same
film. And Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Khaling, and Oprah Winfrey look so bored to
be there, like their business was solely to get a paycheck from Disney. The
friend boy, played by Levi Miller (Peter Pan from Pan), is there because…he needed work, I suppose. The little
brother in this film is annoying, both in how he’s written and how
he acts; I know we’ve seen the little child genius trope done so many times
before, but this one categories itself into that special hatred that only
spawns from the worst written comic reliefs in film. He had nothing worth
interesting to bring up, the villain wants him for…something; when he’s taken
over by the villain, it never gets satisfying, because he’s worse when he IS
possessed. Like, shut up, you brat!
The
only actors I liked are Chris Pine and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who play the mother and
father of the main girl. While their characters were never something I thought
about much, the way they interact with each other and Storm Reid as Meg, you
really get a feel for this family bond that they all share. Just wish the rest
of the film was like that, especially considering these two are barely even in
the movie.
Overall,
A Wrinkle in Time is the worst film
that Disney has put out in such a long time. I know some people want to argue
that it’s a kids’ movie and I shouldn’t complain, because I’m not the target
audience, but that’s what makes it worse. We aren’t talking about one studio
that doesn’t do well with family entertainment, we’re talking about THE family
friendly entertainment company, who made a movie that treats its audience like
they’re children and plays it safe constantly. This film is everything bad that people
typically associate with Disney in a less than two-hour movie, forcing down our
throats this whole trope of love conquers all and always be brave, padded in
with lackluster visuals, a downright bad narrative, and characters you come out
hating by the end; it’s the worst film I’ve seen so far this year.
Rating: F
