Re: What was the last movie you watched?
The Giver (2014)
Spoiler (click to read)
Review in a spoiler box for those who have not read the book or seen the movie.
I was on/off about going to see this before today. I had been wanting to see it on opening day, but I still was reluctant and apprehensive. I finally went to see it.
And it works...as a fan film, not a film adaptation. The trailer should have had the words "inspired by a book by Lois Lowry", not "based on". It would have also worked if Jonas was actually twelve, like he is in the book, if Brenton Thwaites wasn't cast in that role, and if he didn't have to freakin' narrate and give us exposition that we've already heard.
I hate narrations. Unless they're done right, and if they're short and sweet, and only for the beginning and the end. Otherwise, I bloody hate 'em. The fact that Thwaites is in this really bugs me.
All the other cast seems pretty nicely assembled. I was unsure about Jeff Bridges at first, because I thought he was a little too clean-shaven to play a character, who by the looks of the book cover, reminded me of Dumbledore's brother from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two.
And yes. By now, everyone knows that The Giver failed to include most of the key parts that made the book so creatively creative. And if you're not sure what The Giver actually is, it's the 1993 children/young adult novel shaped the future for dystopian, noncomformist books for teenagers. Divergent, The Hunger Games, among others were all moulded and shaped from this novel. It's almost like 1984 for kids.
One of the main gripes that I have is that the film sped right through the first ten chapters in under ten minutes (which really annoys me because there's a lot of crucial character buildup and important parts in those chapters), and already Jonas escapes his community right before the first hour is up. And that doesn't happen until the last third of the book. They've abandoned all the most important parts of the book for the two things most moviegoers want to see: action and romance. Jonas and Fiona are never set up to be lovers, yet they kiss three times in the movie, and it kills me every time I see them exchange smooches. They're eleven years old going on twelve in the books, despite the fact that Thwaites is 25, and Odeya Rush (who plays Fiona) is 17.
Taylor Swift's scenes are kinda lame as well. In the book, the Giver transmits his memory of her character to Jonas, and in the movie, she's a hologram. That's simply laziness on the filmmaker's part.
On the positive side, the film really does work as a fan-film. The way the screenwriters incorporated the story worked well, overall. But, they tried to change too many things, and I wish they wouldn't try to market their movie as an adaptation, because it isn't that.
They tried, and that's what matters. I do hope that, if they want to adapt The Giver's sequel, Gathering Blue and the other two books in The Giver Quartet, they will listen to the advice that the fans are giving. But, I doubt that that will happen. Hollywood never listens. They have money to burn. So they will throw it away on "adapting" books and comics and other source material incorrectly just to try and start crap with audiences and to infuriate them.
Because Hollywood.
Because ignorant filmmakers.
7/10