SPOILER FREE
Watching this one gave me flashbacks to The Island because of it's similarities in storyline and structure. The whole issue if proximity brought up concerning the two characters interacting with each other in this film was a dead giveaway for me. I liked The Island quite a bit so that could be both a good and bad thing for this film going into it. By that I mean, perhaps I kinda liked it because The Island rubs off on this one and not judging it as a separate stand alone film. Whatever the reason is, I didn't think this one sucked completely but it wasn't very good.
The Giver is a decent book turned movie adaptation that carried with it promise, but also doesn't utilize certain key characters the way it properly should. For example, Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep are great acting talents but have little screentime to make a significant impact on the audience. Not to mention Jeff Bridges feels like he's sleepwalking through this one. Katie Holmes does the best she can with how little material the script gives her. Shes not really that great of an actress but her personality makes her likeable. The plot of this movie sounds very promising but it's execution never lived up to it's full potential. Here is the synopsis: A young boy is chosen by an old man to learn about the true pain and pleasure of the real world, while being in a perfect community without any war, pain, suffering, disease, or choice. Right off the bat, this one screams The Island with the latter taking place in a Utopian facility, except the twist to that one is the people inside the facility are clones, and their body parts are being harvested for their real counterparts. The Giver has a strong storyline that required it to have great care taken with it's execution onto the big screen. Visually, the film is stunning and appears to get the tone and setting of the film down just right. The problems that arise are within it's script, which holds back the movie from really tackling some of the promising ideas and concepts that the story and it's acclaimed novel present. One feels watching this that it could've had a much greater impact if they had stronger material to work with. Characters that seem interesting such as the ones mentioned above are not present enough in the film to make you care about them ultimately. The lead character Jonas played by Brenton Thwaites does a decent job of playing the young boy whose being taught about the real consequences of living in the real world. Odeya Rush does as decent job as well playing Fiona, the girl who befriends and helps Jonas cope with the realization that his whole community is fake.
The Giver is not a bad movie but it's not that good of a film. This movie really had potential to stand alongside The Hunger Games and Divergent with such a promising storyline. It also could've been a nice contrast to the ideas and concepts of The Island, since that one dealt with reality to the lead characters becoming total fiction. This ones not a thumbs down but its not a thumbs up either. It's somewhere in the middle simply because the screenplay held this one back a great deal. It's worth watching if you're a fan of the book, but it's not going to be a film that you will think about much once it's over.
6.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment