"A Wrinkle in Time" is a baffling movie experience. It's an ambitious adaptation, and I'll give them credit for trying, but they come nowhere close to pulling it off. The story is a complete mess. There's no rhyme or reason to the events that happen, the places they visit, and the people and things they encounter. I'm sure in the book these things were all developed and explained thoroughly but in the movie it all just comes off as random and nonsensical. One moment they're on some planet riding a space wizard, the next moment they go to another planet to visit another space wizard, then suddenly they are in another place facing an inexplicable hazard that of course they magically overcome, then they're at a beach running into a red-eyed Michael Pena, etc. It's science-fiction/fantasy at its worst, where the story is completely incoherent and all the explanations for what's happening is just 'magic' or 'love' or 'because'.
The dialogue is also so artificial, that's just not how people talk to each other, at least not in the modern day setting it's supposed to be set in. And 'Charles Wallace' is an incredibly dumb and annoying name. I find it very hard to believe that at least the sister wouldn't have found a shortened nickname to use. That may sound like a minor nitpick, but considering they say/shout the name about a hundred times during the movie, it just becomes grating to the ears.
It's a shame, because there's so much talent involved in the making of this movie. The cast is top notch, although many of the actors are wasted on dumb characters, and even all the younger actors do a very good job, particularly the young girl. It has a talented up-and-coming director. Visually it looks pretty great most of the time and it does some really cool and unique things with the visuals, but visuals alone can't save a movie if they serve no purpose to the story. The one area of the movie I do consistently really like is the score, particularly in those moments that are meant to avoke wonder. It's nothing too revolutionairy, just very well-executed, and I was not surprised to learn from the credits that the composer is the excellent Ramin Djawadi of Game of Thrones and Westworld fame.
Overall, this adaptation was a sorry misfire that was unfortunately doomed to fail from the start. Complex science fiction and fantasy stories that deal with complicated matters such as different dimensions and time travelling/bending (of which there is a severe lack in a movie that has the concept of 'time' in its title by the way), simple cannot be accurately translated into a 100 minute movie, mainly aimed at children. It usually either becomes an exposition dump of dry information, or they simply don't bother to properly explain the concepts at all, both of which result in poor story-telling. Maybe in the future, these novels get the elongated television series treatment they deserve, similar to how the upcoming His Dark Materials (2019) tv series will hopefully clear the stain of the horrible 'The Golden Compass' (2007) movie adaptation.
The dialogue is also so artificial, that's just not how people talk to each other, at least not in the modern day setting it's supposed to be set in. And 'Charles Wallace' is an incredibly dumb and annoying name. I find it very hard to believe that at least the sister wouldn't have found a shortened nickname to use. That may sound like a minor nitpick, but considering they say/shout the name about a hundred times during the movie, it just becomes grating to the ears.
It's a shame, because there's so much talent involved in the making of this movie. The cast is top notch, although many of the actors are wasted on dumb characters, and even all the younger actors do a very good job, particularly the young girl. It has a talented up-and-coming director. Visually it looks pretty great most of the time and it does some really cool and unique things with the visuals, but visuals alone can't save a movie if they serve no purpose to the story. The one area of the movie I do consistently really like is the score, particularly in those moments that are meant to avoke wonder. It's nothing too revolutionairy, just very well-executed, and I was not surprised to learn from the credits that the composer is the excellent Ramin Djawadi of Game of Thrones and Westworld fame.
Overall, this adaptation was a sorry misfire that was unfortunately doomed to fail from the start. Complex science fiction and fantasy stories that deal with complicated matters such as different dimensions and time travelling/bending (of which there is a severe lack in a movie that has the concept of 'time' in its title by the way), simple cannot be accurately translated into a 100 minute movie, mainly aimed at children. It usually either becomes an exposition dump of dry information, or they simply don't bother to properly explain the concepts at all, both of which result in poor story-telling. Maybe in the future, these novels get the elongated television series treatment they deserve, similar to how the upcoming His Dark Materials (2019) tv series will hopefully clear the stain of the horrible 'The Golden Compass' (2007) movie adaptation.