ummm...

[lirazel]

So I just watched (without sound, because at work) this teaser for the adaptation of The Giver and I'm already annoyed. It looks like none of the movie is in black and white! Are you kidding me? One of the great joys of the book is when Jonas starts seeing colors--flashes of red in a thrown apple, in his friend Fiona's hair. I figured they would at least get that right: have the movie shot in black and white until he starts to see color and then gradually bleed it in. This would be so easy to do in film WHY AREN'T THEY DOING IT? If we're just told that everyone sees black and white but we don't get to experience WHAT IS THE FUN IN THAT?

Also: way too action-y looking and I'm skeptical they'll even come close in getting the ambiguity of the ending right.

I have Feelings about this because A) first book that taught me that ambiguity could be AWESOME and B) first dystopian book I ever read and here I am 20 years later, still obsessed. IT'S VERY IMPORTANT OKAY? AND LOIS LOWRY ALSO WROTE NUMBER THE STARS WHICH IS ALSO VERY IMPORTANT AND THANKFULLY HAS NEVER BEEN TURNED INTO A MOVIE.

[eta] Speaking of dystopias, the Divergent series' premise sounds profoundly dumb to me. Um, excuse you writer, but EVERYONE is divergent. NO ONE IS JUST ONE THING. It's like the silliness of the Hogwarts house sorting--oversimplified categorizing of human beings--treated overly seriously? I'm annoyed just reading a basic summary. Is it just really well-written and that's why people are obsessed with it?

Comments

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

That's the danger of explaining your more out-there elements at the end instead of revealing them all along, I guess. Like for people who stick around, it really works, but for those who grow tired of waiting for answers, they bail. (You know what was a show that did the actually-explaining-things really poorly? THE X-FILES. The writers were clearly flying by the seat of their pants the whole time and didn't have some overall plan, and it showed. I mean, I love the show, but that's because I love the characters so much. And it had tons of MOTW episodes. The mytharc should have been awesome but it never reached the level it should have because there wasn't enough planning in it.)

[kwritten.livejournal.com]

It's so, so necessary to follow the path with Tris, though. Like... UGH READ IT... because I can't fathom her being able to establish the emotional connection that you need to this society and it's people and the desperate /need/ so many of them have to maintain their faction's culture (while others are fighting it tooth and nail) before throwing in the big explanation.

Also - like omg. So much really great work on abuse narratives and abuse-victims and the psychological impact of PTSD. Lovely, lovely work on that front.