lirazel: An outdoor scene from the film Picnic at Hanging Rock (Default)
lirazel ([personal profile] lirazel) wrote2014-03-21 10:15 am

ummm...

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?

[identity profile] kwritten.livejournal.com 2014-03-21 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I just ended up downloading them because I'm a horrible person or something.

And yes - the first book doesn't really feel like a set-up for good stuff. But in particular: "why does the entire world believe this" is explained in a bizarrely fascinating way.

The books have a lot of mumbo-jumbo made-up science. But they are actually socio-psychological studies and OMG I AM GOING TO DIE THIS CONVERSATION IS GONNA GET SPOILERY SOON.

Everything is meta and everything hurts.


and also LADIES.