A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time is based upon the novel by Madeleine L'Engle in which a young girl is sent on a mission to find her missing father through other dimensions. Meg, played by Storm Reid, is joined by her brother Charles Wallace, played by Deric McCabe, her friend Calvin (Levi Miller), and the Mrs's: Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit.

I was so excited to see this movie. I was a huge fan of the novel when I was younger and I've never forgotten it. Before I got out to the theater to watch it, however, I read the reviews associated with it. IMDb has rated it a 3.6/10, and Rotten Tomatoes has an audience score of 32%. After reading those reviews, I was nervous about what I was going to see. Now, to all of the people out there that have rated this movie, I need to ask, what did you expect to see when you went to this movie?? While it was not the best movie ever, it was anything but a 3 out of 10. I'd probably have given it at least a 5.

One review on IMDb says:
       "Overall: The movie is mainly geared towards elementary and middle school children with some adult aspects, yet the movie is childish and not up to Disney's standard. Disney should be embarrassed to have produced such a movie with big Hollywood names and have it bomb. The movie falls flat and lacks humor leading to a failure for Disney. Even though this movie is supposed to be a big statement towards diversity with a colored director helming a $100 million budget project, the movie does not do justice."

Let's break this down, shall we?

1. "The movie is mainly geared towards elementary and middle school children." Madeleine L'Engle was a children's author. Her book was written for children in elementary and middle school. What exactly did you expect to see in a PG rated movie? Blood and guts?

2. "Disney should be embarrassed to have produced such a movie with big Hollywood names and have it bomb." Can you please show me where you got your data? The Hollywood Reporter posted on March 9, which happens to be the same day A Wrinkle in Time was released in theaters, that A Wrinkle in Time would be bringing in close to $35,000 in its opening weekend. It states that it does not beat the Black Panther, but it only missed the weekend's top movie by $5,000. Black Panther brought in around $40,000 this weekend. Obviously the Black Panther is going to have more viewers and bring in more money...it's geared towards adults. Yes, it may have been out for 4 weeks already, but there's way more adults going to the movies than children in elementary and middle school.

3. "The movie falls flat and lacks humor." You have no sense of humor....or I'm a small child at heart...I'll get back to you on this.

4. "Even though this movie is supposed to be a big statement towards diversity with a colored director helming a $100 million budget project, the movie does not do justice." Now we found the issue. I did not go to see this movie because it was "a statement towards diversity." I went to see this movie because I loved Madeleine L'Engle's novel. Did I expect this movie to beat the novel? Heck no! When has any movie ever surpassed the novel? Did Madeleine write this book in order to make it a statement towards diversity? No. She wrote it because that's what she loved to do. Scholastic.com has a page dedicated to L'Engle in which she wrote a small excerpt about her life. Near the bottom of that page L'Engle says, "It's wonderful being able to make a living doing the thing I love the most, which is telling stories." She did not write A Wrinkle in Time in the hopes that it would make a statement. In fact, she tried to get it published for over two and a half years before it was picked up at all. She wrote for herself, and for her children, and for children around the world. It's wrong to put words into her mouth when she is no longer around to defend herself.

My overall statement: A Wrinkle in Time was not the best movie ever, but it was not as bad as the ratings want you to believe. It was a lot of CGI (obviously because children can't travel to space), and it was child actors that are not well-known, but that doesn't mean they were bad. I never thought for a second, "who is this kid, I don't know her so she can't be the lead." The people that are writing these reviews are extremely harsh. You went to a PG movie and expected way more than PG movies allow. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Way to promote diversity, while tearing down a 15 year old child. Why don't you leave the review writing to the unbiased people of this world.

Thank you.