Disney’s latest, A Wrinkle in Time, adapts Madeleine L’Engle’s cherished 1962 novel of the same name, bringing the science fiction, fantasy and young adult coming-of-age tale into modern day under celebrated director Ava DuVernay (Selma, 13th).
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A Wrinkle in Time sees awkward but brilliant Meg Murry (Storm Reid) and brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) trekking across time and space to save their astrophysicist father (Chris Pine), who has mysteriously vanished, held captive on a distant planet deep in the grip of a universe-spanning evil.
Along the way, the Murry children and friend Calvin (Levi Miller) will get help in the form of three astral travelers — Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) — making for what some have dubbed a good-natured, if a little saccharine, sci-fi fantasy adventure.
Disney Shoots Their Shot
At the heart of A Wrinkle in Time is the bond between father and daughter as it proudly displays Black Girl Magic, making for one of the most diverse box office weekends in quite some time as Marvel Studios’ Black Panther — also a Disney production — continues to dominate the global box office, having freshly crossed the $1 billion dollar mark Saturday.
It’s not often a black girl leads a $100 million dollar movie, but Disney has been forward-thinking in that respect, most of all with their Marvel Studios arm as their last four movies — Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, and Black Panther — all featured black women as their female leads.
As it’s looking like A Wrinkle in Time won’t capture the zeitgeist the way Black Panther has — the Marvel blockbuster is projected to win its fourth consecutive box office weekend, beating out a freshly opened Wrinkle — Disney’s latest has inspired mixed reactions from critics and online commenters.
What The Critics Are Saying
The Los Angeles Times’ Justin Chang praises A Wrinkle in Time as “gorgeous, propulsive and feverishly overwrought… the kind of picture that wears its heart on its tie-dyed sleeve.”
Wrinkle could be “more focused, more disciplined,” Chang writes, but it also boasts “gloriously unapologetic trippiness, a hallucinatory quality that is only amplified by the sheer velocity of the storytelling.”
Most of all, the sci-fi fantasy reinforces the idea “that a young girl’s imagination can change, challenge and even save the world.”
A.O. Scott of The New York Times calls Wrinkle “demonstratively generous, encouraging and large-spirited,” and is “unapologetically, a children’s movie, by turns gentle, thrilling and didactic, but missing the extra dimension of terror and wonder that would have transcended the genre.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy writes it all “seems manufactured rather than crafted, with scenes played and over-edited to visually busy but indifferent effect.” Worse, McCarthy writes, the film “feels cobbled together with many diverse parts rather than coalesced into an engaging whole.”
Entertainment Weekly’s Darren Franich agrees that “almost nothing works,” but says there are “bursts of real camp energy.”
Franich deems Wrinkle a “sincere attempt at empowerment crushed into preachy dullness,” explaining that the movie “hits that unfortunate un-sweet spot common to big-budget science-fiction/fantasy, where the spectacle feels more summarized than experienced.”
What Twitter Is Saying: The Good
. @Ava showed out when she made A Wrinkle in Time. The shots, images and messaging are phenomenal. Take your loved ones to experience the universe this weekend! Love you Sister!✊?
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) March 9, 2018
Full review coming soon, but: I absolutely loved A WRINKLE IN TIME, and its brazen lack of cynicism delighted and thrilled me.
— Linda Holmes (@nprmonkeysee) March 7, 2018
I see that A Wrinkle in Time in not getting great reviews.
— just Hannah, now 15% cheese (@hpstrawberries) March 10, 2018
My kids and I loved it so take from that what you will.
I thought the tone and spirit matched the book very well.
#WrinkleInTime is a movie “for children” in the most wonderful of ways. You are more than your faults, and you are certainly more than the faults of other people. I loved it, @ava.
— John Elrod II (@LOTNorm) March 10, 2018
for the record we are BLESSED to have this adaptation of a wrinkle in time & i loved crying through every minute of it!! and seeing little girls clap for mindy, oprah, ava, and storm at the end?? amazing ???
— gavin volure (@hollerbek) March 10, 2018
Who are the cynical, grumpy grown-ups giving A Wrinkle in Time bad reviews?! The movie was absolutely magical and perfectly captured the feel of the novel. I loved it.
— Katie Randall (@katierandall) March 10, 2018
.@ava .@RWitherspoon .@mindykaling .@Oprah i took my 6 yr old niece to see .@WrinkleInTime this morning and We both enjoy it a lot. I have never read the book and now it has me itching it read it. Great job all of you. Fantastic movie.
— Tom Jackson, Jr (@thomasjacksonjr) March 10, 2018
a wrinkle in time is a disney movie made for kids, about kids, based on a ya book and critics are calling it “too childish”??? not everything is for you!! let kids enjoy things!!
— macy (@reyorganah) March 10, 2018
the visual effects in A WRINKLE IN TIME were so vividly stylized they made the second graders I was with consciously talk about visual filmmaking — and seeing @ava introduce the film mattered SO MUCH for talking w/ my kids about WHO makes films
— Saladin Ahmed (@saladinahmed) March 10, 2018
great night at the movies!
I know a wrinkle in time has gotten meh reviews, but I personally thought it was a great children’s movie about self-love & focusing on the positive. A lot missing from the book but still glad I supported a movie directed by a girl boss, Ava DuVernay. Also the visual effects??
— Adelaine M♡RIN (@AdelaineMorin) March 10, 2018
A Wrinkle in Time was fantastic. I cried the whole movie lol
— Ysa (@WhippedDream) March 10, 2018
A Wrinkle in Time was fantastic. It’s black girl season ❤️
— Erin Michelle (@erin__everyday) March 10, 2018
A Wrinkle in Time was, in many ways, different from the book, but not in the ways that normally annoy or disappoint me in a movie adaptation. It was different, and that’s ok.
— qwertymodo (@qwertymodo) March 10, 2018
Also, it was really, really good. @ava did a fantastic job. Go see the movie.
I loved A Wrinkle in Time. I think it will be this generation’s The Neverending Story. Wonderful story, delightful characters and colorful scenes, and a fantastic heroine.
— Mindi Welton-Mitchell / Melinda Mitchell (@RevMindi) March 9, 2018
@ava DuVerney is a fantastic storyteller. I laughed out loud. I cried. I held my breath. Thank you for #wrinkleintime
— Pam Voves (@PamVoves) March 9, 2018
What Twitter Is Saying: The Bad
Save your money and time… Do not see A Wrinkle in Time… it’s really, really, REALLY BAD.
— SuperMechaFrieza (@SMF_Frieza) March 10, 2018
So, A WRINKLE IN TIME is pretty bad. I think this is like one of those childhood movies that we used to love in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but when we saw them as adults, we realized they’re cringey and terrible.
— Doug Layne Anderson (@DougLAnderson) March 9, 2018
A Wrinkle In Time was, in my opinion, bad. Multiple people left halfway through the movie and others were laughing constantly and it wasn’t because the movie was funny. Worst movie of 2018 so far.
— Diogo Reis (@DisreisDiogo) March 10, 2018
I really wanted to like A Wrinkle in Time but damn it was bad. And not bad in a good way but bad in the bad way.
— bobby kevil (@BobbyKevil) March 10, 2018
A Wrinkle in Time is the first movie I have ever wanted to walk out of because it was so bad. With the bad script they were given the actors did a great job but editing and plot were quite messy and the great messages the movie was trying to teach didn’t come off well at all.
— Aaron (@AaronZiskovsky) March 10, 2018
Really wanted to like A Wrinkle In Time…how can a movie w/such good actors be so bad?? ? #WhatHappened
— Yvonne Espinoza (@espiyo) March 10, 2018
I liked the book A Wrinkle in Time. The new movie version SUCKS though: Awful sentimental poop music, nauseating delivery of every scrap of dialogue, and just dull as dull and fake as fake. It felt so CG but not in the cool Matrix way. Worse than Winchester and 15:17 to Paris.
— Scott Zimmerman (@artsciencelogic) March 10, 2018
A Wrinkle in Time is just absolutely completely awful ?
— alexis (@lezluthor) March 10, 2018
Folks, listen. I’m being as serious as Mumkey can be. If you’re gonna go to the movie theater this weekend, see any movie other than A Wrinkle in Time. It’s a living nightmare. Literally go see Black Panther again. Or any other movie out. A Wrinkle in Time is unbelievably awful.
— Mumkey Jones (@MumkeyJones) March 10, 2018
A wrinkle in time was god awful
— Eric Terrell (@PharaohciousAce) March 10, 2018
What Twitter Is Saying: The Mixed
Really not understanding the awful reviews for “A Wrinkle in Time”. Took my kid to see it this afternoon and I thought it was wonderful. A little off in some parts but otherwise it was an emotional film.
— Jen (@CharliNye) March 10, 2018
A Wrinkle in Time is a fine, simple, positive kids’ movie (this packed field trip audience loved all but a kiss at the end). Not really for me. But Storm Reid is a great discovery.
— Christopher Campbell (@thefilmcynic) March 9, 2018
I’m told to enjoy A Wrinkle in Time you have to be tripping on LSD, to ignore the plot holes and lack of depth and appreciate the CGI.
— Mark Loehrer, Curmudgeon M.D. (@PubPolHist) March 9, 2018
That sucks. It was my favorite book in 5th grade.
A Wrinkle In Time? More like…I absolutely did not enjoy the first half of this film and felt it to be nothing more than an expensive Disney Channel Original Movie…then the back half happend and I thoroughly enjoyed that. Mixed emotions indeed.
— Frank from AtomPhly (@FrankAPM) March 10, 2018
If you were tempted to read the reviews of A Wrinkle in Time, I’ve summarized most of them for you: “HOW DARE THIS MOVIE ADAPTATION OF A BELOVED CHILDHOOD CLASSIC BE MADE FOR CHILDREN.”
— Emily Finke (@seelix) March 10, 2018
You’re welcome. Now go enjoy the movie.
I went to go see a wrinkle in time yesterday and I really didn’t think it was that bad until the awful fucking ending. Dear gawd!
— Desiree (@desireexnoel) March 10, 2018
Me pretending to enjoy “A Wrinkle in Time” because I love Ava Duvernay
— Thic’challa (@mattOMG) March 10, 2018
pic.twitter.com/uKRE1PDn0f
I don’t think I liked a Wrinkle in Time. It wasn’t awful and the scenery & graphics are nice but the story didn’t grab me. Maybe because it’s not a favorite genre of mine?
— *Moe* (@All_Smiles904) March 10, 2018
Wrinkle in Time is a big bold beautiful mess. I admire what it’s trying to do and it’s level of sincerity, but the source material was clearly tough to adapt & script is not great. You have to give Ava credit for swinging for the fences, I can’t wait to see what she does next.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) March 7, 2018
A Wrinkle in Time is now playing.
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