The Giver is the book that I've been studying in my English class and we've just finished. To wrap up the term and my school arranged an excursion to the city to watch the movie yesterday. This is going to be post about my reaction to that book adaption. I need to start off by saying that I'm not reacted to this movie as a movie, but a book adaption. I really loved the book so I'm sort of biased because I was very upset by everything that they changed. Okay let's start this!
No spolier section:
I thought that this book had it's heart in the right place. They tried to keep the overall feel of the book with all the importance if memories and colours, but it was so different from the book. As a fan of the book while watching the movie I felt so upset when so many things were changed. It was overall an alright movie, but a not so good book adaption. There was also a big deal about Taylor Swift being in the movie, but she was only in the movie for about 2 minutes. This is a very short non spoiler section, but that's all I can say without spoiling you!
SPOLIERS!!!!!!!
Okay lets start a long list of my bias complaints. First thing I noticed was that non of actors were the right age besides from the young actress who played Lily. I liked how in the book Jonas was very young and innocent and barely understood the world around him. Instead of the Ceremony of 12 it was the Ceremony of 16 or graduation? I sort of got over that fact after 5 minutes, but something I couldn't get over was the holograms. I know that it's set in the future but the holograms were a bit to far for me. Also what was up with the hologram of Rosemary? I think it was just an excuse to have Taylor Swift in the movie for longer.
Many things that were good in the book were taken out and many things were added in to try to make the movie more interesting. Like the barrier of memories, was the line on the map and I understand that things need to be changed to make the movie more interesting, but I thought that was so unnecessary to the plot. Another thing I thought was an unnecessary to change were Asher and Fiona's assignments. In the book Asher was the Assistant Director of Recreation and Fiona was a caretaker of the old. Instead in the movie Asher was a pilot of some kind and Fiona was the ding the totally opposite job, which was looking after babies. It was also really confusing how in the scene with Asher in the plane. In that scene there was obviously more people in there besides from Asher, yet they still didn't notice how the plane/drone stopped moving. I get that they were all looking in other directions, but won't they still be able to notice the plane/ drone stop moving and the magnet taking the one guy that they were looking for up on the magnet?
Something that frustrated me so much when I was watching is how their relationships worked. The relationship between Fiona and Jonas was so different to they relationship in the book. It was so much more romantic and the whole reason why Jonas left is because no one could feel emotions so and he didn't want to live a life starving from colour and real feelings. Also in the book their was a really touching scene where Jonas cries because he is scared that he can't save Gabriel and I brought tissues because I knew that if I saw it, that it would bring me to tears, but unfortunately, or fortunately I'm not sure yet, they didn't include such an emotional scene. It is important to understand that a book is very detailed and all those details can't always be put into a movie and sometime things need to be changed to quicken up the pace. I get that and I won't have minded a few changes, but I feel like so many things were changed. For example in the book Jonas just quietly snuck out, but in the movie it was an epic chance scene that kept the readers on the edge of their seats.
So far everything has been quite negative so now I'm going to talk about what I liked. I really liked the humour. Admittedly their isn't much, but Jonas dad cracked me up when he said that the elephant was hippo and that it had 5 legs. Also the memories were filmed in such a cool way that was so interesting to watch on screen and I though that they were done very well. The visuals were very stunning and the holograms, though unnecessary to the plot, looked amazing.
My overall thoughts about the movie is that it is touching and has good intentions. The script seems very rushed and people who loved the book may be disappointed, although the movie those have a few shining moments. The actors were great considering the script and the movie was very appetising to the eyes. It wasn't what I excepted but it wasn't that bad ever. I've mentioned this before and I'd mention it one more time, because I'm sort of biased because I loved he book and wanted it to say true to the book. I'm pretty sure that if i hadn't read the book I would have liked the movie more. When I left the theatre I did come out with a sense of happiness though, because it had a beautiful ending with a quote that came from the book. I recommend that people go see it and those who liked the book go see it as well, because yes their were many, many changes it still has a good heart to it. :)
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