This movie opens with them talking about something that is the foundation of our blog... the big and the small. She studies quantum particles and he studies the stars. Together, they study how everything works together. I love this concept. And I love movies where normal people are put into incredible, unbelievable situations where the extraordinary people shine. Every Day is a great example of this. What I love about those movies is the people act like people do in incredible situations, but overcome their own sense of reality. An average person wouldn't believe but an extraordinary person will say to themselves, "Ok, if this is real, how can I test it?" or "Ok, I was wrong about reality, how can I add this to my worldview?" But I did not like this movie. These characters weren't like that at all. They were like, "Neat! Ok, let's move on..." Their reactions made so little sense, it was so disappointing and distracting from what could have made this movie good.
Ok, so... A Wrinkle In Time is about a physicist that finds out that space and time can be folded with your mind... CUZ SCIENCE! So he goes off into the universe and gets lost. Four years later, magical beings come gather his children (not his wife that also loved him and followed the science, cuz she's 'not ready') to go find him because they 'hear his call for help'. So off they go to magic land, where they find THE DARKNESS! They're beings of light, so they can't enter THE DARKNESS! The kids want to save their dad, but the magical beings want to go back and regroup. Will they save their dad, or be lost forever to THE DARKNESS?! I'm sure you can guess the answer.
SOME MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!! They are pretty minor, though...
Meg is a disgruntled teen because her father disappeared. This can be a cool character... the reluctant hero. But she's so disgruntled, that she's just a bummer throughout. It's hard to root for a character when you don't really like her. Also, in the trailer, they describe the 'Fifth dimension' for folding space. In the movie, they just will themselves using mind powers, cutting those scenes completely. It's just magic, pretty much. This takes away her brilliance. Then, in the magic world, she 'uses science' to save them in a way that makes no sense at all. Science dictates they would have died using her plan. But obviously, they weren't going to die in this movie, which is another issue. Why try to build suspense when you know the main character is going to be fine?
There's very little humor in the movie, which I felt was much needed, but Galifianakis did help. His scene was probably my favorite of the movie. Reese Witherspoon did add levity as well with her brutally honest character. So I did enjoy that as well. In fact, the best parts were the magical 'Misses', who are 'Light Beings' with magic powers.
The worst part was the reactions and decisions of the human characters. They were just nonsensical. This is not how people would react to these fantastic things. They needed a physicist to tell them how to do the science of the 'wrinkles' and they needed a psychologist to tell them how humans (even extraordinary ones) react to reality changing realizations. And the worst part of all... her dad traveled in a wrinkle of his own making... so why couldn't he get back? Why did they wait FOUR YEARS to get the kids? Does time work differently? We find out... nope, it doesn't. If anything, it goes the other way. UGH!!
MINOR-SPOILER-FILLED-RANT OVER!
I REALLY wanted to like this movie. It's MY kind of movie. But this was just not good. I truly hope that people can find the magic in A Wrinkle In Time, but for me, it was just two hours of disappointment. Kids might like it, but there are some scary scenes in it. I would take them to Peter Rabbit instead if it's still playing. Even if they've already seen it.