Review: Wonder

03-06-2018, 03:57 AM

_Zenith Wrote: Wonder is a 2017 filmdirected by Stephen Chbosky and written by Jack Thorne, and Steve Conrad. It is based off of the 2012 book by the same name, and has been critically acclaimed for being one of the better movies for 2017. But is it really that good? Well after watching it twice in 6 month periods, I feel like I can give you my honest perspective on the movie Wonder.

Let me start off by saying this. I love the book Wonder. I've read it numerous times, and I find the story and the way they tell the story interesting and unique. Showcasing many different perspectives on the situation faced throughout. I love the way it's written, paced, and executed so much, that it is probably one of my favorite novels I have recently read. The reason why I'm telling you this is because it should be no surprise that I found the movie wonder to not only be a disappointment compared to a book, but is also one of the most mind boggling, bad movies I've ever watched. It's terrible, it's horrible, it's one of the worst things I've had to suffer through, and even though I had to watch Life of the Party recently, I feel like this movie, and the community surrounding this movie, is abysmal.

But why is that?

Plot:

Wonder is about a childgoing into the fifth grade. The only problem being that he has a facial deformity. Throughout the movie you will be viewing a "weird" kid going through his first year of middle school, and his family's struggles due to his genetics. That's pretty much it. See, the difference about the book is that it actually goes deep into these topics, having views from the main character (August), his friend that he made in school (Jack), His sister feeling neglected by her parents (Via), the sister's friend who became popular due to lying but "of course misses her" (Miranda) and even the parents perspectives. Each character gets at least 2 chapters to develop their own individual personality, and even have different writing styles, which I found really unique. Yet the movie literally gives each character a couple of minutes to try and develop their character then moves along to a funny Owen Wilson joke. Because the one thing I want to see in a "feel good" movie where a child gets bullied is Owen Wilson being an idiot. Nice.


Humor:

Speaking of Owen Wilson, let's talk about the humor in the movie. By which I mean it has been dumbed down from the book to appeal to a general audience, pop culture esque "millennial" sense of it. Literally every five seconds has a Star Wars reference (the book also mentions Star Wars but the movie makes the jokes last way too long.) or maybe a Minecraft reference because "omg kids play Minecraft right let's use that!" I'm sure a bunch of four year olds really enjoyed the Minecraft jokes after they stopped crying at the main actor's makeup. Which doesn't even make the kid look that bad. At least not bad enough to be bullied for it.

I only laughed at two parts of the movie, and both were for the wrong reason. The first reason was because I found it really funny how Owen Wilson was somehow supposed to give birth to a child with an abnormally small nose. Which had me laughing for at least 1/3 of the movie. And the second part was because one of the most important scenes, where Jack and August become friends again, where they make strides to become close again was cut up, and turned into a text conversation in Minecraft. Like you have to be kidding me. The first time I saw this I was so baffled that I paid actual money for a movie ticket so I could see this abomination take place. It had me in tears I swear.

Issues:

Let me say this. Subtly is dead. If movies like this can get away with literally telling you what everyone is feeling like at all times then movies shouldn't be considered an art form anymore. You think for a bit when Via gives a look in the beginning you think "oh she may feel neglected by her parents." then a good five seconds later Via says "I feel neglected by my parents." I can sort of understand what they were going for, as in the book they also explain this exposition in this way. But books can't show subtly like movies can. Books (especially books for pre teens) need to explain how others are placed in the plot. But this isn't a book, this is a movie. And hell if they were trying to be so true to the book, then why did they leave a key part / plot device near the end of the book where August needs a hearing aid. They explain that he doesn't need one in the movie in the first 10 minutes which made me think "Wait so what is August going to lose after he gets in that fight in the end." The answer is nothing. There is no repercussion to him getting in a fight, he says that he did to his parents and Owen Wilson being the funny guy he is says "did you win?" Wow thanks for wasting my time with that instead of showing some sort of development. I'm so glad that instead of feeling bad for this kid because he gets bullied I feel like he is an extremely selfish brat, where even though in the end he has all the friends and girls and what not he still isn't happy.

Don't even get me started on the pacing. Is it a trend now to pace films at 500 fps. Like seriously slow down. Nobody ever can process all the information you're trying to throw at once as no big important scene lasts more than a few seconds after the impact before another scene. This is the same issue I had with "The Great Gatspy" movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The most gigantic scene ever plays when he's like "I'm Gatsby." then literally 2 seconds later fucking explosions and 5 trillion people are cheering at once. Like you're not doing your movie any favors by spending money on this shit, if anything it lessens the impact.

Conclusion:

This movie is a mess. I really can't stand it. It's like a 10 year old read the book and though "hm what if this was a movie."

2/10
This post was helpful. I had been looking for this for a long time. Searched everywhere but found it only here