Oddly enough this movie perfectly encapsulates my fears for the Wheel of Time adaption. There are so many aspects to the Wheel of Time series and while certainly a LOT of it could but cut, so many plotline that could be reduced and just hinted towards, there's still so much that I would consider essential and "high wants" that the budget would need to be immense. I fear the result will look like this movie.
I haven't read The Knife of Never Waking or whatever that first book is called. But I can see even in this movie holes. There's just so much more that would be reflected in a world where men's thoughts are open and women don't exist. The movie is mostly good but it feels like it could have been more.
The casting was great top notch actually. Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley as Todd Hewitt and Viola Eade are both excellent. Our antagonists are especially well cast from the cowardly bully played by Nick Jonas to the war preacher by David Oyelowo, and the sinister Mayor by Mads Mikkelsen they're all excellently casted. Their acting is great. Unfortunately the writing doesn't give them much to do. Nick Jonas ironically enough is wasted. He's really got the cowardly bully character down but he's just so unused from a narrative perspective. He was far more reserved when he should have been hitting out at Todd. Oyelowo's Aaron as a fire and brimstone preacher is effective when he's on screen but his role in the movie is confusing. He doesn't represent an antagonizing force to anyone but he should. He's not with the Mayor or against him yet they're both hunting Tom and Viola. It's not like represents another faction because he's just himself and even in the end he only wants final absolution. "The Mayor" is somewhat presented as this insidious force corrupting the men, but how? No offense to Mads but he wasn't that charismatic. Or even that scary. I don't understand why everyone is following much less Todd's surrogate father Ben.
I kinda think this is a movie with too much telling and not enough showing in that regard. But the effects are pretty solid. Men's thoughts are broadcast and while it's amusingly PG thoughts. I kinda would like to see some explanation of that. Like are they completely over women? There are parts in Act II that suggest this isn't the case. If you show me a high school and tell me the nerds got together and killed a jock I have no problem with this but I'd like to see something about why they did it or how they did it and how this affected the student body. This movie has no interest in telling me any of that.
I'd totally watch two more of these though I'm not sure where there is to go plotwise.
Review by wolfkinBlockedParent2021-06-04T20:34:49Z
Oddly enough this movie perfectly encapsulates my fears for the Wheel of Time adaption. There are so many aspects to the Wheel of Time series and while certainly a LOT of it could but cut, so many plotline that could be reduced and just hinted towards, there's still so much that I would consider essential and "high wants" that the budget would need to be immense. I fear the result will look like this movie.
I haven't read The Knife of Never Waking or whatever that first book is called. But I can see even in this movie holes. There's just so much more that would be reflected in a world where men's thoughts are open and women don't exist. The movie is mostly good but it feels like it could have been more.
The casting was great top notch actually. Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley as Todd Hewitt and Viola Eade are both excellent. Our antagonists are especially well cast from the cowardly bully played by Nick Jonas to the war preacher by David Oyelowo, and the sinister Mayor by Mads Mikkelsen they're all excellently casted. Their acting is great. Unfortunately the writing doesn't give them much to do. Nick Jonas ironically enough is wasted. He's really got the cowardly bully character down but he's just so unused from a narrative perspective. He was far more reserved when he should have been hitting out at Todd. Oyelowo's Aaron as a fire and brimstone preacher is effective when he's on screen but his role in the movie is confusing. He doesn't represent an antagonizing force to anyone but he should. He's not with the Mayor or against him yet they're both hunting Tom and Viola. It's not like represents another faction because he's just himself and even in the end he only wants final absolution. "The Mayor" is somewhat presented as this insidious force corrupting the men, but how? No offense to Mads but he wasn't that charismatic. Or even that scary. I don't understand why everyone is following much less Todd's surrogate father Ben.
I kinda think this is a movie with too much telling and not enough showing in that regard. But the effects are pretty solid. Men's thoughts are broadcast and while it's amusingly PG thoughts. I kinda would like to see some explanation of that. Like are they completely over women? There are parts in Act II that suggest this isn't the case. If you show me a high school and tell me the nerds got together and killed a jock I have no problem with this but I'd like to see something about why they did it or how they did it and how this affected the student body. This movie has no interest in telling me any of that.
I'd totally watch two more of these though I'm not sure where there is to go plotwise.