The Giver

[areaseven]

The Giver is the film adaptation of the bestselling 1993 young adult novel by Lois Lowry. It is directed by Phillip Noyce (The Saint, Salt) and stars Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites (Prince Phillip in Maleficent, Tim in Oculus), Odeya Rush (Hannah in Goosebumps), Katie Holmes (Tom Cruise's third ex), Alexander Skarsgård (Cmdr. Hopper in Battleship), Taylor Swift (overrated pop singer), and Cameron Monaghan (Chad in Malcolm in the Middle).

The Giver hits U.S. theaters on August 15.

Official Site

[renegadeleader1]

The book was god awful. I hope it bombs and who ever made it loses their shirt.

Edited April 22, 2014 by renegadeleader1

[areaseven]

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 28% - "Phillip Noyce directs The Giver with visual grace, but the movie doesn't dig deep enough into the classic source material's thought-provoking ideas."

Metacritic Score: 46 out of 100

[renegadeleader1]

"Phillip Noyce directs The Giver with visual grace, but the movie doesn't dig deep enough into the classic source material's thought-provoking ideas."

Dig deep into what??? The source material is about as shallow as you can possibly get out of dystopian storyline. There aren't any "thought-provoking ideas" outside of why the hell was I forced to read this garbage in school? This is a book that deserves the fahrenheit 451 treatment.

The book's shallow plot...

... is focused on a kid in enclosed emotionless society who is chosen by the ruling council to inherit all the memories of humanity from an advisor called "The Giver" via esp because stupid humanity can't be trusted to make descisions without emotion. Once he recieves them he finds his society and its forced conformity is evil, and his father a doctor has been euthanizing babies, the elderly, and infirm. Rejecting this he takes a baby and wanders off into the wasteland where its implied he and the baby die... or find some magical happy place where people are singing christmas carols.

[anime52k8]

I really wish they would stop making crap movies out of crap teen novels. I'm so sick of it..

[Einherjar]

Dig deep into what??? The source material is about as shallow as you can possibly get out of dystopian storyline. There aren't any "thought-provoking ideas" outside of why the hell was I forced to read this garbage in school? This is a book that deserves the fahrenheit 451 treatment.

The book's shallow plot...

... is focused on a kid in enclosed emotionless society who is chosen by the ruling council to inherit all the memories of humanity from an advisor called "The Giver" via esp because stupid humanity can't be trusted to make descisions without emotion. Once he recieves them he finds his society and its forced conformity is evil, and his father a doctor has been euthanizing babies, the elderly, and infirm. Rejecting this he takes a baby and wanders off into the wasteland where its implied he and the baby die... or find some magical happy place where people are singing christmas carols.

I felt that way too. However, when the heck did this become a franchise? I would've given it a second look if I'd known sooner.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giver_Quartet

[TangledThorns]

I really wish they would stop making crap movies out of crap teen novels. I'm so sick of it..

Seconded!

[TangledThorns]

I watched The Hunger games with the wife and liked it (not loved) but have no interest in the other young adult films but one thing I noticed in these stories (Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Giver) is a lack of God or any religion for that matter. It seems they all take place in a society where secularism has won and created a dystopia. Are the authors trying to send a message here?

Edited August 16, 2014 by TangledThorns

[DuelGundam2099]

I was forced against my will to read the book in eighth grade and everything RL1 mentioned is true.

[anime52k8]

I watched The Hunger games with the wife and liked it (not loved) but have no interest in the other young adult films but one thing I noticed in these stories (Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Giver) is a lack of God or any religion for that matter. It seems they all take place in a society where secularism has won and created a dystopia. Are the authors trying to send a message here?

Possibly, although saying there's any kind of message here might be giving too much credit to these things. Alternatively, 15 year old girls who are into chicks with bows and sparkly vampires just don't care about religion so it's a non-factor in the books.

[DuelGundam2099]

It does prove they could never happen in America, a quarter of the population is very anti-secular and most people will not vote for atheist politicians.

[BeyondTheGrave]

Dig deep into what??? The source material is about as shallow as you can possibly get out of dystopian storyline. There aren't any "thought-provoking ideas" outside of why the hell was I forced to read this garbage in school? This is a book that deserves the fahrenheit 451 treatment.

The book's shallow plot...

... is focused on a kid in enclosed emotionless society who is chosen by the ruling council to inherit all the memories of humanity from an advisor called "The Giver" via esp because stupid humanity can't be trusted to make descisions without emotion. Once he recieves them he finds his society and its forced conformity is evil, and his father a doctor has been euthanizing babies, the elderly, and infirm. Rejecting this he takes a baby and wanders off into the wasteland where its implied he and the baby die... or find some magical happy place where people are singing christmas carols.

So it's equilibrium without the awesome gun play.

I'll pass

Edited August 16, 2014 by BeyondTheGrave

[areaseven]