YA science fiction movies are sooooo ridiculous. They’re all extremely similar in terms of plot and make the same obvious appeals to the vanity of young people. This one gets off to a gloriously unsubtle start, with a hilariously “high concept” post-apocalyptic society where there are inexplicable divisions that clearly don’t promote harmony but supposedly …
Tag: Young Adult
The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival
This was my first time attending TIFF in person in 3 years. It was a little exhausting, given how far out of downtown we now live but, once I got the hang of it, I fell back into the rhythm of it and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It also helped that, after a few movies that …
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2022, Aitch Alberto)
This is a coming of age drama about two teenage boys in El Paso in the late 1980s. Jenn and I were not warned it was based on a YA novel and so we did not know what we were getting into. (To clarify: we knew it was based on a novel, we just didn’t …
The Westing Game (1978) by Ellen Raskin
This is the kind of novel all kids should read. I am far too old for this type of book now but, as a child or tween, this would have been great. It feels like a legitimate game – it’s basically a far more complicated version of Clue, but with character development – and its …
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013, Harald Zwart
This is one of the innumerable young adult fantasy franchises that has seemingly popped up out of nowhere over the last decade and a half. I watched it for the same reasons that I watch all of these – I enjoy bad movies. This one is, at times, better than a lot of the other …
The Scorch Trials (2015, Wes Ball)
I did not like the first film at all. But that movie had a “high concept” that I could at least respect on some level – though it struck me as something I would have dreamed up as a teenager – even if the execution was pretty awful. But this movie is worse. Yes, that’s …
The Maze Runner (2014, Wes Ball)
Thoughts (Including major spoilers, but I don’t care because you should not watch this piece of shit):
The Hunger Games (2012, Gary Ross)
So first, my general impressions: the film is pretty well-made, if a little long for its subject matter. I didn’t detect any glaring problems with the editing, direction, etc. The problem is, of course, the source material. As one would expect from a novel aimed at teens or tweens, there’s not much here for adults: …