West River Eagle

Hope and annihilation battle for all ages in A Wrinkle in TIme and Annihilation


By Jody Rust

Director: Ava DuVernay

Writers: Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell, based on the novel A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle

Actors: Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey. Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Levi Miller, Deric McCabe, Chris Pine, Gugu Mbatha-Raw

Director and Screenwriter: Alex Garland, based on the novel Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Actors: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Lee, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, Tessa Thompson, Oscar Isaac, Benedict Wong, David Gyasi

This weekend The Seventh Generation Cinema opened its doors into new worlds, taking a young adult audience across the universe, and an adult audience into the shimmer.

The two movies now playing are A Wrinkle in TIme, based on the Newbery Award winning young adult novel written by Madeleine L’Engle and published in 1962, and Annihilation, based on the novel of the same name and winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award for best novel.

The movies share some serendipitous similarities: both main characters have lockets with photos of their loved ones; both stories have a missing person; both have an evil or changing force against which the main characters fight; both stories have an enemy with glowing eyes.

However, the movies seem to fit the role of the 1 Corinthian 13 verse in the Bible, “”When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (King James Version).

A Wrinkle in Time, abounds with the hope and joy that comes from victory in childhood; whereas Annihilation gets real and threatens the audience with the possibility that evil — defined as anything that stifles one’s free will to live as he or she has become accustomed — will triumph.

The good (or bad) element of these two movies, depending on your perspective, is that they stay true to their genre and their audience by either giving youth hope or ensuring adults that there is no hope.

A Wrinkle in TIme stays close to the book, but some fans of the novel were disappointed that the movie diverges from L’Engle’s plot as it progresses to its conclusion.

The film version Annihilation, according to various reports, loosely follows the novel, while still  capturing the novel’s concepts and themes.

One question posed by the film is this: does unwanted change make the cause of that change evil? Another concept raised by the film is when one experiences regret and loss, why would one put him or herself in peril? When they have nothing else to lose — why does life become worth losing?

A Wrinkle in Time  sees evil as a definite infection of the mind and heart, something that fights individuality, infects people with jealousy, tries to control others, divides through fear and pain, regret and revenge.

Both films work effectively with CGI effects, and the acting is fresh — for the most part — with new and known faces. 

Previews did not serve either film justice, but neither film would make it at the top of my list of all-time favorites. For me, any film or book I can remember in detail years after I have seen it become among my favorite because they have made me think deeply about their content.

I have a feeling that while the initial impact of these films may not equate to the hoopla of say, the Black Panther, the themes and implications of both films have already twisted around my psyche and have me grappling with my own ideas of hope and annihilation.

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