Erin McLearn

This movie was great! It was enjoyable to watch and is a great callback to the teen dystopian movies of the 2010s. Was it stereotypical and unoriginal? Yes. Its based on a teen dystopian novel written 20 years ago, so we are bound to see some of the same narrative points that we have seen in other dystopian films. As teen dystopian movies go, this one was fun. We got an interesting narrative on societal expectations, cool hoverboarding scenes, and great acting. In our world today where plastic surgery is normalized and every teen uses a filter to hide their flaws, the message of the movie is so pertinent. The stunts were awesome--the hoverboarding and bungee jackets really sold the futuristic, dystopian nature of the world. Joey King really embodied the character of Tally, and the relationships between characters were nuanced and layered. From a literary perspective, the movie stayed true to the plot of the book. I loved the books when I was a teen, and there was nothing major that as a reader, I would be upset with. The movie of course left out character development and world building, but that is to be expected in a book to movie adaptation. You could critique this movie on shallow plot points or underdeveloped characters. However, I feel that would be an unfair judgement of a movie that was not designed to be groundbreaking. Art is about more than the philosophical, it is also about entertaining the audience and exploring the worlds we can create. This movie was visually stunning and so much fun to watch. Go in with the right expectations, and you'll have a great time.