Devon McClain

For those that read the book, this film unfortunately falls flat. The adaptation tries so hard to stay close to the source material, which I very much appreciate, but it forces the movie to have to move at this break-neck pace to fit everything in. This compromises the emotion of certain moments (see: Tate and Kya’s relationship) and makes the acting feel forced and unnatural. The film’s attempt to showcase all aspects of the book instead of drawing inspiration from its most poignant parts culminates in what feels like a 2 hour exposition dump, making the whole thing feel like a rushed cash grab for the readers of the wonderful book. They also stylize the marsh to look almost like this fairytale land, which just feels wrong.