eZaF Crash

This book is 10/5 stars. It's a crucial, eye opening experience for any young white person to read it. The movie version of The Hate U Give conveys a basic, watered down version of Thomas’s original story, which is still better than nothing. However, the product placement is shameless, and it’s astonishing to me how nonsensical some of these decisions were. If you don’t want to commit to the full message that this book provides and you just want to do well at the box office, you should never have touched it in the first place. First off, they did not do a good job of casting Chris or King. Movie Chris is played by the guy from Riverdale, for marketing purposes. He looks twice Chris's age, and his personality was completely cut from the script. Practically half of his lines are just some rendition of "Starr! Wait!". Anthony Mackie as King feels more like an advertisement decision than an important character. It's clear they wanted him because of his part in the Avengers movies, not because he fit the bill. In the book, King was more than just the main antagonist; He was the one controlling everything to begin with. If he wasn't selling drugs to Khalil's mom and manipulating the Harris family, Khalil wouldn't have wanted to pay her debt in the first place. Simply put, he was a cold-blooded killer. In the entirety of the movie, King has about 3 meaningful lines. He's a paper tiger in comparison to his role in the book. I don’t have complaints about his party scene, but you see him beat up Seven instead of DeVante (who was written out of the movie completely) and he tells someone to burn down Maverick's store, instead of doing it himself. Countless moments are left out. (ie: trying to kill Mr. Lewis, DeVante, and crashing Khalil's funeral) The movie dodges issues it doesn't have to dodge. Instead of Black Lives Matter, they used a different slogan. Seriously, the movie is talking about this. Why not just say it? The people upset at you will be upset at you no matter what. It's not something you have to pay royalties to use, unlike Fresh Prince. Also, Devante, a very important character in the book, is completely cut from the movie. I can't help but wonder if they did this to dodge the commentary that the book makes on Starr and Chris's relationship, which, if true, is another slap in the face. Were these decisions made by directors, or scared, out of touch investors? These people do understand they're already making an extremely controversial movie, right? Why can't they just commit to it and represent the book properly? I do not appreciate how they completely changed up the finale. It doesn't make sense for Sekani to whip out a gun at the end. They had the audacity to add this scene in while leaving so many others out. I can see what they're trying to go for with it but the execution is just plain bad. Then, the camera pans to Starr, who awkwardly stares at the audience and explains what THUG LIFE means. To me, it comes across as a bit forced. The movie, thanks to Angie Thomas, still does a good job of explaining the big idea. But awkwardly hitting your audience over the head with the summary does not constitute a good ending. It's clear to me that many of the actors are very talented. Maverick (played by Russell Hornsby) was a standout for me. There are parts of this movie that I really liked. There are some scenes that do the book justice. But then out of nowhere, breaking your immersion, they have an offensively bad product placement that makes this movie feel like just another corporate cash grab. Although I agree with its ultimate message, this movie did not do the book justice. 2 Stars.