A rare movie review: ‘The Giver’

Metacritic gave it a score of 47% while Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 33%.

I however… Well, let’s just say I was left there in the theatre, stunned, unable to move, my thumb and index finger touching my pursed lips. I was in awe at just what I watched.

Those scores were a sham, I thought to myself. SHAM! However, I told myself, “To each is their own”. I for one, LOVED IT.

When the credits were rolling, I was still digesting what I just watched. It was hard to digest a movie like this. It wasn’t a blockbuster movie; there were no explosions nor sex, no sexy or hot actors and actresses, rather, it was a movie that requires you to open your mind up and think; to step back for awhile and re-look at the world around you and the society you are a part of.

The Wikipedia page of ‘The Giver’ stated that the movie is a “social science fiction” and social science fiction, Wikipedia stated (though kids, do not quote Wikipedia in your essays, blogs are still okay):

Social Science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, usually soft science fiction, concerned less with technology and space opera and more with speculation about human society. In other words, it “absorbs and discusses anthropology”, and speculates about human behavior and interactions.

There, ‘anthropology’. There!

And suddenly, it all makes sense. Anthropology, the study of societies, of people. That was what I learned in university and have been ever so passionate about. No wonder I feel strongly about the movie; from the beginning until the end. My passion for learning about people and societies left a big mark on me during the movie and more so now.

I love how they incorporate real (and staged) videos of societies. I love that. The emotions that they talked about, the HUMAN emotions. Those, those I like. I especially like the part where he ‘saw’ strength, prior to continuing his journey to Elsewhere. That was my favourite. I guess these videos of societies and emotions made The Giver different from other dystopian teen movies.

Many of the critics say that the plot for The Giver is just like any other dystopian teen movies such as The Hunger Games, Divergent and Ender’s Game and I have to say, I do agree with that. Even so, I feel that movie genre such as these are fairly new and I can say that I am not sick of it just yet. Anything that is different from movies which only talks of beefed up hot guys saving (and shagging) overtly sexy girl in a very sexualized and masculine movie is obviously way interesting to me.

But like I said, to each is their own!

I am waiting or another Yasmin Ahmad-type movie to come out from Malaysia and fortunately, they are booming(!) – thank you indie filmmakers! I think it’s about time we step away from funny horror movies, stories about rempits, the ‘glamorous’ lives of polygamous marriages, and about kampung women who need men to ‘straighten’ them out because they do not know any better.