Virtually nothing works in Ava DuVernay's 'A Wrinkle in Time'

I'm back after a bit of a hiatus, and there are so many movies in theaters right now I wanna see and need to catch before it's too late -- but before I get onto new material, I've gotta weigh in on one woeful disappointment from earlier this year that I finally caught: Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time.

This was a movie I had once very highly anticipated -- in part because of the historic and symbolic achievement of DuVernay (as the first female director of color to be at the helm of a $100-million budget, would-be blockbuster) but also because the Madeleine L'Engle book that inspired it had been a favorite of my youth (although I had forgotten far more of it than I could remember).

Poor reviews kept me from rushing to see this big screen adaptation when it finally hit theaters (where it under-performed at the box office) and while I still had every intention of seeing it, my expectations were considerably lowered.

Now that I have finally seen it, I can say it is an unequivocal failure, but one I struggle to pinpoint. It's not a laughably bad movie by any measure, but still virtually nothing works in it from its casting to execution.

I have enormous respect for DuVernay's talent, but perhaps she simply isn't suited for making these kind of epic, fantastical films. A movie like this should dazzle you and there isn't a single set piece that stuck out for me.

Basically, my big takeaway from this was too appreciate Ryan Coogler's Black Panther that much more, since pulling of this kind of blockbuster is such a delicate tightrope. I imagine there is always studio pressure to go light on character for spectacle, and the right balance can make or break a movie.

Here DuVernay takes great pains to give her characters gravitas, and she has likable adult leads in Chris Pine and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, but the kids aren't compelling (at least to me), and the stunt casting of Oprah Winfrey alongside Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling didn't work for me at all. They're distracting and dopey as hell.

Kaling, who has comedic chops, is saddled with corny quote jokes and nothing to play. At least Reese Witherspoon commits to her childlike performance, while Oprah is simply being Oprah, accept unlike in Selma she doesn't wisely play against her diva persona, here she revels in it to the detriment to the movie.

The effects, which can often be a saving grace for a movie like this, are dull at best and chintzy at worse. I'm not really sure where the money went here, it certainly doesn't seem to be on the screen.

But the greatest sin of this movie is that it doesn't appear to have anything interesting to say about the material. Yes, there is some progressive politics and nods to multiculturalism shoehorned in, and while I agree with the sentiments they're not subtle or effective, neither is the strain of female empowerment that is supposed to transform the sullen heroine into a fierce warrior.

It could be that the book's material was too hard to translate into a grounded film -- I don't know. I couldn't help but feel like a Tim Burton in his prime could have done wonders with it. All I can say is that after seeing this iteration, I think DuVernay was still struggling with the material when she made it.

Now, with all this being said, I love that she got the opportunity -- that is an advance worth celebrating. And, if by chance, this film ends up inspiring a generation of young women to be strong and independent voices, than I will always applaud that too.

Still for me, this feels like a total misfire, not even an interesting one like the similarly aspirational Tomorrowland, and that bums me out.