MovieChat Forums > The Giver (2014) Discussion > The Very Worst Movie Of The Past Two Yea...

The Very Worst Movie Of The Past Two Years (at least) !!


For the past eight years I have watched about 25 movies per week, or 1,300 every year.
In my opinion, this was one of the very worst.

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Get a job

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I already have a job. I get $7.64 plus expenses for every movie watched. It is low paying but it keeps me in popcorn.

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[deleted]

$5 an hour? Get a real job, man. And rediscover your love of movies.

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You are overpaid. That is all.

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I'm trying to think of how you could possibly be paid "$7.64 plus expenses for every movie watched," what your job could possibly be? There is no way it's to review movies, if anyone was paid any amount of money to review movies, it wouldn't be for reviews like, "Worst movie in the past two years." Regardless of the low pay, I don't think anyone wants to read movie reviews like, "Sucked!"

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Dear BassBoat,
My original brief comment was just that. It was NOT a review. It does not seem like you read my additional follow-up replies and comments. I don't believe that I ever used the word "Sucked".
You are, by the way, the lucky winner !! This will be the very last time I try to explain something that actually needed no explanation in the first place. I'm sorry that you seem soooo ticked-off.

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movie was awful. that ending was laughable. "so now they have their memories back" 

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Yeah I call bs. And if not then you're just watching as many as you can for afew dollars which takes all the enjoyment out of the experience so your opinion is worth even less than regular film fans.

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You mean get a life?

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Yeah, it wasn't any good, which is sad considering the source material. Don't know if I'd say it was the *worst*, but it was pretty disappointing.

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Thanks for the thoughts Mr. Manager. In my original post I did not present a proper description of my opinion. On a 1-10 scale I actually gave this movie a 3+, and over the past couple of years I have given several movies a lower rating. For example I gave "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" a 2-, and the current "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" a 1+, but no one expects those types of movies to be really "high quality". What I should have said in the original was something closer to your comment. Considering the source material, the budget, the expectations, etc., it was EXTREMELY disappointing.

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I haven't read the book, but will now make a point to do so. I've seen it compared to Hunger Games and Divergent as emotional rather than action. I felt that the movie didn't really give us enough background, then sort of rushed through the second half.

I think HG was well written and excellently adapted for the movie. I'm all but done the Divergent series. I find it was a great idea, but just not as well written as it could have been - and the movie was actually better.

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It was pretty terrible. They were desperate and greedy for another oppressed society franchise, trying to reel in Hunger Games and Divergent fans. That along with the bad acting and complete predictability made this movie very eye roll worthy. I knew coming here that it would have a rating above a 6. Because people are stupid and love to lap up this kind of crap.

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It wasn't good, but it wasn't that bad. At least not The Hunger Games bad or.. The Maze Runner bad.

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After reading how Mr. Maniax's felt that "The Giver" was at least not as bad as either "The Hunger Games" or "The Maze Runner", I decided to do a little bit of movie viewer research. The first thing that became apparent was that the viewer opinions for all three movies are VERY polarized. For "The Hunger Games" , about 20% as many viewers hated it as loved it. For "The Maze Runner" the hated-it percentage was up to about 30%. Finally, for "The Giver" the hated-it percentage had risen to 40%. I think these numbers make two facts clear: 1) "different strokes for different folks" AND 2) viewers are getting tired of this type of movie.

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If you think The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner were 'bad', no one should be paying you to watch movies. You have no taste or idea what a good movie is. The Giver wasn't as good as either of those movies, but it was decent. The Hunger Games movies are some of the best to come out this century.

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It's obviously your right to disagree with the OP, but there's no reason to put down his taste because he dared to have a different opinion than you. I believe most critics would disagree with your assertion that the, "Hunger Games" movies are the "Best" movies to come out of this century-but it's cool if you enjoyed them. Instead of putting down the OP's taste level, how about an intelligent debate about why you enjoyed the movie? Or is that too difficult?

"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it." Norman Maclean

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Yaknow, if you don't like futuristic movies depicting a dystopian society that emerged from some cataclysmic war or ecological disaster, or something, then DON'T WATCH THEM. Doesn't give anyone the right to SLAM all of them!

All of those movies ("Hunger Games," "Divergent" and "The Giver") are based on books that are labeled as "YA," for young adults. In the case of "The Giver," after watching ALL the bonus material on the disc, which I just finished, including the study guide, I see it's a book often assigned in grades 6-8. I haven't read THAT book, but I DID read all three "Hunger Games" books when the first movie came out (the first just before the first movie came out, and the other two right after), and I picked up a copy of "Divergent" just prior to its release. I'm in my mid-50s, and although I don't see 35 movies a week, I'm well-versed enough after a lifetime of watching MANY, MANY movies (although a great many of them only after they reach HBO or something, and NOW only after they hit discs, and I can get them via Netflix), and frankly I just don't get all the SLAMMING!

I was impressed enough with "The Hunger Games" to go see the movie, which I thought was a slightly disappointing adaptation, but not too bad (there are a few things missing in all three adaptations so far I see no reason to have left out that I think ADD to the story). After reading "Divergent," I elected to wait and rent it. I guess my opinion was accurate, as it did only a third the box office of any of the "Hunger Games" films, and I found the movie to be about like the book -- good, but not great...

I haven't read "The Giver," but I thought the movie was pretty decent. It seemed to very well accomplish its story-telling ideals, and I don't see where the acting was bad. Indeed, if you were looking for EMOTIONAL performances from the actors to call it a GOOD movie, well, they weren't SUPPOSED to feel intense emotions, only mild happiness and very little in the way of sadness. They didn't even have words for joy, love, hate, anguish or other intense emotions in that society. Indeed, inhibiting its citizens from seeing in anything other than black and white seems an ideal way to help ensure they never experience any complex emotions, as that was a "black-and-white" society, where there were only rules, no exceptions. Everyone followed the rules, or else. Nobody seemed certain what the "else" was, but nobody seemed to want to find out, either. Nobody even understood the concept of DEATH. People just "went elsewhere."

Again, if you're not a vegetarian, DON'T eat tofurkey and then complain because it doesn't taste like real turkey. And if you don't like dystopian futuristic movies, don't watch them just so you can say how bad they are! Frankly, I suspect folks who HATE this sort of movie are the same ones who like to deny there are any major problems in modern society -- at least in American society. In fact, the way we're heading -- with uncontrolled population growth and decreasing tolerance for the differences of others (and I don't just mean "US" not tolerating "THEM;" I also mean "THEM" not tolerating "US"), it wouldn't surprise me much at all if we ended up with a swift, massive reduction in the world population caused by a Third World War, whether military, biological, or otherwise (induced worldwide famine is one way -- sabotage major food crops with a virus or something that wipes most of them out). So quit dismissing this type of movie out of hand.

Maybe you don't dismiss futuristic dystopian movies out of hand, you just don't like any of the ones you've seen. Well, if so, then WRITE ONE THAT'S BETTER! Don't just complain.
Jeff

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"if you don't like futuristic movies depicting a dystopian society that emerged from some cataclysmic war or ecological disaster, or something, then DON'T WATCH THEM."

I agree with you on that. but the thing is, for the book at least, it wasn't a post-apocalyptic society. That aspect only came from the second book. I do wonder how much of that aspect was shown. I haven't seen the movie.

Bob

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Not that I agree or disagree with the post, but he really does have the right to slam anything or everything. It's freedom of expression. You, of course, are free to vehemently disagree with his opinions. That's your right.


Actors do not have a job...they have a blast!

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Yep, stupid premise. Just another of those Hunger Games category. Think up a *beep* up new world, get some 15 year olds to be the be-all-end-all of that world, and then have them break all the rules and bring a new way of life. Its a sure fire way to earn money from young movie goers and older viewers with underdeveloped brains.

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Umm...yeah. A movie based on a book that predates any of the others you reference by about two decades and which has been in the planning stages for about 10 years certainly deserves to be dismissed as a knock-off of the Hunger Games. Look, everyone's entitled to their opinion, but you end up looking a lot less foolish if your opinion reflects at least a cursory understanding of the facts. Especially when you adopt a pretentious user name like CognitionLoop.

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None of that history matters. These movies with very specific and similar circumstances and same target audience are coming out now because of the trend and financial success of this "genre". I can make a movie now and say its been in the works for 30 years. Its all BS, to look like the real deal, unless they have some proof.

People write books based on other stories all the time. A dull stifled society, the graduation, then the mandatory job selection ceremony which makes everyone shake in their boots; THAT initial scenario offers a wide open canvas to take the second half of the story in a million different directions. And it is present in Hunger Games, Divergent, and this movie, at least. Haven't seen Maze Runner but I'm guessing it has something like that. These ideas can't come out of multiple writers. Maybe they are all based on Harry Potter, or maybe we don't know the original yet.

Fact is still, the writers write these books because its an easy hit, and then the movies come out because of the same reason. If The Giver was written before all those other ones, then I will change my mind about it, but not about the movie. Because the movie's timing and casting is just to catch the trend.

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You lost the debate. Your arguments don't count.

Ich bin kein ausgeklügelt Buch, ich bin ein Mensch mit seinem Widerspruch.
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer

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"The Giver is a 1993 American children's novel (generally Young Adult or older) by Lois Lowry."

The book was written over 20 years ago. Your argument is invalid.

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They changed things in the movie to follow the trend instead of following the book precisely.

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It's still not the first of its genre.
That credit would go to Metropolis, a movie made in 1927, you know, one of those silent films where you don't actually hear their voices but there's piano music and the dialog had to be presented between cuts.

1984 is probably the best of the dystopian genre and was written by George Orwell in 1949.
Yet I don't see many teenagers renting that movie either because it's played by an older cast and doesn't have a multi million dollar production value.
Not bashing young audiences by any means.
I'm quite happy the genre found its way back to the big screens, but for teens to say that this is a new idea I have merely one thing to say;
There's nothing new under this sun.

I am quite sure of it that even ancient Romans and Greeks were fantasizing about dystopian worlds and turning it into a theatre play on their ancient forums and agoras.

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The problem is they don't just base movies on the books they are based on. They are influenced by other successful movies as well. I could imagine they may have used the Hunger Games or other successful books or movies.

There had to be a reason they went against the book and Jeff Bridges' wishes and aged up Jonas and his friends.

Bob

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I wasn't familiar with the movie when I saw it. I thought it had a good premise. Unfortunately, I found it predictable.



Who is Keyser Soze?

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honestly sounds like your brain is underdeveloped, especially when you feel the need to put yourself above others (inferiority complex) You know your dumb, so you go out of your way to put others down.

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You know your dumb, so you go out of your way to put others down.
You know you're dumb when you look dumber that the one you're calling dumb...

I don't love her.. She kicked me in the face!!

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It's not the worst movie but seriously disappointing. Within the first 20min there were a ridiculous number of things that were wrong. Terrible

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Still a lot better than The Hunger games or Divergent.

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I thought it was good. Flawed but it touched me more than recent similar installments.
At the beginning it felt like a Divergent clone, but later on I had to think of Equilibrium. Although I wouldnt compare it with latter one.

When I start to watch many movies in short time I tend to lose the focus and they feel like Junkfood and entertain me less. Thats sad and disrespectful so I dont force myself to watch many.
And from what you wrote, youve lost it.

But who cares?


---
Lincoln Lee: I lost a partner.
Peter Bishop: I lost a universe!

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Dear a3c7r2d2,
After reading my original comment, did you hopefully read my other two follow-up thoughts on the movie before thinking that I had lost it, because I care. Really.

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I know that you get 5 bucks per hour for movie watching
---
Lincoln Lee: I lost a partner.
Peter Bishop: I lost a universe!

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a3c7r2d2,
What in the name of Hitchcock does that fact have to do with what I thought we were talking about?

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To the various persons that are having a problem with my current movie watching lifestyle:
1) The pay rate for my movie watching is $7.64/movie.
Because the average movie length is about 100 min., that equates to about $4.58/hr NOT $5.00.
2) At one time I did have a "regular" job, but now I am old and retired.
3) The movie watching gig is part time (about 5 hrs/day).
4) I always have and still do LOVE movies.

What is the problem with any of the above?

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Bump

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Ain't no problem at all. They just jealous cuz you're getting paid to do something you also greatly enjoy. :P

Now... for your topic. I first read this book 2mths ago, and just finished watching the movie tonight. I really, really wish I had not read the book first. Then, I could have possibly enjoyed the film.

In a nutshell, I think it was extremely patronizing. I'm tired of "smart movies for stupid people", and would like just a few of them to be smart movies for smart people. :P

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Does the $828 plus expenses a month supplement your social security? An interesting part time job.

I watch twice as much as you a month, easily. I'm younger than you, don't work, don't need the $828 watching fee. Nice work if you can get it. :D And worst of all, I enjoyed The Giver. But you know, everyone's different and it's impossible to have a consensus on something as subjective as a film. :)

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