Question: Why didn't Mrs Whatsit turn into a winged centaur as she did in the book? What made them alter the magic creature into a living leaf?
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Answer: The biggest critical complaint about this film is that director Ava DuVernay and her screenwriters essentially gutted Madeleine L'Engle's award-winning children's book and turned it into nothing more than Disneyesque eye candy, discarding many important elements of L'Engle's story and arbitrarily refitting it with lightweight (and boring) motivational platitudes. In other words, DuVernay made the movie her soapbox for "social messaging" and tossed out much of the wondrous (and even miraculous) detail that made L'Engle's original book a huge success. Consequently, this movie was a colossal financial failure.
Interestingly, Disney had adapted this story for the screen before (in 2004), and the earlier version did include the flying centaur (albeit a bad CGI rendering). Unfortunately, the 2004 version was also a box-office failure for Disney, and for the same reason as the 2018 remake: Disney removed the magical and spiritual qualities that gave L'Engle's original story its depth.
Disney's previous adaptation was released in 2003 as a TV movie, so it wasn't a "box-office failure", it was just a terrible movie.
Question: Why did the exit randomly appear when the rooms converged? I much preferred the original's exit being a puzzle the characters had to solve, rather than just holding out, but perhaps there's a more clever solution that went over my head.
Answer: The nature of the original cube was a puzzle that needed solved to escape. This cube was more like a time trial you had to survive to the end of in order to escape. The appearance of the exit was not random however; the cube collapsed upon itself until it no longer existed in three-dimensional space, leaving the survivor standing in the area the cube had previously occupied.
Question: At the end of the episode, the filmers at the studio give Beck his job back, saying that they hated Melinda Murry. But if so, why didn't they just fire her and keep Beck in the movie earlier? Also, how does Beck get his job back at the time? Shouldn't his cut role have been filled in by then?
Answer: The Director hated working with Melinda, but knew that her superstar popularity and status would get his movie a big buzz and higher ratings. And the movie was discontinued for a re-audition to fill-in Melinda's leading/major role.
Question: When Esther is being taken to her new home, Sister Abigail is seen with her fingers crossed behind her back. Did she do this because she knew how evil Esther was and she wanted to keep that fact a secret, or because she knew Esther's secret and was actually lying about Esther in hopes of getting rid of her more quickly?
Answer: I would say your first guess is correct, Sister Abigail suspected Esther's true, sinister nature while everyone else saw her as an innocent child. Later in the film, she tells the mother her suspicions but was never able to prove Esther's wrongdoing. She may have also been crossing her fingers hoping that it was the last time she would ever have to see Esther. It's highly unlikely Sister Abigail knew Esther's secret or else she would have alerted the authorities.
Question: Why did Mrs Weasley believe that stuff Skeeter wrote about Harry and Hermione? She knows Hermione and knows what kind of person Skeeter is.
Answer: Molly should have known it wasn't true, but her over-protectiveness regarding Harry may have affected her logic. She may also have been affected by Ron and Hermione's ongoing rift (over Viktor Krum) and knows that girls that age can be fickle and illogical when it comes to romance. Although her emotions got the better of her, Molly eventually realises that Rita Skeeter's stories were fake.
Question: What's the name of the episode where Drew, Oswald and Lewis are briefly playing the drums and maybe guitar, and singing "Honey, Honey, Honey" altogether?
Answer: "That Thing You Don't" (s03e10). The gang forms their old band again for a talent contest. Lewis is on drums, Drew is on trumpet, Oswald is on trombone, Kate is lead singer.
Question: So I'm not sure if I understand. Up until Leo was found to be a white lighter, Piper froze him several times. Sorry if this has been addressed before, but was Leo faking being frozen?
Answer: Only witches, or half/part witches eg. Chris, cannot be frozen (if I recall correctly) so, no, Leo was not faking. But that's just my opinion.
Answer: Piper can choose specifically not to freeze him if she is freezing other things.
Answer: I've been wondering this forever because he only freezes sometimes and I know she can control who gets frozen but he stopped freezing once they knew he is a white-lighter.
Question: In the original film, the Discovery's onboard computer states: "I am a HAL 9000 Computer, Production Number 3. I became operational at the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, on the 12th of January, 1992." So, "HAL" was a manufacturer identification prefix (standing for Heuristically-programmed ALgorithmic Computers), "9000" was its model number, and "No.3" was its production lineage. In this sequel, however, Dr. Chandra is chatting with one of HAL's earth-based twin computers which has a feminine voice and is called "SAL"; but how can they arbitrarily change its manufacturer identification prefix? Being produced by the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, and being identical to the computer aboard the Discovery, the twin's name should have a different production number, but it should still be called "HAL," should it not?
Answer: The most likely reason the name was changed was probably a literary one. It makes it easier for the audience to differentiate SAL from HAL, showing how they are two distinct computers playing different roles in the film. It may also just be a feminine nickname being that SAL has a female voice.
I thought perhaps "SAL" was a nickname, also, until I saw that the computer's maker nameplate reads "SAL 9000" (visible in close-ups of SAL's glowing eye).
Question: In the final scene, when we see the rose and ring that the Phantom have left on Christine's grave, we also see that she died two years before the scene takes place. Why did the Phantom wait two years to leave the ring on the grave? Was he previously unaware of Christine's death?
Answer: I like to think that he would always place a rose there, possibly every week or so, and they never had the ring on them. And he knew When Raoul would be there, so he placed them when he knew he would be alone with her. As for the two years later, since the phantom "knew" when Raoul came... he especially put that ring there. Just to let Raoul know about his love for Christine and the fact he is still living. He knew Raoul would visit then, and knew what to do. (This is only a theory I have proposed. As for a genuine answer... I am not aware of one.) Hope this maybe helped.
Answer: It may have been Christine's birthday, or anniversary of sort.
Question: Trivial perhaps, but this is a court drama. Isn't the pronunciation of "Oh yez" by the court deputy, announcing the judge, actually pronounced "Oh yay"? In the movie, the deputy uses a strange pronunciation of "O yee", which I've never heard. My late husband was a court deputy, and he was corrected his first day in court. (He pronounced it, wrongly, "O yez" (rhyming with Pez, the candy). We're from the South, and the movie is a Southern court drama. Thoughts?
Answer: I would classify it as a "character mistake." The court deputy (or the actor playing him) just pronounces it differently and wrongly.
Thank you, I think I would have to classify it, then, as a directorial mistake, and interesting that no one else, cast or crew, noticed it.
Question: When Richard Burton is holding his gun on all the people in the meeting and asks if one of the guards could come in and watch them, why doesn't the guard just shoot him?
Answer: When the guard comes in, Burton explains what's going on. Also he is dressed as a German officer so his explanation and actions are plausible.
Question: In the very end of the movie Will Turner's father is on the black Pearl. How did he end up there when just a few minutes before that he was steering the Flying Dutchman for his son?
Answer: Bootstrap Bill Turner was not back on the Black Pearl at the end. He is only on the Flying Dutchman. It appears you're confusing him with another actor in the ending scene who bears a slight resemblance to Stellan Skarsgard, the actor who portrays Bootstrap.
Question: On the helicarrier, when everyone is having an argument Steve says to Stark, "I have seen the footage." What footage is he referring to?
Answer: It could be carefully selected bits of Tony at his worst moments, like when he was a hard drinking irresponsible party animal.
Question: When Angela is buying the Baby Ruths, most of the other candies are turned backwards (I assume to avoid product placement). But above the Baby Ruth is one with the name facing forward that looks like it's called "Picaroon." Is this a real candy bar that's local to the Scranton area or just completely made up? If it's made up, any inside information about where the name came from or if there's an inside joke or show reference to it?
Answer: In the 2007 episode "Ben Franklin" when Jim is talking to Pam there is a candy bar with a purple wrapper that says "Picar-" I assume picaroon, it's hard to see past Pam. I found this trying to investigate what that candy bar is lol.
Question: Why was De Niro angry at Waingro after the truck operation at the beginning of the movie?
Chosen answer: Because he wasn't supposed to kill anyone. Killing the guards, especially for no reason at all, drew much more heat on McCauley and his crew. It also proved that Waingro was a dangerous loose cannon and not the calm professional the rest of the crew were. Waingro was a huge liability.
Question: Why couldn't the ministry just book the Quidditch world cup to be held in Hogsmeade or something? Due to what Harry and Arthur are saying on pages 66-67 about trying to get there without the muggles noticing? I remember Hermione saying that Hogsmeade is the only non muggle place in Britain so you can't get a much better place.
Answer: It's doubtful that Hogsmeade has the room for a full Quidditch pitch and thousands of campsites, especially without disrupting what's already going on there.
Question: Did John Gustafson's ex wife die or did they just get divorced?
Answer: John Gustafson and his wife, May, were divorced after 20 years of marriage.
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Answer: Like any other such change from the source material, it's just artistic license.
wizard_of_gore ★