This 'Giver' Featurette Won Us Over

After the initial shock of The Giver 's first trailer being in full-blown color, this adaptation might be slowly winning me over. Sure, it still seems to be trying pretty actively to fit itself into the surplus of other young adult dystopian blockbusters like The Hunger Games and Divergent. And sure, that's still a little fatiguing. But the latest featurette for The Giver 's got me thinking this thing might actually have some promise.

This featurette largely functions as continued exposition: It delves further into the set-up of this particular dystopian society and the role that its leading teen will play in shaking things up. It's got Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) experiencing the joys of love (and babies!) and the ravages of war, it's got Katie Holmes as a worried mom, and it's got Meryl Streep and her wig acting pretty sketchy.

The Giver's author Lois Lowry has expressed her approval of the film, and this featurette is the closest I've seen in terms of evidence of this thing actually delving into the aspects of the story that have made it a staple in schools for decades. Of course, it's also obvious that Hollywood's gonna try its darndest to make it as Hunger Gamesy as possible while they do that.

Image: The Weinstein Company