What is movie perfection? Catching Fire! So very exciting for those like me who read the books before the movie's release, I feel like a proud parent. The movie was about two hours, but every minute was completely worth it. The movie kept so closely to the novel. I think the whole Hunger Games movie series has been the perfect compromise when it comes to adapting books to a script. The acting was great, of course, Jennifer Lawrence is always perfection on the screen. The sets were just like I imagined, if not better. Overall, I think everyone should see it and according to the box offices they are. Catching Fire has been #1 the last few weeks!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Divergent Trailer Release
I've been away for a while so you get two posts in one day! So the highly anticipated trailer for Veronica Roth's Divergent movie was released worldwide today! I just watched it and I honestly believe this is one of the best book to film trailers I have ever watched. Even though I read the book, I still feel like the trailer was fresh and exciting. I'm definitely going to midnight premiere this one! Check out this killer trailer!
My Ender's Game Movie Experience
So I finally saw the movie for Ender's Game last weekend and for every one who imagined the battle room, you will not be disappointed! As I left the movie theatre a group of college aged guys were pretty much gushing over it, well ok not gushing but they loved it. Ender's Game had great cinematography. The sets were just like I imagined them or better. As far as the movie following the book's plot, there were a few differences but not many. They did try to tame down some of the violence from the books making most killings look accidental, possibly for the PG-13 rating. They also shortened the time length that Ender spent in each training school, but that was to be expected. The acting was lacking a bit especially in the early part of the film, I guess it could be because most of the book is Ender's mental struggle and that's very hard to portray for an actor. The ending of the film was really good and the acting was a bit better as well. I don't want to spoil the film for anyone who plans to see it, but overall I think the film was relatively true to the book and fans of the novel should definitely see it!
My Rating : 3 out of 5
My Rating : 3 out of 5
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Ender's Game Premiere Reviews
So the Ender's Game movie is being released this Friday, and I do plan on seeing it some time next weekend. I looked around for some reviews from the movie's premiere and after reading them it seems to me that the movie is decent, it won't be a blockbuster or anything but it should be worth the ten dollars you spend to see it. Below are two of the sites I visited to get a feel for the film.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/enders-game/review/650808
http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/film-review-enders-game-1200760178/
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/enders-game/review/650808
http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/film-review-enders-game-1200760178/
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
The House of Hades!
So this is slightly related to my blog topic. I am about to start reading The House of Hades, which is apart of The Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. I started reading Rick Riordan books with my nephew my senior year of high school. For those of you who do not know who Rick Riordan is, he is the author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. These books are great for getting younger children interested in reading and these books aren't just for children I have read about a lot of adults starting the series with their children only to finish it themselves. I am really excited because these books are just a lot of fun and as an engineering student I need more fun, simple things in my life. Also bringing this back to my topic there are two movies that have been made from these books, with Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters having only been released this past August. I did take my niece and nephew to see the movie and we enjoyed it, even if the films have strayed very far from the books. Ok this whole post is basically just to say I'm reading The House of Hades. Wooh!
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Ender's Game Controversy
So there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the "Ender's Game" movie. I feel the need to address it. Here is a little bit of the back story, the author of the novel, Orson Scott Card, has been very outspoken about his stance against same-sex marriage and as a result their have been boycott threats from the supporters of same-sex marriage.
As someone who has read the novel, I feel that the author's views should not hinder the movie, to me that's like punishing the child for the parent's mistakes. There are tons of other people who are apart of this film: the actors, the crew, the writers...etc who spent a lot of time working on this and should not be punished because of one person's views. The novel Ender's Game does question some moral and social issues, but it does not have any anti-gay sentiments in it. It is just a great novel. I have been looking at some interviews with the actors and Lionsgate and it seems that both are trying to distance themselves from the controversy. On the flip side, I understand that the supporters of same sex marriage do not want to do anything that will profit Card and seeing this movie will do just that, but that is a personal decision. I guess no matter what I won't hurt others to punish someone else.
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/07/12/lionsgate-orson-scott-card-controversy/
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/18/showbiz/comic-con-enders-game/index.html
http://skipendersgame.com/
As someone who has read the novel, I feel that the author's views should not hinder the movie, to me that's like punishing the child for the parent's mistakes. There are tons of other people who are apart of this film: the actors, the crew, the writers...etc who spent a lot of time working on this and should not be punished because of one person's views. The novel Ender's Game does question some moral and social issues, but it does not have any anti-gay sentiments in it. It is just a great novel. I have been looking at some interviews with the actors and Lionsgate and it seems that both are trying to distance themselves from the controversy. On the flip side, I understand that the supporters of same sex marriage do not want to do anything that will profit Card and seeing this movie will do just that, but that is a personal decision. I guess no matter what I won't hurt others to punish someone else.
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/07/12/lionsgate-orson-scott-card-controversy/
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/18/showbiz/comic-con-enders-game/index.html
http://skipendersgame.com/
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Ender's Game
So I recently dived into Orson Scott Card's 1985 novel, Ender's Game, after seeing a pretty interesting trailer while waiting for some long forgotten film in theaters. Here is a basic summary of the book in general:
"It's 2070, forty years since a devastating alien invasion was barely turned back, and the world is desperately searching for soldiers to lead them to victory when the "Buggers" come again. That's why they're drafting young children who pass a rigorous screening, and sending the best of them to the orbiting Battle School, where they are trained from childhood to be ready for war in the vertiginous reaches of space.
Into the unending pressure of military training comes six-year-old Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, who struggles to keep his humanity even as the adult teachers, rivals among his fellow students, and the strange unseen influence of the alien invaders all threaten either to destroy him or to make him into someone he can't bear to be.
His genius raises him to the top of the intensely competitive games in the Battle Room, an immense null-gravity chamber where armies of youngsters engage in mock combat. But his real struggles are off the playing field - with a dangerous older boy named Bonzo Madrid who is determined that both he and Ender cannot survive in this place; with his teacher, Mazer Rackham, who won the last war on a fluke and now is trying to prepare Ender to win the next one by skill rather than luck; and with himself, as Ender wrestles with his own demons, desperate to remain a decent human being even as he sees himself being transformed into exactly the same kind of monster as the buggers themselves."
I actually enjoyed this novel. I found that Ender was a character who was a victim of circumstance. He was a smaller child who was bullied because of his size, social status, and greater than normal intelligence. Ender only has one person he feels really cares for him and that is his older sister Valentine. She always protected Ender from their older brother, Peter, who had psychopathic tendencies and constantly threatened to kill his siblings. Ender was constantly manipulated by the adults in his life, at times he even knows he is being manipulated but he can not do anything to stop it from happening. Ender even does as far as to say, “Sometimes lies are more dependable than the truth.” The adults in battle school purposely isolate him from his peers from the start by saying he is better than the other students. The other students resent Ender, because he is extremely intelligent. Ender looks at his peers and sometimes wishes he could bond with them, joking around, but he feels he can not. Because Ender begins to win every major battle, he starts to gain enemies. Ender never seeks out confrontation with the bullies, but when he is confronted he strikes out violently, believing it to be the only way he will be left alone. The whole story Ender feels guilty about his actions and no matter how much damage he does, I couldn't blame him. I felt bad for him. I feel that it was never Ender's intention to cause harm and because of that he is almost innocent in his actions. The book does become slightly tedious at times but there are many deep questions raised from this novel.
After finishing the novel I ran across a really interesting article on the novel. Here is the link:
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~tenshi/Killer_000.htm
"It's 2070, forty years since a devastating alien invasion was barely turned back, and the world is desperately searching for soldiers to lead them to victory when the "Buggers" come again. That's why they're drafting young children who pass a rigorous screening, and sending the best of them to the orbiting Battle School, where they are trained from childhood to be ready for war in the vertiginous reaches of space.
Into the unending pressure of military training comes six-year-old Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, who struggles to keep his humanity even as the adult teachers, rivals among his fellow students, and the strange unseen influence of the alien invaders all threaten either to destroy him or to make him into someone he can't bear to be.
His genius raises him to the top of the intensely competitive games in the Battle Room, an immense null-gravity chamber where armies of youngsters engage in mock combat. But his real struggles are off the playing field - with a dangerous older boy named Bonzo Madrid who is determined that both he and Ender cannot survive in this place; with his teacher, Mazer Rackham, who won the last war on a fluke and now is trying to prepare Ender to win the next one by skill rather than luck; and with himself, as Ender wrestles with his own demons, desperate to remain a decent human being even as he sees himself being transformed into exactly the same kind of monster as the buggers themselves."
I actually enjoyed this novel. I found that Ender was a character who was a victim of circumstance. He was a smaller child who was bullied because of his size, social status, and greater than normal intelligence. Ender only has one person he feels really cares for him and that is his older sister Valentine. She always protected Ender from their older brother, Peter, who had psychopathic tendencies and constantly threatened to kill his siblings. Ender was constantly manipulated by the adults in his life, at times he even knows he is being manipulated but he can not do anything to stop it from happening. Ender even does as far as to say, “Sometimes lies are more dependable than the truth.” The adults in battle school purposely isolate him from his peers from the start by saying he is better than the other students. The other students resent Ender, because he is extremely intelligent. Ender looks at his peers and sometimes wishes he could bond with them, joking around, but he feels he can not. Because Ender begins to win every major battle, he starts to gain enemies. Ender never seeks out confrontation with the bullies, but when he is confronted he strikes out violently, believing it to be the only way he will be left alone. The whole story Ender feels guilty about his actions and no matter how much damage he does, I couldn't blame him. I felt bad for him. I feel that it was never Ender's intention to cause harm and because of that he is almost innocent in his actions. The book does become slightly tedious at times but there are many deep questions raised from this novel.
After finishing the novel I ran across a really interesting article on the novel. Here is the link:
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~tenshi/Killer_000.htm
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