Posts Tagged ‘films’

Review: “The Hunger Games” Trilogy

Posted: January 13, 2013 in Novel, Reflections, Review, Writing
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Normally I wait a week before doing another review, but I think this time I’ll make an exception.

I decided to read The Hunger Games books for a number of reasons. One, because m sister was upset at how many things got changed between book and movie (the movie I saw first) and I wanted to know if it was really something to be upset over (I decided it wasn’t, but actually very clever). Another was that the second film is coming out later this yea and I wanted to be prepared for what I’d find, maybe be as upset as my sister (though that usually doesn’t happen). But finally, I decided to read the books because Ohio State’s having this mock-Hunger Games thing called the OSU Honor Games, a nonviolent contest based on Suzanne Collins’s twisted imagination, and I want to be a tribute for my dorm (go Jones Tower!).

So I read the books. And without going into what I thought of each separate book, I’ll give you my thoughts:

First off, I don’t read a lot of YA, so I don’t necessarily know the conventions that are associated with it. Still, I thought certain moments in the story, Collins relied too much on telling rather than showing. For instance, at the end of Books 2 and 3, Collins ties up events in only a short few paragraphs. At the end of Book 2 I was like, “There’s a rebellion in progress and Katniss was apart of it without knowing it, and yet you expect to tell me that in four little paragraphs and that I’d be satisfied with that? Puh-leaze!” And at the end of Book 3, after Katniss (spoiler alert!) kills Coin while Snow expires from being a sick, bloody old man, I tought Collins was rushing a bit to finish up the story, to have everything resolve itself without doing too much writing or exposition or lengthy conversation. Too much telling, and maybe a little lazy.

Not only was that a problem for me, but at certain points Collins puts us into dramatic moments without putting on the drama. When Katniss and her crew go into the Capital in Book 3 to take down Snow, it seems Collins is deliberately under-dramatizing it, making the mission seem as drawl as possible. I would’ve cued in on Katniss’s feelings as she stepped into the Capital with a gun and bow and arrows, looking around the snow-swept streets and the rising excitement and tension as she awaits her chance to kill Snow.

But Collins decides to just put us smack in the middle of the Capitol, and things only get dramatic when she actually feels like telling us in detail what’s happening instead of summarizing it for us.

And finally, the ending for Book 3 left me stunned. I mean really, Katniss kills Coin just like that? A little out of left field, if you ask me. Where’s the dramatic build-up, the chance to let the world know what Coin did, to refute it so that the world will see how cruel war can make us and make it stick that we shouldn’t fight like monsters? Nope, just kills the old hag after agreeing the Capitol children should participate in a Hunger Games. And speaking of which, did that ever happen? Or after President Coin’s death, did they just decide not to let the Capitol kids not die?

Whatever.

I thought the first book fantastic, but Books 2 and 3 were not as good. Sure, Collins made an effort to make Book 2 more than just a bridge between Books 1 and 3, but at times it dragged, and I thought it took too long to get to the Quarter Quell. And Book 3 alternated between me being interested and me being annoyed and bored.

Plus the resolution of the whole Peeta-Gale thing…Oy Gevalt! I feel like there were so much more to those characters. They were both capable of being great political and military leaders, especially Peeta. But all we really see is their obsessions with Katniss and perhaps a darker side of Peeta after he’s been hijacked. And then the way Katniss finally picks her man…was that Collins’s way of saying, “Oh yeah, this is who she finally picks and how it happens.” I definitely wouldn’t have written it that way, and I think I would’ve gone into Katniss actually weighing her feelings and what each boy represents to her. You know, make it seem like they’re both dreamy and she just can’t choose?

And by the way, what do those guys do at the end of the book? Does Peeta become mayor of District Twelve? Does Gale find a new girl while leading reconstruction efforts in other districts? A little explanation please! God, now I know why the movie went into further detail of the behind-the-scenes stuff: it was needed to make up for what was left out of the novel.

So finally, how about my ranking? For The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, I give the whole trilogy a 2.6 out of 5. Great premise, great story overall, but there was room for improvement, if you ask me.

Review: Zero Dark Thirty

Posted: January 12, 2013 in Review
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A most excellent film, on the greatest manhunt in history.

(The following review contains spoiler alerts)

This movie is like Valkyrie in that we all know how it’s going to end, with the death of Osama bin Laden. But even so, you still feel a chill not borne from the winter air as you watch it, wondering what’s going to happen, how it’s going to happen, and what will happen when it does.

Zero Dark Thirty, which manages to compact the decade-long hunt for the notorious leader of al-Qaeda into two-and-a-half hours, follows Maya, the determined to a fault CIA agent played by Jessica Chastain (who looks like my RA with the same first name). Maya is relentless, and willing to go to all sorts of lengths to find bin Laden. Throughout the movie, we see her start from a naive junior agent unnerved by the torture of a captured terrorist, to a capable interrogator and strategist, to a woman who, as her boss says, knows better than to mess with her when it comes to getting bin Laden. Besides that, we know nothing else about Maya, but we don’t need to; that’s not the point of this story.

The movie is dark, brilliantly told, and has none of the emotional stuff we usually associate with movies revolving around the CIA. Don’t expect Maya to strip down and have sex with an agent she finds very attractive; “I’m not that kind of girl”, she tells a friend right before a bomb blast in a restaurant. Also notice that there isn’t a lot of music, but the music that is there is awe-inspiring, and sometimes it’ll remind you of The Dark Knight trilogy.

The final scenes are the most amazing, as we follow the troops who go in and shoot bin Laden. The only problem with these scenes is that despite helicopters in suburban Aboottabbad and several blasts from explosives, there are only spectators after twenty minutes. What took so long? Still, the final death of Osama is quiet and not laid with any melodrama or huge emotion. Instead, he is killed, we see them hightailing it out of the compound (an excellent reproduction of the actual one, by the way), and then Maya confirming that Osama is dead, and the mission of the last ten years is over.

For all of the above, I give Zero Dark Thirty a 5 out of 5. Hats off to director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal for some excellent handiwork.

Review: Texas Chainsaw 3D

Posted: January 6, 2013 in Review, Scary Stuff
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Ladies and gentlemen, Leatherface is back and he’s better than ever!

An alternative title to this film could be Leatherface’s Revenge: What You Reap Is What You Sow.

If you ask me, this is probably the best TCM movie ever made, and considering about 4 or 5 of the others are terrible, that’s saying something. But I guess that means the creators of the film were successful; according to Entertainment Weekly, producer Carl Mazzacone said that he wanted to do with TCM what he did with the Saw movies, which probably means giving the studio enough reasons to keep making sequels and putting them in theaters instead of Direct-to-DVD crap films. I’m not sure how they’ll be able to top this film, but I’ll believe in them.

The plot follows Heather Miller (the sultry-in-a-punk-rock-way Alexandra Daddarino) as she finds out she was adopted and has a now-deceased grandmother who left her a really nice estate. Unfortunately, that estate includes her cousin Leatherface (played by Dan Yeager) who finally has a name: Jedediah “Jed” Sawyer. As her friends and boyfriend (Trey Songz in his first film role) are killed and Heather becomes terrified, Heather starts to realize her own connections to the Sawyer family, and transforms dramatically because of it.

This reimagining of the franchise, which is meant to be a sequel to the original 1974 film, is definitely a revenge story that brings on the blood and gore and scares. Even when we know what’s going to happen right before it does, it’s still awesome to see it unfold on the big screen in 3D. John Luessenhop does a fabulous job directing, while Debra Sullivan, Adam Marcus, and Kirsten Ems deserve commendation for the script. Dan Yeager is terrifying donning the literal face-mask of Leatherface, and Paul Rae does a fantastic job as antagonist Mayor Burt Hartman. As for Thom Barry’s Sheriff Hooper (the last name’s definitely a reference to the director of the original film), I’d definitely invite that guy to dinner. I’d also like to note that those who think a black sheriff in 1974 is a little too soon after the Civil Rights Act, apparently the first black sheriff in Texas was elected in 1869.

Boys, this film is frightening, so definitely bring your girlfriends along with you. Also, stick around after the credits for what I’d like to call “a joke after the horror show”.

For an excellent reboot of one of the earliest slashers ever made and for some great acting and scares, I give this film the great distinction of a 5 out of 5. Yes, that high and this film deserves it.

Another Short Story Idea Has Come To Me

Posted: January 1, 2013 in ideas, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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Too bad I can’t add it to the collection of short stories I’m writing and assembling.

I just recently read The Dibbuk Box, the book by the current owner of the haunted box of Jewish origin that was the basis for the film The Possession, and then somehow had the good fortune to enter into contact with him. After that I started watching a scary movie or two involving possessions and watching a video on YouTube that was about an exorcism. During this time I started thinking about possession, and then a great idea occurred to me: what would happen if the possession was turned on its head? What if the demon ended up needing the exorcism? Needing it?

So I have a new short story idea that I’ll begin to write soon, possibly tomorrow since I can’t work on the next story for the collection until I’ve finished my research. I’ll probably write the story from the point-of-view of the demon, and I’ll also have to figure out what I want to do once the possession begins. Of course, I can’t add this to the collection; I’ve already written a dybbuk story for the collection, and two stories involving possessions is one too many.

Perhaps I’ll send it to a magazine. Or perhaps I’ll make it available online for ninety-nine cents. Depends on my mood and what I think everybody would like. Of course, I’ll have to write it first.

But seriously, I have to ask, would you guys buy the story if I put it online for less than a dollar? Let me know if you’d like that.

Anyway, got another scary movie to watch. Once again, Happy New Year.

What I Think About When I Make A Sequel Part II

Posted: December 30, 2012 in Reflections, Writing
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Yesterday I wrote a post with tips on making good sequels. I fogot to add two tips to the list, so I’m adding them in this sequel post:

1. If the focus of your projects are on a group of people, don’t alway focus on the same character each movie. In the two Addams Family films in the 90’s, both films seemed to place t0o much attention on Uncle Fester. Now the first film, I could see why that would be a good idea. But the second film…it could’ve been better. Those films gave people the impression that Uncle Fester was the only stand-out character of the bunch, the way they focused on him so much. Sure, there was some focus on Wednesday in the second film and her romance with a guy from summer camp, but the focus of the movie was still on Fester. No wonder the third film was Direct-tov-Video and barely anyone has heard of it!

2. Take a break between parts of the series. This is one of my tactics, but it’s also one of Christopher Nolan’s. In between his Batman films, Nolan would work on other films, such as Inception or The Prestige. When he returned to the world of Gotham City and Bruce Wayne, Nolan was able to immerse himself with fresh eyes, see the project in a new light. This way, he was able to treat each film as an individual and not as just the next entry to make big money and connect the dots of the story. What happened? Only one of the most historic film trilogies ever! Each film was a success, and I think working on other projects in between films helped. This is why between parts of a series, I take a break and work on something else. Look what I got from not immediately starting on the sequel to Reborn City: a kick-ass thriller called Snake!

I hope you found these helpful, and if you have any suggestions for further tips, don’t hesitate to let me know. That’s all for now, I’ve got work to do.

What I Think About When I Make A Sequel

Posted: December 29, 2012 in Reflections, Writing
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I’ve talked about it several times in the past, how much I loathe sequels when the only reason the sequel is being made is for more money and you can see it in how shoddy the final movie is (Hangover 2, anyone? Spider-Man 3? How about Grease 2?). But my science fiction novel Reborn City is part of a trilogy, which means eventually I’ll have to write the second book, which is a sequel.

Now, I have a general idea for the sequel and the final book as well. I also have an idea for a sequel for my serial killer novel Snake. However instead of telling you guys about those when nobody’s read them, I think I’ll tell you about what I think about when I make sequels, with various examples to illustrate my points. So here we go, with my points and tips for writing a sequel:

1. Give them what they want, but give them plenty of what they don’t expect. This is the core of my philosophy in making a sequel. For instance, the movie Aliens was markedly different from Alien. Sure, there were the Xenomorph aliens, it took place in space, and there were gun battles and death. Heck, we could’ve called that there’d be more than one alien the moment we heard there was a sequel. However, nobody could’ve predicted the colony they made, with the Queen leading the pack. Even better, there were a ton of soldiers instead of miners, so we actually got to see some battles, some resistance from the humans. We even had some connections made between Ripley and Newt, Ripley and the cyborg, Ripley and that one living soldier at the end. And the way the Queen showed up on the ship in the end, pissed as any mother when her kids are threatened? Awesome, and nobody saw any of it coming! It’s why the movie is still such a success; people never see it coming the first time they see the movie!

Then look at Taken 2. We have the gunshots, the killing and the kicking ass from Liam Neeson, we have his family reunited (we all saw that coming from the trailers, didn’t we?). But…did it add anything? Was there anything that really stood out for that film? Anything that set it apart from its predecessor? Not really, besides a location change and the daughter Kim doing some more than being a prisoner. The rest was boring and predictable.

2. Don’t recycle. This is an extension of what I said in the last point, but it’s a good point, and too many filmmakers make this mistake when they make sequels. Take the remake of the Friday the 13th franchise (not exactly a sequel, but you get the point). There were five good, scary minutes where we weren’t sure what was happening, where Jason slashed and we were left freaked. But the rest? It seemed like we’d seen it before in previous films. Plenty of stabbing, plenty of sex, all stuff we’d seen before. Nothing that makes this film stand out from any other Friday the 13th film, except how bad it was. So the lesson here kids, is don’t recycle. It’s unoriginal and annoying.

3. Ask yourself, is a sequel necessary? This is a problem with plenty of films these days. In fact, my dad says there are no original films these days, just sequels, remakes, and book adaptations, and to an extent he’s right. I mean, was The Hangover 2 necessary? Kristen Wiig declined a Bridesmaids sequel, which some saw as genius and others saw as ungrateful, but in the end it was a good decision. And remember the fiasco that was Miss Congeniality: Armed and Fabulous? And don’t get me started on Carrie 2: The Rage. Yes, there was a sequel, in the 90’s. It sucked.

4. Add some human tension if you can. By this, I mean that there should be something that puts the characters off their game, like they can’t trust each other or even trust themselves! For example, in Chamber of Secrets, Harry is suspected of being the Heir of Slytherin, tarnishing his reputation at Hogwarts and alienating him from other students. Sure, Ron and Hermione are loyal almost to a fault, but everybody’s suddenly scared of Harry. Harry even starts to suspect that he might be a danger! Then in the 4th book, Goblet of Fire, for several chapters Harry and Ron aren’t speaking, which causes Harry great amounts of anguish because he loses his best friend in the process. You see how this dark aspect adds so much to the story? It gives it so much weight and makes the story stand out more in our minds. Plus afterwards the characters become so much more relatable. So if you can, add this human tension, or other forms of it, because it’ll add so much to the plot.

5. Find a way to make the deus ex machina work. I’ll have to use Harry Potter again, this time Deathly Hallows. Remember how Harry died and then came back to life simply because he was the 7th Horcrux and everybody was sacrificing themselves for him and vice versa (spoiler alert? It might’ve not been the best way to resolve a plot, but it was clever and it sure as heck worked. In fact, JK Rowling was very good at using deus ex machina and making it work in her HP books. If you can figure out how to pull of a deus ex machina and make it work, you’ve got a great tool in your writing arsenal.

6. You don’t have to connect the sequel’s plot to the last story. In Die Hard 2, John McClane is facing a colonel trying to bring a South American dictator back to his country. In no way was this movie about getting revenge against John McClane for killing Alan Rickman’s character in the original Die Hard. It was an entirely different story, the only connections to the last film a few choice characters, especially John and Holly McClane, and a few passing references to the Nakatomi Tower of the first film. And Die Hard 2 was awesome, almost better than Die Hard! If you can do this with your story, it’ll be original, and you’re readers will respond positively to it, in most cases.

Usually, anyway.

7. Know your limit. This is important, because a lot of series, books and films, keep producing new entries when they’ve long since expired. It’s difficult to keep coming up with an original plot to add to a series, and only a few, like the James Bond films, can do it with any sort of success. Others, like Nightmare on Elm Street or the Halloween series, kept making sequels that got worse and worse, and eventually only hardcore fans watched them, if just to put them in their memories because the entries are part of their favorite franchises. So if you plan on making a series, make sure how many entries you plan to put in before you start to sound repetitive and are grasping at straws in order not to recycle old stories. Trust me, your fans will thank you for it.

That’s all I have to say on the subject. If you have any other tips you want to contribute, I’ll add them in a sequel post. I hope you found this helpful and you gain something from it. Oh, and for those of you wondering when Reborn City is coming out, I’m working on it, I’m having a friend critique it, and it’s taking a little longer than I expected. Please be patient, I hope to have it out before the summer.

Introducing the Bullseye Character

Posted: December 6, 2012 in Novel, Scary Stuff, Writing
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Careful, there’s a character like him in “Snake”.

In the movie Daredevil, based on the famous Marvel comic book, Bullseye is the character Daredevil has to face before he can go against the Big Boss, the Kingpin. Bullseye is a hired killer, totally psychopathic and deadly as hell. This character totally freaked me out when I was 11 and first saw Daredevil at a friend’s birthday party. To this day I still think that Daredevil, particularly the Bullseye character and the murders he committed, influenced my writing and gave me a taste for killing (fictional) people in all sorts of horrible ways.

So I’m happy to introduce the Bullseye of Snake, Frissora, a brutally scarred man with a past shrouded in darkness and the ability to be suave while carrying out heinous acts. In a way, he’s like Bane as played by Tom Hardy in The Dark Kngiht Rises, intelligent and strong and not someone to be messed with lightly…wait, that’s Bane in nearly every adaptation of Batman he’s been in. But you get the idea, right? Frissora is dangerous, and the Snake will have to face him before he faces the head of the mafia family he’s been hunting.

I created Frissora as a way to weaken the Snake and give him a challenge. I also didn’t want the Snake to have too much of an advantage when he finally fought the mafia boss, who is a dangerous fighter as well, so Frissora was necessary. I’m going to enjoy working with this character as he fights the Snake, but I may have to go over Chapter 78, where Frissora is introduced, to make sure I get his character across like I want to.

I hope I can give Frissora the power and depth I wish to give him, and which I hope the reader will be able to feel. Because honestly, it would suck if he just seemed like another thug in a line-up of thugs.

“A Good Day To Die Hard” Is Coming!!!

Posted: December 1, 2012 in Living and Life
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The British may have Bond, but America’s got John McClane, the no-nonsense, tough-as-nails cop who always finds himself in the middle of a terrorist plot and shooting up every bad guy in a mile. At some point in the film, he shouts “Yippe-kay-yay, mothefucker!” before blowing something up. He’s been in four films, each time played by actor extraordinaire Bruce Willis, and all but the third was fantastic. And wouldn’t you know it, he’s returning in a brand-spanking new film!

The teaser poster for

The teaser poster for “A Good Day to Die Hard”. Looks pretty awesome, especially with the pun.

A Good Day to Die Hard, the fifth film in the franchise, will be released Valentine’s Day 2013 in the States, and it’ll be the first film in the series to take place outside the United States, this time in the heart of our old-enemy-but-now-somewhat-friend Russia. Apparently McClane goes to Russia to see his son Jack (played by Jai Courtney) and somehow, though McClane’s wierd luck, they end up getting involved in a terrorist plot, which makes me wonder what McClane would do if he ever met the people who writes the movies he’s in–you know what, let’s not finish that thought; I just had a bad vision of all my characters from every story I ever wrote coming to get me.

Anyway, the film’s coming out in three months or so, and two trailers have already been released. The first is mostly musical and contains a Bond joke:

The second is less Beethoven-y and more traditional trailer, with hints at the story but not enough that, beyond explosions, we can guess what happens:

Hope you’re as excited as I am, and I also hope the filmmakers can live up to the hype, because I don’t want a repeat of the third Die Hard film, Die Hard With A Vengeance. Let’s face it, even with super-star Samuel L. Jackson, that movie was way too campy for its own good. And that opening! Oy guvalt, that was way too chipper opening music, even if interrupted by a bomb blast!

A Discussion on Disney

Posted: November 29, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
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This evening at my dorm, we had a program about how Disney might’ve affected our worldviews in a number of ways when we were children. The discussion wasn’t so much to bash Disney as an evil organization that brainwashes children (though that might actually be the case, for all I know), but so much to sit back and tak as educated adults about how Disney may have incorporated certain things into their works, willingly or unwillingly, that changed our outlooks on life. The discussion went through all sorts of topics, from the princess mentality (you saw that coming), sexuality, the villains all are ugly and wearing black, the good looks of the main characters and the sometimes stereotypical ugliness of the villains and minor characters, the differences between men with power and women with power, and it encompassed all sorts of works, from the early Disney films that were obviously about women in traditional roles and love at first sight, to Disney’s current attempts to be more modern and accepting at the expense of the princess of Brave being called a lesbian and the popular TV show Once Upon a Time, which is owned by Disney but takes it old classics and turns them upside down in an interesting fashion.

What we discussed was really interesting and I learned a lot more than I thought I would, and I think everyone else feels the same. Heck, we brought up major criticisms of Aladdin involving stereotypes and mishmashed cultures, and that’s something I haven’t thought about. If you go back and look at some of these old films, you may find yourself seeing things you didn’t see as a kid (I went to Youtube to look at some songs brought up at the discussion, and Good Lord, there were lyrics with more significance than I remember).

Oh, and for those of you wondering how much Disney may have affected me (and consequently my writing), you don’t have to worry; when I first saw those films, I was at an age where I had pretty pictures and sounds to occupy me. I didn’t absorb much beyond that. It wasn’t until I was older that I started absorbing stuff from what I watched, and by then I’d moved onto animes like Sailor Moon and Ronin Warriors. Trust me, it showed in my early writing: when I was ten I tried writing a pirate novel, and a princess ended up joining the crew after they boarded her ship (why she was on the ship or what happened to the crew of said ship or why she joined the pirate crew as an alternative to a dungeon on a magic island or why she was automatically made first mate, I never explained, but I was 10, so go figure), and for a while she was only interested in being a good first mate. Romance didn’t develop till later (or it would have; I never finished that story to tell you the truth).

What about you? Has Disney films affected you in any way?

That includes wondering if your kids should be watching this sort of stuff with all the themes you’re noticing in the storyline and animation, by the way.

Oh, and who in the discussion group said that in the Aladdin song “Arabian nights” there was a lyric about getting ears cut off for ugly faces? I looked, but it’s not in the official movie. It’s in another version though. Look:

Review: Rise of the Guardians

Posted: November 24, 2012 in Review
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Theatrical release poster.

aka Jack Frost Joins The Guardians, Which By This Point Is Already A Major League of Childhood Mascots Reworked For This Movie.

At first I didn’t think I’d want to see this movie. It has, among other things, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, which are not exactly Jewish, and it’s also a children’s film. But the commercials made it look fun, so I went to see it…in 3D. Turns out, it’s pretty good. The movie follows Jack Frost, who up until I saw this movie I didn’t think much about, as he is chosen to become a Guardian, a mythical warrior chosen to protect the children of Earth, as the Guardians go up against the boogeyman, Pitch Black, who wants to engulf the world in nightmares created by corrupting the sand of the Sandman. Jack joins up, at first only to get his memories, which Pitch has somehow stolen, but later because he really wants to help kids.

Cue the “awwww”.

Awwwww.

Moving on…

Okay, this film shows how far computer animation has come, and when you see it in 3D, it’s just magical. The characters, for all their flatness and lack of character development except for Jack, are really fun to watch, whether they’re preparing for their holidays or fighting bad guys or fighting with each other. The nightmares and the fight scenes might be a little much for younger viewers (heck, I was a little scared), but there will be moments that make you want to cry a little. I know my eyes got a little wet. And except for the parts where the characters veer off from fighting Pitch to make sure Easter is safe or the Tooth Fairy gets her duties done, it’s a pretty solid story.

All in all, I give this movie a 4.2 out of 5 for great animation, scaring me with the nightmare creatures, and for a moral/theme that will make your heart melt. Kudos to the filmmakers.

However, I must warn you that if you are a die-hard Christian who doesn’t like it when Christmas or Easter are commercialized and you’re nervous about bringing your kids to see it, then be warned, at one point the Easter Bunny says that Easter is about the renewal of life, not the resurrection of Jesus. Just warning you, though I’m not sure why; a lot of the work I plan to write will fly in the face of Christianity, especially the work I have planned about Satan and the war with the angels (to be written someday in the future).

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