This is a long movie. I had only watched a third when I checked how long had gone, because so much had happened. And yeah, it wasn't the best three hours, but I still think it was worth the watch. Not really that much to say about this one actually. It was okay. And occasionally every bit as ridiculous as it seems based on the trailer.
Zodiac
This was surprisingly good! And scary, I totally shouldn't have watched this late at night when I was alone... took me a while to fall asleep. But yeah, this was good. Not the best, but good enough that I don't regret watching it. Felt a little long at times, and the time jumps confused me a lot because the actors didn't seem to get any older-looking, but what can you do.
Aeon Flux
This was so laughably bad that I don't even know where to start. So predictable and stupid. The idea was good, in theory, but it tried too hard and used too many clichés. And well, the feminist in me was crying because of the skimpy outfits (nothing wrong if that's what you want to wear!) and how the main character was treated. And some of the camera shots, ugh. The action scenes made me laugh out loud a couple of times, they were so ridiculous. I wouldn't recommend this at all.
[These movies I watched last Summer, if I remember correctly, but I forgot to publish this post. So I am doing it now.]
Okay. I just got back from watching this, and I have to get some thoughts down before I forget. I'll try not to spoil anything, but do keep in mind this is a sequel so I might not make any sense because of that.
I'm re-reading the book at the moment, which is the biggest mistake I could have made concerning this series. I mean, I knew from the trailer that this was going to be a lot different, but I really had a hard time focusing on the movie as its own story because the book is so fresh in my mind. But after I got over that, and the really laughable Finnish translations, this was a lot better.
I'm not going to get into the story that much, just that it's the characters running from baddies. That's basically it. This is the biggest change from the book. To put it very vaguely. I'm not sure how I feel about that just yet.
I loved the music. I liked the cinematography, most of the time. The 'cut-to-blacks' were a little too often to work as a way to keep the suspense up. I adored the acting, well, mostly, but like damn Dylan O'Brien, how do you do that. I liked how badass this movie was, and how action-packed it was. Actually, it was phased really nicely, the quiet -er moments were really well placed. I loved how I laughed and how funny it was, and how I also almost cried a couple of times. I did laugh at some moments that weren't that great, but I'd like to keep this review more on the positive side.
I'm still a little confused if I liked the story. And I will be until I get the dvd and have distanced myself from the book properly. But that's okay. I did like how it had a clear ending and a way to continue the story to the next one, though I think the name 'Scorch Trials' was a little non-fitting.
I didn't like Brenda. At all. I don't like her in the book, I didn't like her in the movie. I surprisingly liked Teresa more in the movie than I do in the books, I think. And of course I love Newt, Minho and Thomas, in that order. I didn't like the Cranks. (Not gonna elaborate, it'd be spoilers.) I didn't like how Jorge and Brenda were included in the story. I liked Harriet and Sonya, didn't like Aris. I didn't like what Wicked was doing with the kids. I didn't like Ava Page. I actually didn't really like the start of this, but that might be because it was so different from what I had just read a couple of days ago from the book.
I'm being very vague, I'm sorry, but I really don't want to say too much.
All in all, I'm very confused. At one point I really was thinking I'd come out of the movie saying "I really wanted to like it, but..." but it got better towards the end. And I actually think it was good. I'm going to need to see it again, but yeah, I like what Wes Ball has done with this series, and am kind of getting excited to see what the final movie will be like.
Just a heads up, I really did not like this book, and have nothing good to say.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is about a young-ish girl who finds a weird book in her father's study and then he starts to tell her the story of how he got it. That's really just the backstory, the main story line is really the father's life, from when he got the strange book to until the story related to that comes to an end. At the same time, there are small snippets of the main girl's -whose name I can't remember- story. And that's the first thing I hated about this book. Also there's Dracula and his history, as that is the thing the father is investigating. (I'm saying this very vaguely to avoid spoilers, though I don't know who would want to read this, but just in case.)
I hated how the story was written; it was mostly in letters. And someone telling a story. Which would have been okay, if there had been a difference in how the letters were written and how the "real" story was told. But there was nothing to differentiate the two, I totally mixed the girl and her father sometimes. And, absolutely no one can write letters from memory many years later like that - I don't even write in my diary in that much detail. It was so unrealistic I wanted to scream.
I didn't like the writing. Can't really tell what it was about it, I just didn't like it at all. Everything was told the long way, the chapters just went on and on and on. A lot of the times there were really long, boring, unnecessary parts from some historical text that was supposed to be relevant. And yeah, I get it, there was information, but I feel like it could have been told in a much more interesting way. The writing was also really slow to read. And the book was like 700 pages which was like 400 pages too much or something. Could have been okay-ish if it had been shorter.
This book was predictable and cliché, and it tried way too hard to be good and funny and interesting, and ended up being anything but. Everything that could have been interesting was just mentioned once, shortly, and then forgotten. This was just bad. At parts I laughed because it was so bad.
So, I don't recommend this to anybody, not even my worst enemies. Do not waste your time reading this. I only read this because I can't not finish a book, and that was a problem. I could have ended after the first few chapters.
One star. If I could give negative stars, I would. This is possibly the worst book I have ever read, and that's including Fifty Shades of Grey.
Hello. Yes, I am in fact still here, I just needed a little bit of a break. I won't promise new things even every week from now on, just here and there, and we'll see how it goes and how I have inspiration to write here. But, I did make a decision about book hauls just the other day, and I want to share that decision.
Book hauls. Oh, the book hauls. You buy books, you tell people about the books. You haven't read most, if any, of the books, but you still talk or write about them. Or maybe you just show a picture of the books you got. You tell how 'excited you are about them.' How 'pretty they will look on your shelves.' And then you forget. And buy more. And the pile of unread books on your shelf just grows and grows, until one day you decide to go through the books and decide which you want to get rid of because you don't think you'll ever read some of them.
I don't want to end up like that. I don't want to have a hundred books that I haven't read yet on my shelf, collecting dust, sad and so full of potential but forgotten. I want to be excited about the books I read, and I want to have read all of my books. Book hauls, for me, have the potential to become something I feel like I have to do, that I have to buy books to show that I have bought books, and that scares me a little, to be honest. I want to be a person who only buys books when they have read the previous ones they bought, if not all then at leas almost. With the exception of sequels, I think.
I discovered booktube on Youtube last year. And while I started maybe buying more books, I also started reading more books because of it. And both of those numbers have gone up this year, but as long as I don't buy more than I read, I'm happy. I have tried to use common sense - not to imply that booktubers don't have that - and only buy books I really want to read, books that I will continue to be excited about, books that even if it takes me two years to get to them, I'll be excited to read them.
So, I won't be doing book hauls anymore. I don't want to make it seem like one has to buy a lot of books. I don't want others to think like that, but most of all I don't want myself to think like that. I want to focus more on writing about the books I have read, and have something to say about. Because that's why I started this blog, to write about the books I read. Not to show how many books I bought. It just took me a little while to realize that.
This was surprisingly good! I didn't expect to like this, possibly at all, but in the end I really enjoyed this. There were some parts that were really slow and a little bit boring, and the movie feels just as long as it is and at times seemed to never end. Some parts really surprising, but not enough to make me gasp. More of the 'oh? really?' -variety. I really liked the ending as well.
I love space things, but some of the science stuff went over my head. Didn't really change how much I enjoyed it, though. Some stuff I felt a little 'meh' about, but as a whole, I really liked this movie. Now, one more thing; please don't make a sequel.
The Imitation Game
Brilliant, amazing, and a little bit heart-breaking. Deserves every bit of the praise it has got. The acting performances are brilliant, and when the story starts going, the time jumps really make sense, after the initial thought of 'why?' I found the movie and story really interesting, and didn't feel bored or like my mind was wandering. I didn't think I would like it this much, because if I had known, I would have gone to see this in the cinema. But back then it didn't seem to be that great, don't ask me why. I was always interested in it, but just not enough I guess.
I'm going to watch it again some day, possibly soon, to really understand everything. And because it was just that good.
The Book Thief
The book was so much better. That was what kept coming to my mind since the beginning of the movie. I kind of wanted to stop watching, but decided to keep going just in case it got better. It didn't.
It probably would have been an okay-ish movie if I hadn't read the book. I don't know; I can't know. I didn't like how sometimes they spoke German, sometimes not, but English with an accent and with und, ja, and nein. The focus of the story was different, and the voice-over was weird and oddly placed. And it's probably entirely because I really really liked the book that I didn't enjoy the movie so much.
There's nothing quite like seeing a movie in the cinema for the first time. It never feels the same after. I don't know if it's because you know the story, you know the ending. And even if you have forgotten, some of it might come back while watching. The movie feels exactly as long as it is, seeing everything for the first time. Yes, you miss some details, but you can always watch it again for those. I think it's the story, the plot, the twists and turns that make it so special. Because you have no idea what's going to come next, even if it's a movie based on a book. You can never know for sure, on the first watch.
I love watching my favourites again and again. Some I watch about once a year, some even on a specific date. (V for Vendetta on the 5th of November, for example.) Sometimes I discover an older movie again and just have to see it again, like happened with Inception this spring. I had seen it multiple times, and for some reason decided that I needed to see it again. So I watched it, and loved it as much as before.
Sometimes, after a long time, it feels different as well, but, as I said, not quite as special as on The First Watch. I discover new actors all the time, and watch their work again focusing more on them, and that makes it a bit different than the previous times. But, I think I don't do this on the first watch. (And I say think, because I've never thought about that before.) I just watch the movie as it is, and then the second time I can focus on my favourite scenes and actors and things like that. And like, the costumes and sets and everything.
There are some movies you just have to see on the big screen. Whether it's the acting, the music, anything, somehow it just doesn't feel the same if you watch it on tv. And I think that's one part why the first watch is so special. Because it's such a big screen, with loud enough noises that you can really hear everything, and see more details that you would on tv or on your computer screen. The quality is super high, everything is just made perfect for you to enjoy the film.
So yeah, there is nothing quite like seeing a movie in the cinema for the first time.
Sometimes you go see movies by yourself because you don't have anyone to go with. Sometimes it's an almost empty movie theater, sometimes it's full and you feel a little anxious being there. Sometimes the movie is just okay. And sometimes you come home screaming internally because the movie was so good and you have no one to talk about it with, so you write a review less than an hour from when the movie ended.
Mad Max: Fury Road was so good that I kind of want to see it again right away. (I just realized, I could have. The next showing was like 20 minutes after mine ended. Hmm.) Here is the trailer.
It's basically about a chase through a desert, with awesome cars and stunts and kick-ass female characters. And Tom Hardy. I've not seen the previous Mad Max movies, and to be honest I don't know if I ever will. This worked on its own perfectly.
I wanted to see this because everyone seemed to like it, a lot. And because it was said to be feminist, and I can see that. And it was awesome. Some men have been upset about that, but from what I heard as I left the theater, many groups of guys were saying how awesome it was. And yeah, I kind of felt like shouting a giant "hell yeah" when it ended. Also I want more.
It's a beautiful movie. Some shots were just gorgeous, and the colours were really beautiful. The cars were super cool, the stunts insane. And knowing that they were really real people that did that made it so much better. I love that it was so real, in an age when it would have been easy just to create everything on computers. You can tell it was real, or more like, you can tell when something isn't. The music was awesome. The acting was awesome.
I don't know what to say anymore, other than just that it was really fucking great. Go see it if you like action even a little bit. And even if you don't, you might like it anyway. One of the reasons I went to see this was Tom Hardy because I kind of fell in love with him this spring. It happens.
Okay I'll probably come read this again tomorrow and facepalm, but in the meantime, here, have my immediate reaction to Mad Max; Fury Road. It was so awesome.
The Penultimate Peril, part 12 in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. The latter is about a man whose father dies and turns out to have been a god. And the main character finds out that he has a brother as well, who shows up, and things just go on from there. I don't know more, I don't need to know more, it's my favourite author, I'm going to buy every single one of his books if I come across them.
Please don't let me anywhere near where books are sold for a while, please. I have more than enough and can't buy new shelves until maybe next month.
Sorry it took me this long to write this wrap up, I've been ill since Sunday and am only today feeling good enough to write this. If I do write something that doesn't make sense, blame the sickness. :)
Okay. My goal on Friday was to just finish George Orwell's 1984, which I did. I read the last 93 pages I had left of that book. Then for the rest of the weekend, I just focused on reading Resurrection by Steve Alten. I didn't feel the need to read something else to break it up a little bit, so I read almost the whole book during the read-a-thon. On Saturday, I read to page 134. On Sunday, I read 324 pages.
And the thing that annoys me the most is that I finished the book 15 minutes past midnight. I only had about 15 pages left, but, the read-a-thon ended at midnight, so I'm not counting those 15 in my total page count. Which is 552. I think I did okay. I had a small enough tbr for the weekend, and I read what I had planned to read. I feel like I could have read a little more, but I don't ever want to force myself to read. It's supposed to be fun, and I want to keep it that way.
1948 was really good, I gave it 5 out of 5 stars. I might write a review for this later this week, or maybe next week, so stay tuned for that.
Resurrection was not that good. It was okay, and good enough that I read it in about two days, but not great or anything. There was too much going on, and it tried a little too much. The surprises weren't that surprising, and the cliffhangers were mostly just stupid. The idea for the story was good, but I really didn't enjoy how it was written. 2 out of 5 stars.
It was a very interesting first read-a-thon, one really great book and one not so great. Next time, maybe I'll do a week-long one.
A read-a-thon is a set amount of time when you read as much as you can. It can be 24 hours, three days, a week, or maybe something else. There can be contests and challenges during the read-a-thon as well. There are many during the year, and this one for example happens monthly. (If you want to know more, you can just write read-a-thon on Youtube, there will be a lot of videos explaining it a little better than I just did.)
And the one I'm going to talk about today is #crushyourtbr read-a-thon. It is hosted on twitter by two people, and lasts three days. The idea is to read the books in your tbr, I think it could be about the set tbr for the month, or all the books you own but haven't read. For me, it's the latter, since I don't do 'to be reads' monthly. This read-a-thon is going right now, it started at midnight on Friday and it ends at midnight between Sunday and Monday. Three days of reading.
I have never participated in a read-a-thon before, so I thought this would be a nice one to start with. The week-long ones scare me a little, to be honest, and right now I'm kind of in the middle of studying so trying to read a lot during the week wouldn't be very smart. So I'm just doing this one. :)
I just wanted to share my tbr for this read-a-thon, so here we go. First, I'd like to finish George Orwell's 1984, I have about a third of the book left. Then, during the weekend, I'd like to read as much as possible of Steve Alten's Resurrection, which I picked from my tbr-jar this month. And third, if I feel like reading something else, I'll pick up a Jane Austen book, either Mansfield Park or Northanger Abbey.
I'll be back in the beginning of next week to let you know how it went, now I have to start reading.
