Really Exciting

The Avengers (2012)

 in Movies by

Starring

Rober Downey Jr – Iron Man/ Tony Stark
Chris Evans – Steve Rogers/ Captain America
Mark Ruffalo – Bruce Banner/ The Hulk
Chris Hemsworth – Thor
Scarlett Johansson – Natasha Romanoff/ Black Widow
Jeremy Renner – Clint Barton/ Hawkeye
Tom Hiddleston – Loki

Summary

Blasphemy? Perhaps. But the best thing about what may be the most rousing and well-crafted superhero movie since The Dark Knight is not the boffo action scenes that culminate in a New York City-destroying finale that rivals Michael Bay’s obliteration of the Chicago skyline in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. No, the real appeal of The Avengers comes from the quiet moments among a group of decidedly unquiet humans, extra-humans, mutants, and demigods. In no particular order those are Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), S.H.I.E.L.D. world-government commander Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), and indispensable functionary Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg). That’s a superstar lineup both in and out of character, and The Avengersbrilliantly integrates the cast of ensemble egos into a story that snaps and crackles–not to mention smashes, trashes, and destroys–at breakneck pace, never sacrificing visual dazzle or hard-earned story dynamics. Writer-director Joss Whedon is no slouch when it comes to being a comic geek and he handles the heavy duty reins with efficient panache. The effects are of course spectacular. They include a monstrous flying aircraft carrier that is home base to S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury’s Avenger Initiative; Tony Stark’s gleaming skyscraper in midtown Manhattan; off-world scenes of malignant evil; as well as blindingly apocalyptic fights and the above-mentioned showdown that leaves New York a virtual ruin. Yet it’s the deeply personal conversations and confrontations among the very reluctant team of Avengers that makes the movie pop. Full of humor, snappy dialogue, and little asides that include inside jokes, eye rolls, and personal grudge matches, the script makes these superhumans real beings with sincere passion or feelings of disillusionment. The conviction of the actors as they fully commit to their clever lines gives credibility to what comes off as more than simple banter, even during the more incredible moments among them (of which are many). The plot involves the appearance of Loki, disgraced villain and brother of Thor, who was also a key player in his eponymous movie. Loki has come to Earth to retrieve the Tesseract, a blue-glowing energy cube that is valuable beyond compare to forces good and evil throughout the universe. As Loki, Tom Hiddleston is supremely, yea gloriously appealing as the brilliantly wicked regal charmer who captures minds from S.H.I.E.L.D. and attempts to conquer Earth with the hideous army at his command. To say he is foiled is an understatement. His face-off with the Hulk is one of the giddiest moments in a movie filled with lightheaded mayhem, and is a perfect example of Whedon’s throwaway approach to translating the mythic mystique of the Marvel comics universe. Though at times deadly serious (as deadly serious as an outrageous superhero destructo/fight-fest movie can be, that is), The Avengers is best when it lightens up and lets the fun fly alongside the powerhouse punches. By the way, a single blink-and-you’ll-miss-it powerhouse punch is another moment that makes Hulk the most loveable underdog of a smashing green rage monster ever. That spirit of fun and pure adventure makes The Avengers the greatest kind of escapist Hollywood fantasy $250 million can buy. A blockbuster in the most literal sense.

– From Amazon.com by Ted Fry

Review

I was excited for this movie was soon as it was announced as I had just finished the movie Thor and I was ready to find out what happened next. So I was so pumped for this movie (also because I love Chris Hemsworth) and could not wait for it to come out. So I decided to go on opening weekend. I was lucky to get the movie showing which I wanted to go to as the movie theatre was beyond full. There was almost standing room only.

But the lights dimmed, the final trailers ended, and the beginning of the movie started. I was beyond excited.

Then the movie started. From the beginning until the end there was nothing but action. But not blood or anything like that – it was all comic violence. But it was extremely exciting.

The Marvel character’s in this movie were Hawkeye, Black Widow, Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, and Loki. I have to say, the actors which they got to play each character were incredibly believable to be able to be these super heroes.  The movie overall did an amazing job portraying these Super Hero’s and them saving the world from evil 🙂

I was also extremely impressed with the graphics in this. As you can tell from all of the trailers, there was a lot of city destruction and it was all computer graphics (obviously.) Also an interesting fact was the fly over of the military planes which you see were actually computer generated as the government would not do a military fly over as they did not support the idea of S.H.I.E.L.D and its role in the movie. The government has done flyovers in many movies like Transformers, and upcoming Battleship (which I am also excited for), but they said no to this one (phooey 🙂 ). But don’t worry, with the amazing technology which we have now, it did not affect the movie one bit.

The story line was definitely entertaining. It would definitely help though if the viewer has previously seen Thor as it explains what is happening, and Captain America. I had only seen Thor but it was still understandable. It was just that they made some references to the other movies so it would have been good to see the other ones too.

You walk into this movie thinking that all it was, was going to be action. But actually there was a lot of humor in it. I was laughing so much watching this movie as it did have some funny parts, well actually hilarious parts.

So overall this was a very impressive movie, acting and graphics wise. It tied all of the Marvel characters together and I believe that this is going to be one of the biggest movies of all time – if it is not already. On the rate it is going, it probably will or has already passed Titanic (sorry James.)

So I really hope that you all enjoy this movie. Tell me what you thought of it and what you disliked. I personally could not find anything bad about this movie, and it may be my all time favorite movie right now.

Hope that you love it as much as I did.

For some reason none of the trailers will actually work with this post. But I am sure that you can google it and find some good ones.

 

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

 in Adventure / Movies / Young Adult by

Starring

Hugh Jackman – Logan/Wolverine
Liev Schrieber – Victor Creed
Danny Huston – Stryker
Will i am – John Wraith

Summary

“Heroic Hugh Jackman “breathes the fire into Wolverine” (Miami Herald) — with a vengeance! This pulse-pounding action thriller sinks razor-sharp adamantium claws into the mysterious origins of Logan/Wolverine: his epically violent and romantic past, his complex relationship with Victor Creed/Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber), and the ominous Weapon X program that unleashes his primal fury. Along the way, Wolverine also encounters legendary new mutants, including Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Gambit (Taylor Kitsch). You’ll go “berserker” for this deeper, darker, more-spectacular-than-ever chapter of the X-Men saga!”

– Editorial from Amazon.com

Review

This was an interesting movie. Very entertaining, but wow was there a lot of violence. Like I mean a lot. In the first 20-25 minutes of the movie, the body count was through the roof. There was no blood and you never really saw the bodies, but you knew that they were dead. But the mutants were shot constantly and beaten up and hurt, but since they were mutants, they could not be killed or injured that badly. They would heal right up.

The movie did have its funny moments. Hugh Jackman really took on the role of Wolverine and took it to its fullest potential. He also made his character have that sarcastic side to it which made the movie quite funny in a few parts.

I thought that graphics in the movie were done really well with all of the mutants and their powers. It was extremely interesting. Now this movie is not about the X-Men. It is about Wolverine and his story and how he became who he is. At the end you did meet Professor X but it ended so that it would and could lead into another movie.

There was nothing sexual in it but you did see Logan’s backside when he was running out of a facility but it was in non-sexual context and it was literally a flash and then you saw him jump. But nothing was seen at all.

This was definitely a guy movie with all of the violence and testosterone laden action but it is still an entertaining watch. That does not explain why I watched it but I really did not know it was going to be as violent as it was. If I did I probably would not have watched it. 🙂

I would definitely recommend this movie to be seen but I would recommend the person to be over the age of at least 14 or 15 years of age due to some of the things which went on.

But otherwise, enjoy!

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral – Print Version

 in Book Reviews / Books / Creative / Hot Off The Press / Interesting / Young Adult by

This was extremely interesting. Not what I expected at all, and talk about sad. But what beautiful pictures. This is one of the first interactive graphic novels but they also do it in book form (which is what I read.) There is more I believe to the iPad, iPod, and iPhone version. I will be purchasing that because I am curious to see how the two compare but this book was amazing. Such beautiful colors and they presented the book in such an amazing way, just so interesting. The cover of this book was also so cute.

So simple yet so elegant. Also notice with the color how it is not a true color. It is off-color. That was the effect throughout the entire book and it was really a nice touch to the graphic novel.

It was a little confusing because through the entire novel they kept referring to each other as G and F and it got a little confusing during some parts as to who was who but it was quite easy to pick again.

This is a definite checker-outer (if that is a word) and a HOT OFF THE PRESS.

But this book is definitely for older readers as there is some bad language and some sexual topics. But that was like 5 pages in a 200 page book so really minimal.

Also I read this book, wait for it, in 25 minutes flat. That is my all time record. Admittedly,  it was all pictures.

So go and purchase it here for your “i” stuff or go to your local book store/local library or shop around online.

Hope that you enjoy.

And once again, thank you to Omar, my local YA librarian for having it ready to go.

Thanks.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

 in Adventure / Book Reviews / Books / Interesting / Older Readers / Series / Young Adult by

Summary

“Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight–she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace–or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

With elegant, evocative prose and a cast of unforgettable characters, debut author Kristin Cashore creates a mesmerizing world, a death-defying adventure, and a heart-racing romance that will consume you, hold you captive, and leave you wanting more.”

– Amazon.com

Graceling

Image via Wikipedia

Review

Before I even start about this book I would like to thank Omar my YA librarian for finding and giving me this book. Thank you so much because without you I don’t think I would have ever found this amazing book! 🙂

This was absolutely amazing. This is going to be on my top 5 favorite books of this year (unless I come across something more amazing which I highly doubt). The story had everything possible. It had romance, action, it was set in historical times, it was exciting, it was captivating, and it was overall amazing.

The story was about this girl named Katsa. She is Graced with killing but she did not want to have to use her grace. She does not like killing. The book follows her journey from when she meet Po, says no to her Uncle, and then follows her journey of finding a Princess and helping save people who need to be saved, and hurting those who need to be hurt.

I thought that the description in this books were very good. The author, Kristin Cashore, really painted a mental image of the scenery and what these places looked like. I enjoyed reading this book at night because I was kind of in that la-la land and I would go to bed with pretty scenery in my head (yes, I know, I am strange.) I just loved this book’s imagery. It was one of the highlights of the book.

There were not too many characters so you did not get confused as to what was going on. You always knew who was present and you always knew where they were which was helpful as there was a lot of traveling.

There are two more books like this called Fire and Butterblue. Fire happens 30 years before Graceling (even though Graceling was the first book published) and Butterblue takes place 8 years after Graceling.

I am going to be checking out these other two books and I hope that they will be as good as the first one.

If you would like to visit Kristin Cashore’s blog, please click here.

Her blog is great and have a look around.

This book was rated in my library PG-13 because there is some violence in it and there is some blood mentioned but I believe anyone 12/13 and older can read this book.

So happy reading.

Interview With My YA Librarian!!

 in At the Library / Author Interview / Fun / Library / Young Adult by

Well, following on with my occasional series of interviews with really interesting people, here we have another amazing interview. But this time it is not with a blogger or an author. It’s with the one, the only, Omar the YA Librarian at my local library. Doesn’t everyone wish for that amazing YA librarian that you can talk to, joke with, learn about books, and just have an overall good time with? Well this is Omar. He has all of the jokes down pat. He knows his books inside and out, and he is just in general a great person.

How many librarians do you know, who know your book preferences so well, know books that you may enjoy, so that when you arrive at your library, you already have a book on hold for you, hand picked, by your librarian? Well, I only know one. And that one is none other than (drum roll please) Omar. Now without further adieu, I would like to introduce you to my amazing librarian.

Well thanks to this lovely YA librarian, my library card is about to wear out – the poor thing is about to snap in half.

What made you want to become a librarian?

I always loved books and movies and stuff, and I always liked being around other people who loved books and movies and stuff.  I love talking about stories and introducing people to new stories they may not have heard about. What better place offers all those things more than a library?  My first job when I was a teenager was working as a page at a local library and I did that until the first year of college.  During college, I was a student librarian at my school’s library and I really enjoyed it, but dummy me didn’t realize I could make a career out of it until I graduated.  After a few years of doing small jobs, I went to grad school for library science.  And after that, I lucked out and found an opening for a YA librarian.  And here we are.

What were your friends’ reactions when they heard you were going to be a librarian?

They were all really happy.  For a lot of them, they knew me since I started working at my college and public libraries, so they always associated me with libraries.  They figured that I was finally able to find doing something I loved to do, and now they wouldn’t have to listen to me complain about fielding customer service calls during Christmas and New Years.  That’s a whole other story, by the way.

What is the best thing about your job?

Far too many.  If I could narrow it to just one thing, I would say the people.  The people I work with are intelligent, unique, and quite experienced, be it in the library world or just in general.  I always learn from them, and they’ve always helped me out.  And let’s not forget about the patrons.  The library takes all walks of life with their own wants and ticks, and I love helping them out.  There is nothing better than seeing someone walk out of a library happy.

What is the worst thing about your job?

Not having enough time to read everything!  The young adult scene is filled with all types of genres and unique perspectives from a wide assortment of writers.  There’s always something interesting in this field, but there’s never enough time to read it all.

What are you currently reading?

Right now, I’m reading “A Storm of Swords” by George R.R. Martin, the third in his “Song of Ice and Fire” series, as well as Kim Newman’s “Anno Dracula.”  I also have a book on writing I’m picking through, and a few pre-release copies of YA books (I’m gonna keep those a secret, come to the library to find out!).

And there’s also a ton of graphic novels and manga that I’m addicted to — seriously, I gotta stop buying those — but those I can finish in a snap, so no harm right?….Right?

What new YA book would you recommend?

There are a lot of good/new books out there, so I’m bound to either forget a couple or wind up mentioning too much.  So I’m just gonna throw out a few quick recommendations:

“When a Monster Calls” by Patrick Ness is really good, especially if you
want something that’s a mix of creepy and sad.  For fans of romance and drama, there’s “The Future of Us” by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green, and “Stay With Me” by Paul Griffin.  The relationships in those books are realistic but they also have room to play around with interesting fictional ideas.  For excitement I recommend “The Scorpio Races” by Maggie Stiefvater if you’re in a fantasy-mood, and “Legend” by Marie Lu if you’re feeling science fiction-y.  Finally, for a mix of science-fiction, adventure, and romance, there’s “Cinder” by Marissa Meyer.

What are your top 5 favorite books?

Off the top of my head, “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy; “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexander Dumas; “Dune” by Frank Herbert; “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain; and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams.  I read all of those at different points in my life and culled different meanings out of them.  Also, they were pretty entertaining too, that helps.

What are your top 5 favorite movies?

Off the top of my head, I’d say “The Seven Samurai,” “The Godfather,” “Casablanca,” “Brazil,” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”  Those are movies I’ve watched numerous times, and can watch several more times.  I also have books on these movies and their film makers, as well as numerous other books on film.  What can I say?  I’m a film junkie.

What, in your opinion, are some of the best books to movies ever?

It’s funny, some of the best movies that were based on books were based on books very few people ever HEARD OF, let alone READ!  Everyone remembers “Psycho” and “Jaws,” but few people remember the books!  Guess it’s kinda hard to replicate a sinister-sounding violin in a book.  Other movies I can think of are “Dr. Strangelove,” “The Godfather,” “First Blood,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” (Really!), “Rashomon,” “The Thing,” (I liked John Carpenter’s version more than Howard Hawks’) “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “Planet of the Apes,” and — of all things — “Die Hard,” which was loosely based off a book called “Nothing Lasts Forever.”  And all of those are movies that I love.

What is your favorite soundtrack(s)?

I’m probably gonna get laughed at for these, but I love, LOVE Basil Poloudoris’ soundtracks for “Robocop” and the original “Conan the Barbarian.”  I love anything that sounds “epic” and Poloudoris’ music was the definition of epic…at least in terms of cinema. I also have a soft spot for Joe Hisaishi’s music.  If you’ve ever seen movies like “Spirited Away,” “Princess Mononoke,” or “Howl’s Moving Castle” you would have heard his music.  Most of his compositions can flux between whimsical and grand, but they’re always fantastic.

Describe your favorite reading spot.

I have this old arm chair in the corner of my bedroom.  My desk is on one side, my book shelf is on the other, and behind me is my window.  I like sitting their and reading with my feet resting on my desk chair, usually with a cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.

If you could meet any book character who would it be and why?

Can I say Winnie the Pooh?  He was just such a silly ol’ bear; always found something interesting in the world around him.  I admire that.  Even if he was such a dummy. Tarzan is another one.  The idea of someone living in the jungle and making friends with animals has been a boyhood dream of mine.  Same with Conan, but he might be a bit too intense. I guess Sherlock Holmes and Jay Gatsby would be cool, but I have a feeling that they’d be too infatuated with other stuff.

If you would be transported into one of your favorite books, which would it be and why?

Oh no!  You’re not gonna trick me that easily!  I’ve seen/read “The Pagemaster,” and getting transported into a book can kill you! Any place I’d love to visit in a book, I can only imagine horrible things happening.  “The Lord of the Rings?” I don’t wanna get caught in a bloody war with medieval-era weaponry flying around.  Same with “The Hunger Games.”  “Dune?”  A desert planet?  I can’t even stand going to beach, let alone an ENTIRE planet made of sand.  “Neuromancer?”  Okay, cool computers everywhere, but the crime rate is terrifying. I guess if I could think of ONE place to go, it would probably be Dave Barry’s “Big Trouble.”  Everyone in that book were funny/insane, but it took place in Florida, so at least the weather would be nice.

Do you have any pets, and if so what are they and what are there names?

Unfortunately, I am without pets.  I’ve always wanted a dog ever since I was young, but it was never in the cards.  My fiance and I do want to get a dog or two at some point.  Probably something like a King Charles cavalier spaniel or Irish setter.  And I’d probably call them Mr. Cabadoo and Son Goku.  This is all speculation, of course.

 

So, what a great interview with such interesting answers! Who knew? Thanks Omar!!!!