Movies

Is the book always better than the movie? Are there any exceptions?

 in Books / Movies by

I saw this as a blog post prompt (which is a new feature on WordPress) and I could not pass it up. I am a book person so I had to answer.

So, is the book always better than the movie? Are there any exceptions?

My opinion is that books are usually better than the movie. But a few exceptions which I can think of are Harry Potter (which was really equal with the book), How To Train Your Dragon, and The Chronicles of Narnia (the 3 of them). There are many other books which are better than movies though. You had to give credit to the director though because creating the exact characters which the author wanted is hard. They did it well in Harry Potter and the Twilight series. They also did pretty well in I Am Number Four, but some movies are just not at the same standard. They try, but they just fall short. I am not saying that they are not enjoyable to watch, they just may not be as close to the book as they could have been. But directs have to work with what they got. They cannot make a movie 4 hours long if it is a short book. They also cannot take a 1,000 page book and make a 4 hour movie out of it either. They did it with Harry Potter but that was because it was such a popular book. The directors and producers would not spend that much money to make a movie when it does not sell big in the box office.

But that is my opinion. What are you opinions? Please, let me know.

 

Stargate: Atlantis Season 1-5

 in Fun / Movies by

Starring
Joe Flanigan – Lt. Colonel John Sheppard
Rachel Luttrell – Teyla Emmagan
David Hewlett – Dr. Rodney McKay
Jason Momoa – Ronan Dex
Torri Higginson – Dr. Elizabeth Weir
Paul McGillion – Dr. Carson Beckett
Jewel Staite – Dr. Jennifer Keller
Kavan Smith – Major Evan Lorne

Review

Probably one of the best TV shows which I have ever watched. This TV series is exciting, captivating, full of action, bits of love, great acting, and wonderful characters played by wonderful people.

This TV show is about this expedition who goes through this ring called The Stargate – other worlds call it the Ancestral Ring. The Stargate creates a pathway through space (it connects galaxies really) and let people travel to different worlds. What happens is an expedition goes through and finds The Lost City of Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy. As the series progresses, the expedition comes across many different  races  – some which are bad and other which are  good. They come across the Wraith, the Replicators, and many others.

Lt. Colonel John Sheppard is one of the main characters in the TV show. He is second in command on Atlantis. Sheppard then has Teyla who they picked up on another world and she volunteered to stay with them. She is a warrior and fights alongside John. Dr. Rodney McKay is the genius on Atlantis. He does all of the tough work and he works best when death is imminent. Ronan Dex comes later but he is one of the best fighters. He is not afraid of anything and he will take down anything too. He has this awesome gun which is his baby (in a sense.) There is Dr. Elizabeth Weir who is the commander of the base but she stays on base the majority of the time. Dr. Carson Beckett is the doctor on the base. He has a slight sense of humor and he is kind to anyone who comes to him. Dr. Jennifer Keller comes much later in the series and she is a doctor also. There is Major Evan Lorne who also comes later and he is just under John Sheppard in military ranking.

This is a must watch TV show. It is for people over the age of 14 really because there is some violence. The wraith do yucky stuff there is quite a lot of fighting. Every episode has someone either hurt, bad guys killed, or something of that nature. I hope that you will check it out as it is amazing. I am just so sad that they stopped at season 5. I hope that they continue the story some time sooner or later but they probably won’t.

Please check it out and tell me what you think.

Unfortunately I could not find a suitable trailer which is the official so you will have to just watch it. I hope you enjoy.

Red Riding Hood

 in Books-to-Movie / Movies by

Starring

Amanda Seyfried – Valerie
Gary Oldman – Solomen
Billy Burke – Cesaire
Shiloh Fernandez – Peter
Max Irons – Henry

Review
Woah. Woah. Woah. Hold up. This movie is PG-13? Uh, check the rating again please. This movie was not ok for 13 year olds at all. This was a movie for 16 year old’s.  The movie was quite steamy in some places (parents I am sure you know what I mean) and there was quite a lot of blood.

There was the love scene between Valerie and Peter. That was ok. But for 16 year olds. Not 13-year-old. There was also chopping off of hands, stabbing, and crunching of bones – everything yucky. Also at the end it was hinted at that the wolf had turned grandma into a stew and Valerie was eating the stew. Uhhh. Disgusting.

The movie overall was a good storyline, good acting, and everything, but I feel that it was a little too gruesome in some parts.

Valerie, played by Amanda Seyfried was the beauty of the town. She was to be married to Henry. But as all love stories go, she loved someone else. This story was touching to see how Henry tried to get her to love him but saw that Peter was still winning.

Please also check out CommonSenseMedia.org ‘s review of this movie. It will give you a better understanding of what happened.

Check the movie out and see what you think.

How To Train Your Dragon – Movie Review

 in Books-to-Movie / Movies by

How To Train Your Dragon is an animation and it was really cute. The animation was really good – it was not good in the sense that it was realistic but the animations were done well and it looked crisp and clear. One of the best parts of the animation was the dragon, Toothless, because his eyes were soooooo cute. I just could not get over them. Throughout the whole movie Toothless had those type of eyes that said, ‘Look at me, I am so cute, and I love you.’ They made me feel like cat eyes do when a cat looks at you when they have done something wrong – those big, round, ‘I love you’ eyes. Not fair. That was one reason that I wanted to see the movie because I thought that the dragon was really cute (and he was.) Now let us move on to the story, plot line. The story was interesting. It was about a boy and his adventure with his dragon and how they have to save the Viking tribe and stuff like that, but the book was nothing like the movie. Click here to see the book review. The dragons in the movie you could ride on but the ones in the book sat on your arm. Hiccup in the book did some cool things with his good friend (which he had from the beginning of the book) but in the movie he was alone and he only got a “allies” in the end. The “friend” in the movie was never mentioned. The movie was good but it was nothing like the book. The only way that I would be able to tell if it was like the book was by Hiccup, Toothless, and the father. That was the only similarity to the book. I am not criticizing the movie in any way because I liked – sorry – loved the movie and everything. It was done very well but the only thing was that it was nothing like the book. It does not matter if you read the book first or saw the movie first. One does not tie into the other. I still recommend that you read the book because it was good and I still recommend that you watch the movie but just be prepared that they are not similar at all. Enjoy.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer : Season 1 : Episode 0-12

 in Adventure / Fiction / Fun / Movies / Young Adult by

What is this TV show about?

This movie is about a girl named Buffy Summers who from her first day at her new school was having problems. Her mother and her moved to this new town to get away from the last school which she burned down. On her first day at school a girl is dead and after that many more problems follow. Then there is the weird guy Angel who keeps telling her about what is going to come and what is about to happen. She also find out that the town which she is living in is on top of a entrance to Hell – Hellmouth – and that means with her being the Slayer, she is kept busy around the clock kicking some tough demon butt.

What are my thoughts on the TV Show?

I personally love this series. I watched the first two seasons completely and now I am just jumping around between the seasons watching whichever episode has an interesting title. The story is interesting and it is fun to watch but I must warn you that you should screen the movies before you watch them. This series – I say – is for no one under the age of 12-13 because it is violent – lots of demon fighting and stakes through hearts – and there is also a lot of romance. As the series progresses the romance gets much more intense and the violence become much more. Instead of just demon violence there is violence between humans and that sometimes involves blood. The first series is, however, quite harmless, just the regular demon butt kicking.  There are a lot of jokes cracked and some of the humor is sexual based. If you are over the age of about 12-13 as I said before, this series would be great. Exciting, keeps you entertained, and you do not want to turn it off. I watched three episodes in one night and I got in a lot of trouble because the episodes are about 45 minutes each. So if you want to watch a few, time table because they are long episodes. Also when you hear the name ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ you think ‘Hey, that must be a childish movie/tv show. What a dumb name.’ Or let me rephrase that, that is what I thought. But then I though hey, let me watch the trailer for the first episode and I did and I thought it looked good. So I tried the first one, one night near Halloween and I got hooked. Also watch the TV episodes, not the movie because there is a movie called Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it looks horrible to me. It does not look Buffy-ish to me. But that is my own opinion and so you could watch the trailer and let me know if it is any good. But this review is only for the first season and there are 8 seasons all together. I will do a review for all of the seasons but you must watch the first season. You should not just watch any one because there is a sequence to the first and second season and after that it is just the same with Buffy kicking vampire butt. But I will review them all and enjoy.

What is the Episode Order?

 Season 1
Episode 0 – Unaired Pilot
Episode 1 – Welcome to the Hellmouth
Episode 2 – The Harvest
Episode 3 – Witch
Episode 4 – Teacher’s Pet *
Episode 5 – Never Kill a Boy on the First Date
Episode 6 – The Pack *
Episode 7 – Angel
Episode 8 – I,Robot…You, Jane
Episode 9 – The Puppet Show **
Episode 10 – Nightmares
Episode 11 – Out of Mind, Out of Sight
Episode 12 – Prophecy Girl

*Creepy and Slightly Disturbing.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Cast