I am currently reading the Septimus Heap series. And I love Love LOVE it.
It's is masterly written and it has an absolutely wonderful use of Capital letters, marking the Important things. It also uses old fashion ways of writing some of the more important words to the story. Like Darknesse, and Magyk.
This is children's fantasy at it's best. I would say it's suitable for children all down the age of 7, and if you are a parent you should definitely read it out loud for your child, because if you liked the Harry Potter books, you will love this one.
It's for children, young adults and proper adults alike.
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Kick Ass
You know you are desensitivized when an 11 year old girl slings a wire around a guys hand, loops it around his head, and yanks, making him shoot his own brains out the top of his head with his own gun, and the first thing going through your mind is is "I sure hope the books in the background doesn't get ruined". Yeah, it's that kind of movie.
It's an absolute orgy of blood and mayhem.
In the intro of Hit Girl and Big Daddy (daugther and father, of course), Big Daddy tells Hit Girl that at close range a gun shot will fling her (her being small and all. Seeing as she is about 11) a couple of feet. And then he shoots her in the chest.
I don't know if I will bother to lay out the plot for you all that much, but it's basically:
Guy diggs comicbooks. Guy wonders why nobody tries to be superheroes. Guy decides he wants to try. Guy beats up thugs. Guy gets his face plastered all over internet. Cue bloody violence for the next hour.
The violence was gorgeous. The blood was absolutely everywhere, and thou the first couple of fightscenes seem realistic enough, it soon morphed into full fledged, coreographed, bloody fightscenes that would give Jason Statham a run for his money.
I should have put this at the very top, but my scrolling finger is not in the mood. This movie is not for the weak stomached. The first bad-guy scene features the sound of a guy getting his finger cut of, the second has the visuals of a guy being toasted in a giant micro-wave-oven, until he pops like a popcorn.
I don't really even feel that I am going to ruin the movie for you by telling you these things. They are all in the first 20 (or so) minutes of the movie, and it just gets better and better (read: bloodier and bloodier).
The plot was a little lacking thou. The minute all the characters are done being presented you know exactly how they are all going to end up and how the movie is going to end.
But the plot was insanely believeable, and I could not detect a single plot-hole.
So while it was a tad predictable, it was natural.
Everyone developed in a fashion that seemed natural. They developed the way I think I would have developed under the same circumstances. Things seem to be going one way, but then something happens, and instead of stubborly sticking to the planed development (like so many movies do) the characters adapt to the turn in the plot the exact same way I would have.
It really bugs me when some excecutive producer sets his foot down and goes "we want this to happen in the movie, but we want the character to end up like this. And we don't give a rats flying arse wether you can make these two things work together in a believeable fashion, we have the money, and therefore the power, so you just be nice little movie-makers and as we say". And this was nowhere to be seen in this movie.
Where the plot twisted, the character twisted with the plot, not in a different direction and they did not fly in a straight line toward their previously assumed destination.
Trailer can be found below the rather lengthy musing about how we have a screwed up idea of what is damaging to young children.
What age-group a movie is recommended for and why is a tell-tale sign of a nations view on, well just about anything.
It's an intensely graphic movie, where some of the heroes kill in cold blood. An eleven year old girl has the highest bodycount in the entire flick.
But since she swears, it got an R rating in the states.
In Norway it got 15. (We state the age in Norway. And we make sure that the agelimit is observed in all theaters. So 15 means you have to be 15 if you are going unsupervised, and you can be down to 12 if you are accompanied by an adult. 18 means 18. Period. The can card you for any age group if they think you look too young, and some friends of mine back in junior high was refused admission to a 15-age movie when they were 13 because they didn't think to bring an adult.)
In France it got a PG rating.
I wonder what this says about our society, when the fact that an eleven year girl says the word "cock" is deemed inapropriate, but the fact that she off-handedly shoots and kills an unconcious man isn't?
And mind you that was only in America that was considered inapropriate. In Norway it got 15 due to the blood and the violence.
The fact that we let 12-13 year old children see these things (younger even in the US, as it's only guidelines for parents to take into consideration, and not actual rules) is very telling of the way our minds work. We adults need to remember that children don't separate reality from fiction in the same way as we do. And I certainly don't think it's wrong to show this to pre-teens, I just think that you need to sit your kids down and explain that it is a movie, it's not real, and they can't go around doing these things themselves, becuase they will (not might, will) get themselves killed.
I do think that this movie is going to have a greater impact on the impressionable minds of young children than lets say SpiderMan or X-Men. And that is because they see themselves.
They see a hopeless dork, with hopeless friends, and no lovelife what so ever, that one day just up and decides to become a superhero, and succeeds.
What they don't see is that the first time he tries to stop the bad guys he almost gets killed. He should have died, but for some reason he lives, and that is what they are goint to see. They would die in this situation, and they will if they try.
And you need to sit your kids down and explain that to them if you are going to show them this movie. It's fiction. And even thou KickAss an HitGirl basically kicks ass, they are not real. And what they do, can not and should not be reproduced. By anyone. Ever.
People show things like this to their kids, and then they wonder why violence increases. They blame the videogames and Marilyn Manson, when they should maybe think a little bit about what they let their kids see at a young age.
Kids will act by their parent's example, and by not reacting to these levels of extreme violence you make sure that your kids never will.
This movie is not for 5-year-olds, people.
I don't know why I devolved into a lesson in morals like this. It mostly that I know for a fact that some parents are going to take their 5-year olds to see this movie. and they are going to upset about the swearing.
It happened with WatchMen, and it will happen with KickAss. I will not be amused at all when I read about the myriads of parents complaing that the girl has a bad case of potty mouth to the cinema staff, when the cinema staff tried their absolute best to discourage them to bring the 5 year olds into this movie due to the blood and violence.
I will just be sad.
That said, if you enjoyed movies like Crank, Shoot Them Up, Transporter, you are going to have a gay ol' time indeed at this movie.
If you are looking for something like Ironman or Batman you are looking in the wrong place, but I do think you should stay seated thou, because this movie rocks.
It's a superhero movie like you have never seen before, and it is freakin' awesome.
It's an absolute orgy of blood and mayhem.
In the intro of Hit Girl and Big Daddy (daugther and father, of course), Big Daddy tells Hit Girl that at close range a gun shot will fling her (her being small and all. Seeing as she is about 11) a couple of feet. And then he shoots her in the chest.
I don't know if I will bother to lay out the plot for you all that much, but it's basically:
Guy diggs comicbooks. Guy wonders why nobody tries to be superheroes. Guy decides he wants to try. Guy beats up thugs. Guy gets his face plastered all over internet. Cue bloody violence for the next hour.
The violence was gorgeous. The blood was absolutely everywhere, and thou the first couple of fightscenes seem realistic enough, it soon morphed into full fledged, coreographed, bloody fightscenes that would give Jason Statham a run for his money.
I should have put this at the very top, but my scrolling finger is not in the mood. This movie is not for the weak stomached. The first bad-guy scene features the sound of a guy getting his finger cut of, the second has the visuals of a guy being toasted in a giant micro-wave-oven, until he pops like a popcorn.
I don't really even feel that I am going to ruin the movie for you by telling you these things. They are all in the first 20 (or so) minutes of the movie, and it just gets better and better (read: bloodier and bloodier).
The plot was a little lacking thou. The minute all the characters are done being presented you know exactly how they are all going to end up and how the movie is going to end.
But the plot was insanely believeable, and I could not detect a single plot-hole.
So while it was a tad predictable, it was natural.
Everyone developed in a fashion that seemed natural. They developed the way I think I would have developed under the same circumstances. Things seem to be going one way, but then something happens, and instead of stubborly sticking to the planed development (like so many movies do) the characters adapt to the turn in the plot the exact same way I would have.
It really bugs me when some excecutive producer sets his foot down and goes "we want this to happen in the movie, but we want the character to end up like this. And we don't give a rats flying arse wether you can make these two things work together in a believeable fashion, we have the money, and therefore the power, so you just be nice little movie-makers and as we say". And this was nowhere to be seen in this movie.
Where the plot twisted, the character twisted with the plot, not in a different direction and they did not fly in a straight line toward their previously assumed destination.
Trailer can be found below the rather lengthy musing about how we have a screwed up idea of what is damaging to young children.
What age-group a movie is recommended for and why is a tell-tale sign of a nations view on, well just about anything.
It's an intensely graphic movie, where some of the heroes kill in cold blood. An eleven year old girl has the highest bodycount in the entire flick.
But since she swears, it got an R rating in the states.
In Norway it got 15. (We state the age in Norway. And we make sure that the agelimit is observed in all theaters. So 15 means you have to be 15 if you are going unsupervised, and you can be down to 12 if you are accompanied by an adult. 18 means 18. Period. The can card you for any age group if they think you look too young, and some friends of mine back in junior high was refused admission to a 15-age movie when they were 13 because they didn't think to bring an adult.)
In France it got a PG rating.
I wonder what this says about our society, when the fact that an eleven year girl says the word "cock" is deemed inapropriate, but the fact that she off-handedly shoots and kills an unconcious man isn't?
And mind you that was only in America that was considered inapropriate. In Norway it got 15 due to the blood and the violence.
The fact that we let 12-13 year old children see these things (younger even in the US, as it's only guidelines for parents to take into consideration, and not actual rules) is very telling of the way our minds work. We adults need to remember that children don't separate reality from fiction in the same way as we do. And I certainly don't think it's wrong to show this to pre-teens, I just think that you need to sit your kids down and explain that it is a movie, it's not real, and they can't go around doing these things themselves, becuase they will (not might, will) get themselves killed.
I do think that this movie is going to have a greater impact on the impressionable minds of young children than lets say SpiderMan or X-Men. And that is because they see themselves.
They see a hopeless dork, with hopeless friends, and no lovelife what so ever, that one day just up and decides to become a superhero, and succeeds.
What they don't see is that the first time he tries to stop the bad guys he almost gets killed. He should have died, but for some reason he lives, and that is what they are goint to see. They would die in this situation, and they will if they try.
And you need to sit your kids down and explain that to them if you are going to show them this movie. It's fiction. And even thou KickAss an HitGirl basically kicks ass, they are not real. And what they do, can not and should not be reproduced. By anyone. Ever.
People show things like this to their kids, and then they wonder why violence increases. They blame the videogames and Marilyn Manson, when they should maybe think a little bit about what they let their kids see at a young age.
Kids will act by their parent's example, and by not reacting to these levels of extreme violence you make sure that your kids never will.
This movie is not for 5-year-olds, people.
I don't know why I devolved into a lesson in morals like this. It mostly that I know for a fact that some parents are going to take their 5-year olds to see this movie. and they are going to upset about the swearing.
It happened with WatchMen, and it will happen with KickAss. I will not be amused at all when I read about the myriads of parents complaing that the girl has a bad case of potty mouth to the cinema staff, when the cinema staff tried their absolute best to discourage them to bring the 5 year olds into this movie due to the blood and violence.
I will just be sad.
That said, if you enjoyed movies like Crank, Shoot Them Up, Transporter, you are going to have a gay ol' time indeed at this movie.
If you are looking for something like Ironman or Batman you are looking in the wrong place, but I do think you should stay seated thou, because this movie rocks.
It's a superhero movie like you have never seen before, and it is freakin' awesome.
Warning. Redband trailers. Mature audiences only
I don't expect anyone to actually care, but don't come say I didn't warn you
(and if you think the trailers are a little on the edge of what you can handle, I suggest you stay clear of the whole flick, because the redband trailers are toned down ALOT from the actual movie. Enjoy^^,)
I don't expect anyone to actually care, but don't come say I didn't warn you
(and if you think the trailers are a little on the edge of what you can handle, I suggest you stay clear of the whole flick, because the redband trailers are toned down ALOT from the actual movie. Enjoy^^,)
Monday, March 29, 2010
Don't buy ANYTHING from Acer EVER!!!
So I got my computer back today. And it DOES NOT WORK!!!
First Acer spends a freakin' month fixing my freakin' computer, and then when I finally get it back all the CDs that they told me to send in were missing, and then the damned thing bluescreens in startup!
I send in a broken computer, and they fix then stupid thing, but apparently it seems that they put in the wrong freakin' harddrive for the wrong freakin' model so the damned thing DOESN'T WORK!!! It's a glorified paperweight!
And I was so exited that I would get to take my computer to TG, fat chance of that happening now!
I am so mad right now. Did you notice?
Datakjeden have been great, every step of the way. Acer however have been slow, and now apparently incompetent. I am NEVER buying from Acer EVER again. If I need 8 hours of battery life I will buy a freakin' MacBook!
I HATE Acer!!!
First Acer spends a freakin' month fixing my freakin' computer, and then when I finally get it back all the CDs that they told me to send in were missing, and then the damned thing bluescreens in startup!
I send in a broken computer, and they fix then stupid thing, but apparently it seems that they put in the wrong freakin' harddrive for the wrong freakin' model so the damned thing DOESN'T WORK!!! It's a glorified paperweight!
And I was so exited that I would get to take my computer to TG, fat chance of that happening now!
I am so mad right now. Did you notice?
Datakjeden have been great, every step of the way. Acer however have been slow, and now apparently incompetent. I am NEVER buying from Acer EVER again. If I need 8 hours of battery life I will buy a freakin' MacBook!
I HATE Acer!!!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Alice in Underland?
Okey, I have now done many things in addition to playing Pokémon for an entire day, so now I am going to write about Alice in Wonderland.
First thing, inspired by Alice in Wonderland would have been a much better thing to write at the end of the movie than "based on Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass".
The movie goes on when Alice have turned 18. She has forgotten all about Wonderland (which for reason is really called Underland. Go figure). The Red Queen has taken over the land, and have pushed out her younger sister the White Queen.
I read a quote from Burton prior to seeing the movie where he had said that one thing he really did not like with other Alice in Wonderland movies was that there was no red thread, no continuum to them, and I thought "have he even read the book?".
So I had very low expectations going into the movie, because all I ever read was this and scores of reviewers saying he did not understand the original material, which was sort of valid thou.
It was a good movie, it was entertaining, and I could remember most of it from the books or other things that Lewis Carroll wrote. Like the Jabberwocky, it is of course from the poem with the same name.
There were of course some things that puzzled me. Like how can the Queen of Hearts (as in Cards) be the older sister of the White Queen (like in chess pieces). And where are all the other Queens?
But I sit here and that was really the only thing that did not make sense. Which really means that the movie wasn't all that bad.
Oh, wait, there was one more. Alice keeps talking about the nightmare she had when she was little, and how that is the only dream that she ever
Maybe because I have known for months that it happens years after the original books, and maybe it's because I had really low expectations going in, but I really really liked it.
It was a very Burtonesque, the colours where weird and the actors looked sickly. It was Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp all the way. And don't get me wrong, they are great actors, and they work well together, but they are going be in Addams Family too, maybe it's time to look for some other leads?
Johnny could not decide if he was English, American or Scottish. That was really annoying. If you are going to do an accent you don't speak every day, then choose one and stick to it, don't jump around like that.
I am guessing it's supposed to underline the fact that he is hopping mad, but it only got across as annoying to me.
And he is mad in this movie, but a cute kind of mad. The right kind of mad. I liked that. I was scared he was going to be icky, like in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but instead he was endearing.
Anyway, it was a very good movie, and I wholeheartedly recommend it=D
First thing, inspired by Alice in Wonderland would have been a much better thing to write at the end of the movie than "based on Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass".
The movie goes on when Alice have turned 18. She has forgotten all about Wonderland (which for reason is really called Underland. Go figure). The Red Queen has taken over the land, and have pushed out her younger sister the White Queen.
I read a quote from Burton prior to seeing the movie where he had said that one thing he really did not like with other Alice in Wonderland movies was that there was no red thread, no continuum to them, and I thought "have he even read the book?".
So I had very low expectations going into the movie, because all I ever read was this and scores of reviewers saying he did not understand the original material, which was sort of valid thou.
It was a good movie, it was entertaining, and I could remember most of it from the books or other things that Lewis Carroll wrote. Like the Jabberwocky, it is of course from the poem with the same name.
There were of course some things that puzzled me. Like how can the Queen of Hearts (as in Cards) be the older sister of the White Queen (like in chess pieces). And where are all the other Queens?
But I sit here and that was really the only thing that did not make sense. Which really means that the movie wasn't all that bad.
Oh, wait, there was one more. Alice keeps talking about the nightmare she had when she was little, and how that is the only dream that she ever
Maybe because I have known for months that it happens years after the original books, and maybe it's because I had really low expectations going in, but I really really liked it.
It was a very Burtonesque, the colours where weird and the actors looked sickly. It was Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp all the way. And don't get me wrong, they are great actors, and they work well together, but they are going be in Addams Family too, maybe it's time to look for some other leads?
Johnny could not decide if he was English, American or Scottish. That was really annoying. If you are going to do an accent you don't speak every day, then choose one and stick to it, don't jump around like that.
I am guessing it's supposed to underline the fact that he is hopping mad, but it only got across as annoying to me.
And he is mad in this movie, but a cute kind of mad. The right kind of mad. I liked that. I was scared he was going to be icky, like in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but instead he was endearing.
Anyway, it was a very good movie, and I wholeheartedly recommend it=D
Can I has Pokémans?
So I was gonna write about Alice in Wonderland, which I saw yesterday. Yeah. That's not gonna happen right this moment, it will have to be later, because today I did something I have not done in months.
I threw saving out the window and spent my birthday money in advance. I bought Heartgold and Soulsilver.
Yes, I am perfectly aware of the fact that I could have saved a buck-load of money by ordering them from the states, but I just could not wait. I have been practising very hard not to be all instant gratification, but apparently this does not apply to Pokémon games which I have been anxious awaiting for, I guess, for over a year now.
I have been super focused on not reading or watching for it at all, in fear that this exact thing would happen. It happened anyway.
The thing is I was meeting S at Strømmen Storsenter on Wednesday for some photographing for TG, and I did the error of walking past one of the two game stores the mall has, and outside there was a cardboard poster thingy, which showed Ho-oh and Lugia, in all their glory. I melted instantly. I rushed in to the store, all big eyed and giggly to find the boxes on the shelves. They had "pre-order now" stickers on them, and price-tags and they came with limited edition figurines.
When I got home, I started gushing more or less instantly and constantly. For two days, until Boyfriend offered to borrow me the money. And I deliberated for hours last night.
I finally decided to buy one now, and order the other from the states for a much cheaper rate.
But when I got there this morning (they were released today) I just could not decide, and I wanted the limited edition figurines (yeah, Pokémon figurines are not evol trinkets, they are limited edition, very rare Pokémon figurines currently on display on a shelf), so I caved to my desires and bought them both.
It is finally official, I am a Crazy Collector Lady.
Also I will be mostly unavailable for the next... Month? Depends on how long it's gonna take me to get to the mayor roadblock which is Goldenrod City. I swear that Miltank is pure evil. Or rather it's rollout attack is. It's the stuff nightmares are made out of. Some I am actually gonna be mainly unavailable until 8PM todayXP It's only the third gym after all. I am a Pokémaniac. You kned that. Don't look so shocked.
The fact that I bought them, does mean however, that I am not allowed to buy any DS games, or Nintendo games AT ALL, for a loooooooong time.
And now: What do I think about the games.
It's this simple: It is the single best generation EVER, in the best graphics to date, with lots of neat things from the later generations, and all the cool things (this far any way) from the actual original games. It's the best of everything, AND it comes with a Pokéwalker, which you can transfer ANY Pokémon at all to.
You can walk around with any Pokémon of your choosing. You know, the coolest feature from Yellow, the extra-game for first generation.
It's lovely. It's amazing. It's gorgeous. It's Pokémon at it's absolute BEST, and I have only gotten to Voilet City. I LOVE it to bits.
Oh, and don't buy it for my birthday seeing as I already have both. Sorry for any plans this has ruined. I just could not help myselfXP
There will be more gushing later
I threw saving out the window and spent my birthday money in advance. I bought Heartgold and Soulsilver.
Yes, I am perfectly aware of the fact that I could have saved a buck-load of money by ordering them from the states, but I just could not wait. I have been practising very hard not to be all instant gratification, but apparently this does not apply to Pokémon games which I have been anxious awaiting for, I guess, for over a year now.
I have been super focused on not reading or watching for it at all, in fear that this exact thing would happen. It happened anyway.
The thing is I was meeting S at Strømmen Storsenter on Wednesday for some photographing for TG, and I did the error of walking past one of the two game stores the mall has, and outside there was a cardboard poster thingy, which showed Ho-oh and Lugia, in all their glory. I melted instantly. I rushed in to the store, all big eyed and giggly to find the boxes on the shelves. They had "pre-order now" stickers on them, and price-tags and they came with limited edition figurines.
When I got home, I started gushing more or less instantly and constantly. For two days, until Boyfriend offered to borrow me the money. And I deliberated for hours last night.
I finally decided to buy one now, and order the other from the states for a much cheaper rate.
But when I got there this morning (they were released today) I just could not decide, and I wanted the limited edition figurines (yeah, Pokémon figurines are not evol trinkets, they are limited edition, very rare Pokémon figurines currently on display on a shelf), so I caved to my desires and bought them both.
It is finally official, I am a Crazy Collector Lady.
Also I will be mostly unavailable for the next... Month? Depends on how long it's gonna take me to get to the mayor roadblock which is Goldenrod City. I swear that Miltank is pure evil. Or rather it's rollout attack is. It's the stuff nightmares are made out of. Some I am actually gonna be mainly unavailable until 8PM todayXP It's only the third gym after all. I am a Pokémaniac. You kned that. Don't look so shocked.
The fact that I bought them, does mean however, that I am not allowed to buy any DS games, or Nintendo games AT ALL, for a loooooooong time.
And now: What do I think about the games.
It's this simple: It is the single best generation EVER, in the best graphics to date, with lots of neat things from the later generations, and all the cool things (this far any way) from the actual original games. It's the best of everything, AND it comes with a Pokéwalker, which you can transfer ANY Pokémon at all to.
You can walk around with any Pokémon of your choosing. You know, the coolest feature from Yellow, the extra-game for first generation.
It's lovely. It's amazing. It's gorgeous. It's Pokémon at it's absolute BEST, and I have only gotten to Voilet City. I LOVE it to bits.
Oh, and don't buy it for my birthday seeing as I already have both. Sorry for any plans this has ruined. I just could not help myselfXP
There will be more gushing later
Sunday, February 28, 2010
No more Something Positive *sniffles*
So, what I like to do is find a webcomic that has been running for a couple of years, and thus have a great big archive, and then I read the entire archive.
So Something Positive have updated just about daily since since the middle of 2001 I think. And I just finished the archive.
I have been reading it for a couple of months now.
It starts out really dark and depressing, because the artist-writer was in a real bad life situation, but it get a lot better about a year in, and now he lives off of the comic.
What I really like about it, is that one shot-characters and some of the really unlikeable characters get lasting parts in series, and become human.
Like Mike, or Kharisma, both of which were really nasty characters in the beginning now are really great characters. Mike has even joined the main cast=D
And you get really sad when characters die or get written out, because you really care about them.
One of the things I really like, is that the characters age. Their timeline follows the actual year, and if you go back and look at old strips you can see the characters have gotten visibly older, which I guess must be a hard thing to do, since just about no one else does this.
So you should really go read it!
Something Positive can be found here
So Something Positive have updated just about daily since since the middle of 2001 I think. And I just finished the archive.
I have been reading it for a couple of months now.
It starts out really dark and depressing, because the artist-writer was in a real bad life situation, but it get a lot better about a year in, and now he lives off of the comic.
What I really like about it, is that one shot-characters and some of the really unlikeable characters get lasting parts in series, and become human.
Like Mike, or Kharisma, both of which were really nasty characters in the beginning now are really great characters. Mike has even joined the main cast=D
And you get really sad when characters die or get written out, because you really care about them.
One of the things I really like, is that the characters age. Their timeline follows the actual year, and if you go back and look at old strips you can see the characters have gotten visibly older, which I guess must be a hard thing to do, since just about no one else does this.
So you should really go read it!
Something Positive can be found here
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Avatar
So I saw Avatar on Thursday. I'm a little slow about writing about it. SorryXP
And it was absolutely, amazingly GORGEOUS!
It was hands down the purdyiest movie evah!
It was mostly 3D animated, on this world were almost all the plants lit up when touched. It was to die for, it was so purdy.
There's a lot of people online crying up about it being un-American, and while I can see where they are coming from I think that they should just enjoy the movie and forget about who or what it might criticize. It's not important. So I will not comment on that particular aspect of it, it's irrelevant. So thereXP
One thing the movie did have thou, was an eco-message. The invading human forces on the strange planet of Pandora are there for Unobtainium, a highly valuable rock of some kind, and will stop at nothing to get it. Not even destroying the wonderful, light-up forest. At one point our hero tell the mother tree "there are no green there [on earth]. They killed their mother".
The plot of this movie is that this ex-marine, Jake Sully, is going to Pandora to be some sort of hit man I think. (I don't see how, seeing as he's lame from then waist down, but that's of no matter.) With his identical twin brother, who is going there to be an Avatar driver. Avatars are bred from a cross-mix of native DNA and their drivers DNA, and the drives meld their mind with them to control them.
Anywho, the brother is killed (I don't remember how), and seeing as how identical twins have identical DNA, Jake takes over his Avatar. And lo and behold, he can walk. The first scene in which he takes his Avatar for a run is so endearing, all that childish glee is just wonderful=D
The queen of the Avatar program (the head scientist), is not pleased at having to have a gun happy ex-marine along, but soon Jake develops a bond with a native girl named Neytiri, and then the whole tribe.
And then the inevitable conflict (without which movies and books as we know them today would not exist) arises. The largest Unobtainium deposits exist directly below Home-Tree, where the natives live. How ever will they solve this?
The graphics are gorgeous. The natives and avatars, who are both animated, by a sort of rotoscoping technique, are also very well made. As a general rule I don't like 3D people, they usually live way to far into Uncanny Valley for my taste, but they were so unlike real people, that this really weren't a problem.
They were actually very pretty, with little glowing blue spots in their faces and on their bodies. And all blue. Only annoying thing with their design where these long braids down their backs which they used to connect with things, which apparently grew out already braided, which was a little weird.
All in all it was a great movie, and you all have to see it. In 3D if possible=D
And it was absolutely, amazingly GORGEOUS!
It was hands down the purdyiest movie evah!
It was mostly 3D animated, on this world were almost all the plants lit up when touched. It was to die for, it was so purdy.
There's a lot of people online crying up about it being un-American, and while I can see where they are coming from I think that they should just enjoy the movie and forget about who or what it might criticize. It's not important. So I will not comment on that particular aspect of it, it's irrelevant. So thereXP
One thing the movie did have thou, was an eco-message. The invading human forces on the strange planet of Pandora are there for Unobtainium, a highly valuable rock of some kind, and will stop at nothing to get it. Not even destroying the wonderful, light-up forest. At one point our hero tell the mother tree "there are no green there [on earth]. They killed their mother".
The plot of this movie is that this ex-marine, Jake Sully, is going to Pandora to be some sort of hit man I think. (I don't see how, seeing as he's lame from then waist down, but that's of no matter.) With his identical twin brother, who is going there to be an Avatar driver. Avatars are bred from a cross-mix of native DNA and their drivers DNA, and the drives meld their mind with them to control them.
Anywho, the brother is killed (I don't remember how), and seeing as how identical twins have identical DNA, Jake takes over his Avatar. And lo and behold, he can walk. The first scene in which he takes his Avatar for a run is so endearing, all that childish glee is just wonderful=D
The queen of the Avatar program (the head scientist), is not pleased at having to have a gun happy ex-marine along, but soon Jake develops a bond with a native girl named Neytiri, and then the whole tribe.
And then the inevitable conflict (without which movies and books as we know them today would not exist) arises. The largest Unobtainium deposits exist directly below Home-Tree, where the natives live. How ever will they solve this?
The graphics are gorgeous. The natives and avatars, who are both animated, by a sort of rotoscoping technique, are also very well made. As a general rule I don't like 3D people, they usually live way to far into Uncanny Valley for my taste, but they were so unlike real people, that this really weren't a problem.
They were actually very pretty, with little glowing blue spots in their faces and on their bodies. And all blue. Only annoying thing with their design where these long braids down their backs which they used to connect with things, which apparently grew out already braided, which was a little weird.
All in all it was a great movie, and you all have to see it. In 3D if possible=D
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Wicked and Undead
Soooooo, I don't usually review books before I have finished them, but in the case of Wicked I will do and exception.
/shameless advertising for amazing bookXD
So I got this for Christmas from my little Girlies. I have been oogling it in my local fantasy bookstore for, years I guess, and they got it for me, and it has poison green edges on the pages and purdy pictures and it's awesome and I love it.
It's the story of Elphaba, otherwise known as the Wicked Witch of the West, originally dreamt up by Frank L. Baum for for his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Books of Wonder)
. Which is hands down one of the best, if most surrealistic, children's books ever to be made.
This book (Wicked that is) deals with how the Wicked Witch of the West came to be so wicked. And so far (I'm about half way) she is actually very nice, and very, very idealistic.
The book itself is beautiful. It has the aforementioned green edgings on the pages, and beautiful illustrations before each part of the book.
Gregory Maguire has a very great narrating skill, making all the people seem alive, and managing to make the witch that has probably given generations of kids nightmares a human face, and human emotions=D
A truly magnificent tale, and I recommend it to all people.
The next book, or rather series, I want to tell you about is the Undead series by Mary Janice Davidson.
'
This wonderful series is about Betsy Taylor who one day wakes up. And is dead. And apparently the long foretold Queen of the Vampires.
And all the hilarious complications that ensue. It's a chickflick Vampire book. It has all the makings of a chickflick, cute men, family issues, a gigantic she collection.=D It's great, and it just keeps getting better. I have read the first 3 or 4 I think thus far, and I laugh myself silly.'
It's feel good litterature at it's best, only with hot Vampire lovin'=D
I wholeheartedly recommend this series=D
/shameless advertising for amazing bookXD
So I got this for Christmas from my little Girlies. I have been oogling it in my local fantasy bookstore for, years I guess, and they got it for me, and it has poison green edges on the pages and purdy pictures and it's awesome and I love it.
It's the story of Elphaba, otherwise known as the Wicked Witch of the West, originally dreamt up by Frank L. Baum for for his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Books of Wonder)
. Which is hands down one of the best, if most surrealistic, children's books ever to be made.This book (Wicked that is) deals with how the Wicked Witch of the West came to be so wicked. And so far (I'm about half way) she is actually very nice, and very, very idealistic.
The book itself is beautiful. It has the aforementioned green edgings on the pages, and beautiful illustrations before each part of the book.
Gregory Maguire has a very great narrating skill, making all the people seem alive, and managing to make the witch that has probably given generations of kids nightmares a human face, and human emotions=D
A truly magnificent tale, and I recommend it to all people.
The next book, or rather series, I want to tell you about is the Undead series by Mary Janice Davidson.
'
This wonderful series is about Betsy Taylor who one day wakes up. And is dead. And apparently the long foretold Queen of the Vampires.
And all the hilarious complications that ensue. It's a chickflick Vampire book. It has all the makings of a chickflick, cute men, family issues, a gigantic she collection.=D It's great, and it just keeps getting better. I have read the first 3 or 4 I think thus far, and I laugh myself silly.'
It's feel good litterature at it's best, only with hot Vampire lovin'=D
I wholeheartedly recommend this series=D
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Extract
This was a bad movie. Don't go see this movie. It was bad.
It was 92 minutes of stupid people acting stupid. And I can't stand stupid people in real life. On the big screen I really, really, really can't stand stupid people.
Stupid people on the big screen makes me want to go homicidal with whatever is messier than a chainsaw.
I did not like this movie, can you tell?
The only redeeming factor of this movie was that the last 10 minutes or so was really sweet. Not über happy lollipops with syrup coating kind of sweet, but very awww kind of sweet=D
All in all I am very glad I did not pay to go see it at the very least. Being a volunteer I have gotten free tickets to all the movies I have wanted to see. And this is the first really bad movie I have seen through the whole festival. 9 was meh, but it wasn't horrible. This one was.
So if you like stupid movies about stupid people acting stupid, go right ahead. If you don't, turn around and run really fast in the opposite direction.
It was 92 minutes of stupid people acting stupid. And I can't stand stupid people in real life. On the big screen I really, really, really can't stand stupid people.
Stupid people on the big screen makes me want to go homicidal with whatever is messier than a chainsaw.
I did not like this movie, can you tell?
The only redeeming factor of this movie was that the last 10 minutes or so was really sweet. Not über happy lollipops with syrup coating kind of sweet, but very awww kind of sweet=D
All in all I am very glad I did not pay to go see it at the very least. Being a volunteer I have gotten free tickets to all the movies I have wanted to see. And this is the first really bad movie I have seen through the whole festival. 9 was meh, but it wasn't horrible. This one was.
So if you like stupid movies about stupid people acting stupid, go right ahead. If you don't, turn around and run really fast in the opposite direction.
Monday, November 23, 2009
9
So I saw 9 today. A futuristic, post apocalyptic animated movie about puppets.
The plot is that the world has been destroyed because the humans made intelligent machines that turned on humanity and they ended up destroying each other.
It was a very good movie when I saw it, but the more I think about it, the more meh it feels.
Actually the plot and everything just seemed like a bunch of executives sat around a table talking about their favourite parts of their favourite movies, and then just copy-pasted them together into one movie.
Visually it was very nicely done. Not astounding, nor very impressing really, but nice. The puppets weren't very emoting, and things looked very deliberately textured. It looked kind of fake actually. And the puppets either moved too smoothly or not smoothly enough, there's was no golden middle.
All in all it was an okey movie. It was entertaining. Unfortunately it's likely it will get an Oscar nomination. I don't think it deserves that.
Also the ending struck me as very weird. Like some executive (again with the executivesXP) had decided that he wanted it to end that way. Because it didn't seem to correspond to the information given to us earlier in the movie.
Trailer time:
The plot is that the world has been destroyed because the humans made intelligent machines that turned on humanity and they ended up destroying each other.
It was a very good movie when I saw it, but the more I think about it, the more meh it feels.
Actually the plot and everything just seemed like a bunch of executives sat around a table talking about their favourite parts of their favourite movies, and then just copy-pasted them together into one movie.
Visually it was very nicely done. Not astounding, nor very impressing really, but nice. The puppets weren't very emoting, and things looked very deliberately textured. It looked kind of fake actually. And the puppets either moved too smoothly or not smoothly enough, there's was no golden middle.
All in all it was an okey movie. It was entertaining. Unfortunately it's likely it will get an Oscar nomination. I don't think it deserves that.
Also the ending struck me as very weird. Like some executive (again with the executivesXP) had decided that he wanted it to end that way. Because it didn't seem to correspond to the information given to us earlier in the movie.
Trailer time:
Mary and Max, and Ip Man
No clickable title today, since I saw two movies. There will be clickables in the reviews thou.
So I saw Mary and Max today.
It's an animated movie about a little girl in Australia who picks a name at random from a New Your phonebook, and writes that man a letter, and the man who receives the letter.
Visually it's gorgeous, the little details they have put into their models (it's stop motion. You know, like Nightmare Before Christmas and Wallace and Gromit) is simply amazing. The movie is in two colour schemes, New York is grey, and Australia is sephia, and then you have certain bright colours, like red lipstick, and a red pompom, and that makes the story that much more real.
They use a lot of time describing things, like colours and smells, and that also contributes to make the movie feel real, because that's the sort of thing people notice in the back of their heads, and that is very much a part of life.
The humour in this movie is very dark (as you can see in the trailer), and at some points it is very sad, but it is very sweet.
I will show you the trailer now:
And then I saw Ip Man (it's not i-p like in ip address, it's a chinese name, it is Ip Man, not I-p Man), which is very loosely based on the life of Yip Man, a very renounced martial arts master, who have trained among others Bruce Lee.
This is a martial arts movie, which means that if the fight scenes annoy you, you won't enjoy it, seeing as about 75% of the movie was fight scenes. Also, in classic martial arts movie style it just ended, there was the last great big climaxy battle between the two masters and then it ended. Just like that. You got a nice little picture montage of what happened after, but I was left with the distinct feeling that it ended in the middle of the best part.
The battle scenes were awesome, and mostly realistic, which was a nice change from the wire-fu movies we have been getting to Norway the last few years. ( I say mostly, because there were some quite unrealistic throwing of people across rooms with a punch in the chest and things like thatXP
All in all I liked it^^,
Now for the trailer and a little clip of Ip Man beating 10 Japanese black belts to give you an impression of the fight scenes^^,
So I saw Mary and Max today.
It's an animated movie about a little girl in Australia who picks a name at random from a New Your phonebook, and writes that man a letter, and the man who receives the letter.
Visually it's gorgeous, the little details they have put into their models (it's stop motion. You know, like Nightmare Before Christmas and Wallace and Gromit) is simply amazing. The movie is in two colour schemes, New York is grey, and Australia is sephia, and then you have certain bright colours, like red lipstick, and a red pompom, and that makes the story that much more real.
They use a lot of time describing things, like colours and smells, and that also contributes to make the movie feel real, because that's the sort of thing people notice in the back of their heads, and that is very much a part of life.
The humour in this movie is very dark (as you can see in the trailer), and at some points it is very sad, but it is very sweet.
I will show you the trailer now:
And then I saw Ip Man (it's not i-p like in ip address, it's a chinese name, it is Ip Man, not I-p Man), which is very loosely based on the life of Yip Man, a very renounced martial arts master, who have trained among others Bruce Lee.
This is a martial arts movie, which means that if the fight scenes annoy you, you won't enjoy it, seeing as about 75% of the movie was fight scenes. Also, in classic martial arts movie style it just ended, there was the last great big climaxy battle between the two masters and then it ended. Just like that. You got a nice little picture montage of what happened after, but I was left with the distinct feeling that it ended in the middle of the best part.
The battle scenes were awesome, and mostly realistic, which was a nice change from the wire-fu movies we have been getting to Norway the last few years. ( I say mostly, because there were some quite unrealistic throwing of people across rooms with a punch in the chest and things like thatXP
All in all I liked it^^,
Now for the trailer and a little clip of Ip Man beating 10 Japanese black belts to give you an impression of the fight scenes^^,
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Bitch Slap. TandA. And Explosions=D
Clickable title
So I saw Bitch Slap yesterday.
And to put it like this, when they introduce the girls, the last part of them you get to see are their faces. It's that kind of movie.XD
It's about three girls who are searching for some diamonds out in the desert. Most of the movies consists of flashbacks, which are filmed on green screen.'
There's not really plot, but the point of this movie isn't the plot anyway, it's about hot girls getting dirty and wet in the desertXP
No, really. What this movie consists of is hot girls, who are either fighting of f***ing, explosions, and big ass guns (it's seriously anime sizedXD).
It's not a movie for when you wanna see something serious, or with heavy dialogue, it's a movie for when you wanna lay back watch some seriously hot and over the top.
And if you live in Oslo and go see it tonight (saturday 21st of november) or tomorrow (sunday 22nd november) you can think happily about the fact that for once you have seen an American movie before in premiers in the States (which will happen in 8th of January).XP It has been showed at Toronto, but that's in Canada, so that doesn't countXD
I was going to upload you the ending credits from youtube, but they weren't there, which is natural, seeing as it has only been showed at movie festivals (except for in Finland where is has premièred for real). It was awesome you see. It was layed out as youtube teen-strip movies (you know, the ones where hot girls take of their clothes down to their undies on camera, but doesn't show their faces), but we figured it was probably the actresses from the movie dancingXD It was hot anywho^~,
Only bummer about this movie, was that I had had a long crappy day, and the three main actresses came to cast glory on the show, which was cool and all. But instead of putting a panel after the movie, they got interview for effings 30 minutes before the movie. Which would have been fine if it wasn't for the fact the journalist that interviewed them was almost incompetent. He fumbled with the microphone, had really standard boring questions (many of which the girls could not answer, seeing as that would spoil us, because they did the interview before the movie) and did not take their hints at all that they thought it took too long time.
Overall I loved the movie.
And you need to go see it. Oh! And there was this Japanese character Kinki, who talked most of the time in Japanese. I could understand most of what she said=D Yay me=D=D
Did you see Lucy Lawless? You, Xena? Yeah, she's in this movie too=D
So I saw Bitch Slap yesterday.
And to put it like this, when they introduce the girls, the last part of them you get to see are their faces. It's that kind of movie.XD
It's about three girls who are searching for some diamonds out in the desert. Most of the movies consists of flashbacks, which are filmed on green screen.'
There's not really plot, but the point of this movie isn't the plot anyway, it's about hot girls getting dirty and wet in the desertXP
No, really. What this movie consists of is hot girls, who are either fighting of f***ing, explosions, and big ass guns (it's seriously anime sizedXD).
It's not a movie for when you wanna see something serious, or with heavy dialogue, it's a movie for when you wanna lay back watch some seriously hot and over the top.
And if you live in Oslo and go see it tonight (saturday 21st of november) or tomorrow (sunday 22nd november) you can think happily about the fact that for once you have seen an American movie before in premiers in the States (which will happen in 8th of January).XP It has been showed at Toronto, but that's in Canada, so that doesn't countXD
I was going to upload you the ending credits from youtube, but they weren't there, which is natural, seeing as it has only been showed at movie festivals (except for in Finland where is has premièred for real). It was awesome you see. It was layed out as youtube teen-strip movies (you know, the ones where hot girls take of their clothes down to their undies on camera, but doesn't show their faces), but we figured it was probably the actresses from the movie dancingXD It was hot anywho^~,
Only bummer about this movie, was that I had had a long crappy day, and the three main actresses came to cast glory on the show, which was cool and all. But instead of putting a panel after the movie, they got interview for effings 30 minutes before the movie. Which would have been fine if it wasn't for the fact the journalist that interviewed them was almost incompetent. He fumbled with the microphone, had really standard boring questions (many of which the girls could not answer, seeing as that would spoil us, because they did the interview before the movie) and did not take their hints at all that they thought it took too long time.
Overall I loved the movie.
And you need to go see it. Oh! And there was this Japanese character Kinki, who talked most of the time in Japanese. I could understand most of what she said=D Yay me=D=D
This trailer is not safe for work!!!!
Did you see Lucy Lawless? You, Xena? Yeah, she's in this movie too=D
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Precious: Based on the novel push by Sapphire
Clickable title folks^^,
So I saw Precious today. And it was amazing. Absolutely breathtaking. And it was horrible. The thing that happened to the main character was absolutely horrible.
It's about a sixteen year old girl. Pregnant by her father with her second child. Her mother verbally and physically abuses her. She can't read, but somehow she gets almost straight As (probably pity grades). Every single thing in her life conspires to utterly destroy her.
And still, every time life smashed a plate in her head, or pushed her over on the street or generally just sucked, she got up.
To be brutally honest, some scenes in this movie was horrible to watch I wanted to cry. I wanted to leave, but seeing as I would have to go past the entire row to so I stayed put. I'm glad I did.
What this movie really was about is that you need to keep fighting. Every time life effs you over, every time someone else effs you over, every time you eff your self over, you need to get up and keep fighting. No one can make your life better, other than yourself. If you sit around waiting for someone else to fix things, nothing will get fixed. Sometimes you will need help and that is okey, but in the end, you need to fix your own life.
To be honest, this is the single most inspiring movie of the year, if not the most inspiring movie I have ever seen. I loved it.
And by god, Gabourey Sidibe deserves the Oscar for Female Lead this year. I know they release all Oscar movies around this time of year, but I sincerely doubt that there will be even one performance even close to hers this year at all.
And while we are talking about Gabourey, the Film Festival director (I forgot to mention that, didn't I, this was the opening film for Oslo International Film Festival) said something sad in his speech before the movie; she had to stop reading blog entries about the movie, because all they ever said about it was that they could not believe how ugly she was.
Honestly, how is that constructive at all? Why write something like that? It's not even true. Granted, she is no Halley Berry, but when she smiled she was gorgeous.
When you play a 16 year old girl who has been raped and abused your whole life, you are supposed to go around looking grumpy, and angry, and that makes no girl pretty. But there were these dream sequences where she was dreaming about what she wanted from life. being an actress, a model, a singer and so on, and she looked happy, and in those scenes she was absolutely beautiful. Click on the title and look the pictures and see for your self.
I simply can't understand why people feel that they need write these things.
There was this one guy who said that the movie would be perfectly okey with "regular looking people", and I think he was seriously missing the point of the thing. If someone like, say, Halle Berry played Precious it would not be the same movie. It would be something else entirely.
I hope Gabourey gets at least one great price for this, she needs an Oscar for this. She was that good.
And you all need to go see it when it hits the movie theatres. It was hard to watch at times, but it was totally worth it. As I said, it's the most inspiring movie of the year, and you all need to go see it=D
So I saw Precious today. And it was amazing. Absolutely breathtaking. And it was horrible. The thing that happened to the main character was absolutely horrible.
It's about a sixteen year old girl. Pregnant by her father with her second child. Her mother verbally and physically abuses her. She can't read, but somehow she gets almost straight As (probably pity grades). Every single thing in her life conspires to utterly destroy her.
And still, every time life smashed a plate in her head, or pushed her over on the street or generally just sucked, she got up.
To be brutally honest, some scenes in this movie was horrible to watch I wanted to cry. I wanted to leave, but seeing as I would have to go past the entire row to so I stayed put. I'm glad I did.
What this movie really was about is that you need to keep fighting. Every time life effs you over, every time someone else effs you over, every time you eff your self over, you need to get up and keep fighting. No one can make your life better, other than yourself. If you sit around waiting for someone else to fix things, nothing will get fixed. Sometimes you will need help and that is okey, but in the end, you need to fix your own life.
To be honest, this is the single most inspiring movie of the year, if not the most inspiring movie I have ever seen. I loved it.
And by god, Gabourey Sidibe deserves the Oscar for Female Lead this year. I know they release all Oscar movies around this time of year, but I sincerely doubt that there will be even one performance even close to hers this year at all.
And while we are talking about Gabourey, the Film Festival director (I forgot to mention that, didn't I, this was the opening film for Oslo International Film Festival) said something sad in his speech before the movie; she had to stop reading blog entries about the movie, because all they ever said about it was that they could not believe how ugly she was.
Honestly, how is that constructive at all? Why write something like that? It's not even true. Granted, she is no Halley Berry, but when she smiled she was gorgeous.
When you play a 16 year old girl who has been raped and abused your whole life, you are supposed to go around looking grumpy, and angry, and that makes no girl pretty. But there were these dream sequences where she was dreaming about what she wanted from life. being an actress, a model, a singer and so on, and she looked happy, and in those scenes she was absolutely beautiful. Click on the title and look the pictures and see for your self.
I simply can't understand why people feel that they need write these things.
There was this one guy who said that the movie would be perfectly okey with "regular looking people", and I think he was seriously missing the point of the thing. If someone like, say, Halle Berry played Precious it would not be the same movie. It would be something else entirely.
I hope Gabourey gets at least one great price for this, she needs an Oscar for this. She was that good.
And you all need to go see it when it hits the movie theatres. It was hard to watch at times, but it was totally worth it. As I said, it's the most inspiring movie of the year, and you all need to go see it=D
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
UP
We saw UP yesterday. In 3D.
And for those of you not inclined to read my reviews I'm gonna start of with a youtube version of the premovie. The latest short film from Pixar.
I present to you Partly Cloudy=D
I seriously think all the "bad" babies are much cuter than all the good babies. I mean, look at that porcupine!!!=D=D
Now to the review.
I cried. No movie has ever made me cry. Ever. It wasn't hulking, but there was certainly at least on tear rolling down my cheek at the start sequence.
It was the sweetest movie I have seen in positively years. If I have ever seen something so heartfelt and fragile that manages to be funny at the same time, ever.
Most often with these movies it's the side characters, the ones that just is there, but doesn't have that much influence on the movie or the plot, that saves them from being sappy and dreary.
With UP that was not the case.
Carl, the main character, was one of the sweetest old men you can think of, complete with the grouchiness and the sad past and the sweet and sappy core that makes him instantly loveable. The kind of man that just annoys you, until you get to know him and why he is that way.
Russel, the little side-kick boy was also believable, and absolutely lovable.
As I mentioned I saw it in 3D, which I have never done before. And it was awesome.
And Pixar do make beautiful movies. And this one really was.
When the light streamed through the balloons, and all those vibrant colours, I just... oh....
Moral is: Has to be seen. In 3D if possible.
Trailer time=D
And for those of you not inclined to read my reviews I'm gonna start of with a youtube version of the premovie. The latest short film from Pixar.
I present to you Partly Cloudy=D
I seriously think all the "bad" babies are much cuter than all the good babies. I mean, look at that porcupine!!!=D=D
Now to the review.
I cried. No movie has ever made me cry. Ever. It wasn't hulking, but there was certainly at least on tear rolling down my cheek at the start sequence.
It was the sweetest movie I have seen in positively years. If I have ever seen something so heartfelt and fragile that manages to be funny at the same time, ever.
Most often with these movies it's the side characters, the ones that just is there, but doesn't have that much influence on the movie or the plot, that saves them from being sappy and dreary.
With UP that was not the case.
Carl, the main character, was one of the sweetest old men you can think of, complete with the grouchiness and the sad past and the sweet and sappy core that makes him instantly loveable. The kind of man that just annoys you, until you get to know him and why he is that way.
Russel, the little side-kick boy was also believable, and absolutely lovable.
As I mentioned I saw it in 3D, which I have never done before. And it was awesome.
And Pixar do make beautiful movies. And this one really was.
When the light streamed through the balloons, and all those vibrant colours, I just... oh....
Moral is: Has to be seen. In 3D if possible.
Trailer time=D
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
I have been proven wrong
Up until now, every single anime I have ever watched has been full of shrieks and super duper shrill voices. I'll probably never get why the Japanese think that ear-splittingly shrill voices are cute, to me all they mean is that if I don't turn it off immediately I get a migraine.
This has held true to all anime I have ever bothered to watch. Some very few are bearable to watch (these include Pokémon, Digimon, and Bottle Fairies), most I simply can't stand.
This has forced me to swear off just about all anime, not even bothering to try.
However today I sampled Michiko to Hachin, just because it was there, and I needed to practise my listening skills. The conversation turned out to be too complex for me, but the anime was simply awesome.
There were no shrieks and no super-duper-ultra-happy-kawaii voices. They all sounded like normal people, and the story line is tragic enough to be interesting, even thou it thus far seems a bit cliché.
I have thus far watched 1 and a half episode, and I am pretty sure I will make it through all 22.
So if you are tired of cutesy, noisy anime, and would like something calmer, more realistic, and more adult, I really recommend sampling this one^^,
This has held true to all anime I have ever bothered to watch. Some very few are bearable to watch (these include Pokémon, Digimon, and Bottle Fairies), most I simply can't stand.
This has forced me to swear off just about all anime, not even bothering to try.
However today I sampled Michiko to Hachin, just because it was there, and I needed to practise my listening skills. The conversation turned out to be too complex for me, but the anime was simply awesome.
There were no shrieks and no super-duper-ultra-happy-kawaii voices. They all sounded like normal people, and the story line is tragic enough to be interesting, even thou it thus far seems a bit cliché.
I have thus far watched 1 and a half episode, and I am pretty sure I will make it through all 22.
So if you are tired of cutesy, noisy anime, and would like something calmer, more realistic, and more adult, I really recommend sampling this one^^,
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Ponyo on the cliff by the sea
I went to see Ponyo on the cliff by the sea yesterday.
It was seriously the most adorable movie ever. It's an adaptation of the "little mermaid", the real version by HC Andersen, not the sappy Disney version. And yet it was it's all new story, with a lige of it's own.
What happens is that this little boy Sosuke finds a little fish by the sea, trapped in a jar. And he takes her home and names her Ponyo. But Ponyo gets "eaten" by the sea, and taken back to her father, and there comes the moral rolling in, about the humans and how they destroy the sea and the nature.
But Ponyo loves Sosuke, and wants to become human and stay with him.
This is the first movie Studio Ghibli have made for years without the use of computer animation. It's actually made the old fashion way with animation cells, and as a result the animation style was very simplistic. And absolutely stunning! They had these pastel backgrounds that were absolutely gorgeous.
One thing that Studio Ghibli is very good at is portraying young children, both visually, with all the little movements like little children do, and their mentality. They have many such young characters, like Mei from Tonari no Totori, and they are always excellently portrayed.
Ponyo was the kind of movie that made me all warm and fuzzy on the inside, and I stayed that way for quite some time. It was sweet without being sappy, and portrayed simple love between children without being naive. I loved it, and I am thinking of seing it again, when they show it in the movies for real and they will have it with the original Japanese voices. Norwegian dubs are very good, but the Norwegian names were a bit distractingXP
It was seriously the most adorable movie ever. It's an adaptation of the "little mermaid", the real version by HC Andersen, not the sappy Disney version. And yet it was it's all new story, with a lige of it's own.
What happens is that this little boy Sosuke finds a little fish by the sea, trapped in a jar. And he takes her home and names her Ponyo. But Ponyo gets "eaten" by the sea, and taken back to her father, and there comes the moral rolling in, about the humans and how they destroy the sea and the nature.
But Ponyo loves Sosuke, and wants to become human and stay with him.
This is the first movie Studio Ghibli have made for years without the use of computer animation. It's actually made the old fashion way with animation cells, and as a result the animation style was very simplistic. And absolutely stunning! They had these pastel backgrounds that were absolutely gorgeous.
One thing that Studio Ghibli is very good at is portraying young children, both visually, with all the little movements like little children do, and their mentality. They have many such young characters, like Mei from Tonari no Totori, and they are always excellently portrayed.
Ponyo was the kind of movie that made me all warm and fuzzy on the inside, and I stayed that way for quite some time. It was sweet without being sappy, and portrayed simple love between children without being naive. I loved it, and I am thinking of seing it again, when they show it in the movies for real and they will have it with the original Japanese voices. Norwegian dubs are very good, but the Norwegian names were a bit distractingXP
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Watchmen
So, I just got home from Watchmen. Two words: Awe Some^^,
It was a FilmNoir-splatter-action-doomsday-movie. The Rorschach voice over was just too cool, and Doctor Manhattan was amazingly emotive in his flatness.
Okey: how 'bout a trailer peeps?
The splatter effects were fantastic. I love gore, and this had plenty. But not icky, pointless gore, more like to illustrate points, and where it was natural. Exploding people leave bones and softer bits sticking out of the walls and ceiling, they just do. And they did. If you break a mans leg by a fly-kick, sometimes bits of bone will be sticking out the other side. That's just the way it is. It wasn't pointless, but it was certainly wasn't for queasy peopleXP
As with most movies, some actors was way better than others.
Doctor Manhattan was by far the character that touched me the most. He was so alive, despite the fact that he way detached to the point of almost being devoid of emotions. He goes through most of the film with a flat face, but to me who spend a lot of time watching the eyes (mirror of the soul, seriously) saw tons of emotion. Doctor Manhattan is a sad man. When Laurie leaves him he couldn't have conveyed the feeling of despair better had he started screaming. His head at an angle and his eyebrows pulled ever so slightly together, he could just as well have had tears streaming down his face. And on Mars, the way his eyes kept shifting, he could simply not have done it any better in any way.
Laurie, on the other hand, was dead. She her eyes were flat and emotionless, and she did not use her voice to convey emotion in the ways she could and should have. I think that her lack of emotion became so much more apparent when Doctor Manhattan had so much of it, even thou he hadn't. She was the one character in the movie with most opportunities to overact, and she did only take one of them. And she could very well have taken many more. The one she did take, she did so poorly, she really hadn't needed to bother.
Rorschach was awesome. His mask was cool, and the character was cool, and the actor did a great job.
There were lots of cool little details. Like the smiley on Mars (there really is a smiley on Mars BTW: Just take a look).
There were some things that I didn't catch thou, because they were poorly laid out. I thought Rorschach and Laurie were siblings, kinda, until fiancé told me that those were really two different scenes shot at the same angle. There are these two different scenes, with different actors and all, but they are shot at the almost exact same angle, and the two women sorta look alike, and the sets used are almost identical, so of course I get confused. They are not, however the same women, so Rorschach and Laurie are not siblings. (It did seem weird at the moment as well.)
All in all, it was awesome. Well worth the load of money I paid to go see it^^,
I'll see if I can get around to posting some Berlin pictures soon^^,
Word of the day:
ロールシャッハテスト - rōrushahhatesuto - Rorschach test
It was a FilmNoir-splatter-action-doomsday-movie. The Rorschach voice over was just too cool, and Doctor Manhattan was amazingly emotive in his flatness.
Okey: how 'bout a trailer peeps?
The splatter effects were fantastic. I love gore, and this had plenty. But not icky, pointless gore, more like to illustrate points, and where it was natural. Exploding people leave bones and softer bits sticking out of the walls and ceiling, they just do. And they did. If you break a mans leg by a fly-kick, sometimes bits of bone will be sticking out the other side. That's just the way it is. It wasn't pointless, but it was certainly wasn't for queasy peopleXP
As with most movies, some actors was way better than others.
Doctor Manhattan was by far the character that touched me the most. He was so alive, despite the fact that he way detached to the point of almost being devoid of emotions. He goes through most of the film with a flat face, but to me who spend a lot of time watching the eyes (mirror of the soul, seriously) saw tons of emotion. Doctor Manhattan is a sad man. When Laurie leaves him he couldn't have conveyed the feeling of despair better had he started screaming. His head at an angle and his eyebrows pulled ever so slightly together, he could just as well have had tears streaming down his face. And on Mars, the way his eyes kept shifting, he could simply not have done it any better in any way.
Laurie, on the other hand, was dead. She her eyes were flat and emotionless, and she did not use her voice to convey emotion in the ways she could and should have. I think that her lack of emotion became so much more apparent when Doctor Manhattan had so much of it, even thou he hadn't. She was the one character in the movie with most opportunities to overact, and she did only take one of them. And she could very well have taken many more. The one she did take, she did so poorly, she really hadn't needed to bother.
Rorschach was awesome. His mask was cool, and the character was cool, and the actor did a great job.
There were lots of cool little details. Like the smiley on Mars (there really is a smiley on Mars BTW: Just take a look).
There were some things that I didn't catch thou, because they were poorly laid out. I thought Rorschach and Laurie were siblings, kinda, until fiancé told me that those were really two different scenes shot at the same angle. There are these two different scenes, with different actors and all, but they are shot at the almost exact same angle, and the two women sorta look alike, and the sets used are almost identical, so of course I get confused. They are not, however the same women, so Rorschach and Laurie are not siblings. (It did seem weird at the moment as well.)
All in all, it was awesome. Well worth the load of money I paid to go see it^^,
I'll see if I can get around to posting some Berlin pictures soon^^,
Word of the day:
ロールシャッハテスト - rōrushahhatesuto - Rorschach test
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Dead like a TVshow
Remember I told you I had started watching Dead like me?
Which I knew had been canceled after the second season, I knew that before I started watching it, but the place where it stops seems so wrong to me.
Bah! I really should not read or watch anything that has gotten canceled. Firefly got canceled (the very last episode of which ended with Mal and Inara fighting! TT_TT), Moonlight got canceled (that too ended on a cliffhanger), The Tribe got canceled (due to not being appropriate for children anymore, but that too ended on a freakin' cliffhanger). Why do they insist on doing that! Please for gods sake let shows end with a proper ending! Please? Pretty please with sugar, and cherries, and whipped cream, and candy, and all that's sweet on top?
Take Firefly for example. It got thirteen episodes. Thirteen. Fox shat that one all by themselves. It's angled at the Buffy crowd, so they decide to show it at 9 P.M. on a Friday. Do they even know their own audience? And then they go of and show the episodes in the wrong freakin' order! They explanation to why things happened the way it did goes almost last. And it's an awesome show.
It's set in the future, 2517 to be exact, with spaceships and stuff, and an evil alliance. There aren't any aliens, we're alone in the vast emptiness of the universe, so we have inhabited whatever planets we can terraform into taking us. And there's reapers, humans that have gone mad and cannibalistic.
In this future there is a spaceship called Serenity, which hold the coolest crew of outlaws ever. There's a companion (prostitute, this show has an entirely refreshing view on prostitution), a preacher (which in this future is kind of shunned, the reason to which we of course never got to hear TT_TT), a doctor and his sweet little bad ass sister, a real bad ass hit man called Jayne. And there's Mal, and there's Kayley, and there's Zöe, and there's Wash, and and and.... And when we get our projector mounted you are all doing a Firefly weekend with me 'cos it's the best, most awesome TV show ever, and if I have to suffer because it was canceled then so do you!!!XD
And yeah, I know there was a movie, but they killed people and it was all wrong, and I want my show back!!! *cries*
Um, I was supposed to talk about Dead like me wasn't I?
It's about reapers. Grim reapers. They don't kill anyone, but they take their souls, so that they can move on. I really isn't a show about death, it's really about life, it's just a bit morbid is all.XD And a bit dark.XD And a whole deal of fun.
It starts of with Georgia Lass (George) who get's killed by a toilet seat that falls from a Soviet space station. (Yeah, I believe they actually call it a "Soviet" space station, but I might remember wrong, it was Russian anyway.)
She ends up filling someones quota, which means that he gets to move on, and she gets to be undead and reap souls.
Her family doesn't do all that well after she is dead, but that story weaves wonderfully into the fabric of the show.
All of the death is really tasteful, and very creative. It's not like CSI, you don't get to see guts and stuff.XP
It's really about life, and moving on. It's sometimes deep, and sometimes it's sad, but most of the time it's just fun. It has a great character arsenal, and the writing is really good. And you should all see this one as wellXD
(And selling point over all selling points: No moral speeches. This show could really do them, and they didn't, and I LOVE them for that XD XD)
Word of the day:
袋小路 - fukurokouji - blind alley, cul-de-sac, impasse, dead-end (street
Which I knew had been canceled after the second season, I knew that before I started watching it, but the place where it stops seems so wrong to me.
Bah! I really should not read or watch anything that has gotten canceled. Firefly got canceled (the very last episode of which ended with Mal and Inara fighting! TT_TT), Moonlight got canceled (that too ended on a cliffhanger), The Tribe got canceled (due to not being appropriate for children anymore, but that too ended on a freakin' cliffhanger). Why do they insist on doing that! Please for gods sake let shows end with a proper ending! Please? Pretty please with sugar, and cherries, and whipped cream, and candy, and all that's sweet on top?
Take Firefly for example. It got thirteen episodes. Thirteen. Fox shat that one all by themselves. It's angled at the Buffy crowd, so they decide to show it at 9 P.M. on a Friday. Do they even know their own audience? And then they go of and show the episodes in the wrong freakin' order! They explanation to why things happened the way it did goes almost last. And it's an awesome show.
It's set in the future, 2517 to be exact, with spaceships and stuff, and an evil alliance. There aren't any aliens, we're alone in the vast emptiness of the universe, so we have inhabited whatever planets we can terraform into taking us. And there's reapers, humans that have gone mad and cannibalistic.
In this future there is a spaceship called Serenity, which hold the coolest crew of outlaws ever. There's a companion (prostitute, this show has an entirely refreshing view on prostitution), a preacher (which in this future is kind of shunned, the reason to which we of course never got to hear TT_TT), a doctor and his sweet little bad ass sister, a real bad ass hit man called Jayne. And there's Mal, and there's Kayley, and there's Zöe, and there's Wash, and and and.... And when we get our projector mounted you are all doing a Firefly weekend with me 'cos it's the best, most awesome TV show ever, and if I have to suffer because it was canceled then so do you!!!XD
And yeah, I know there was a movie, but they killed people and it was all wrong, and I want my show back!!! *cries*
Um, I was supposed to talk about Dead like me wasn't I?
It's about reapers. Grim reapers. They don't kill anyone, but they take their souls, so that they can move on. I really isn't a show about death, it's really about life, it's just a bit morbid is all.XD And a bit dark.XD And a whole deal of fun.
It starts of with Georgia Lass (George) who get's killed by a toilet seat that falls from a Soviet space station. (Yeah, I believe they actually call it a "Soviet" space station, but I might remember wrong, it was Russian anyway.)
She ends up filling someones quota, which means that he gets to move on, and she gets to be undead and reap souls.
Her family doesn't do all that well after she is dead, but that story weaves wonderfully into the fabric of the show.
All of the death is really tasteful, and very creative. It's not like CSI, you don't get to see guts and stuff.XP
It's really about life, and moving on. It's sometimes deep, and sometimes it's sad, but most of the time it's just fun. It has a great character arsenal, and the writing is really good. And you should all see this one as wellXD
(And selling point over all selling points: No moral speeches. This show could really do them, and they didn't, and I LOVE them for that XD XD)
Word of the day:
袋小路 - fukurokouji - blind alley, cul-de-sac, impasse, dead-end (street
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Update
It's almost two weeks since my last post.
In that time I have applied for University, Japanese of course, with literature and sign language as backup choices^^, I will not get my any response until summer thou, but I will tell you all what I get into^^,
I have started a second blog, completely dedicated to one of my two biggest passions: Pokémon (Japanese being the other one of courseXD)
I have, with the help of my wonderful friends, completed stage one of my Pokémon collection: The early years. (Aka: GameBoy Color compatible games^^,) The next one on the list is the GameBoy Advance games, and then DS. Aaaanywho, I love my friends=D By the time this game came out I had become "cool" and thus I missed this one and everything up until the DS was released. Read all about this and Pokémon statistics on the brand new Pokéblogg^^,
I have also been to the movies since my last entry, I saw Bolt, and let me tell you, even when I don't have to watch her less than purdy face Miley Cyrus is a bad actress. She sounded bored most of the time, even when she was supposed to sound heart broken over losing Bolt.
It's basically another pet-searching-for-owner movie. Except these pets are priceless. The cat is so hilarious, and the crazed fan-hamster is just too cool.
One of the things that I loved about this movie, and that I usually love to find in animated flicks, was the unnecessary details. I mean, there is no need for the hamsterball to have tiny scratches, but they were there, and I loved them. And the one pigeon that kept shedding tiny feathers every time he moved. The peripheral details like that sells me over and over. The tiny white hairs sticking into the black lightning bolt on Bolt, the way Mittens fur was matted and ruffled, but turned soft and silky when she was fed and content. I love attention to details like that^^,
In reality the movie was held up mostly by the supporting roles, Mittens and Rhino were the funny sidekicks that kept the movie from becoming dull. Hard as Travolta tried, a character that's written in two dimensions, regardless of how tragic his story, will never be anything other than a two dimensional character.
All in all it was a fun movie, definitely a good way to spend 103 minutes of my life, but not really worth the outrageous price Oslo Kino are charging for movies nowadays. I am not going to see any film anytime soon if they keep charging 95 kr a person on a regular viewing. And just for any American sulking about having to pay 6 dollars if they want to see a movie when it comes out, those 95kr translates to over 13 USD. And that's a reagular viewing, with no extras. If you want to see it during the first week it plays on the big screen you have to pay almost 15 USD. I do not feel for you.
I have also started watching Dead Like me. Which I will talk about later I think. It's late.
Word of the day:
高い - takai - expensive
In that time I have applied for University, Japanese of course, with literature and sign language as backup choices^^, I will not get my any response until summer thou, but I will tell you all what I get into^^,
I have started a second blog, completely dedicated to one of my two biggest passions: Pokémon (Japanese being the other one of courseXD)
I have, with the help of my wonderful friends, completed stage one of my Pokémon collection: The early years. (Aka: GameBoy Color compatible games^^,) The next one on the list is the GameBoy Advance games, and then DS. Aaaanywho, I love my friends=D By the time this game came out I had become "cool" and thus I missed this one and everything up until the DS was released. Read all about this and Pokémon statistics on the brand new Pokéblogg^^,
I have also been to the movies since my last entry, I saw Bolt, and let me tell you, even when I don't have to watch her less than purdy face Miley Cyrus is a bad actress. She sounded bored most of the time, even when she was supposed to sound heart broken over losing Bolt.
It's basically another pet-searching-for-owner movie. Except these pets are priceless. The cat is so hilarious, and the crazed fan-hamster is just too cool.
One of the things that I loved about this movie, and that I usually love to find in animated flicks, was the unnecessary details. I mean, there is no need for the hamsterball to have tiny scratches, but they were there, and I loved them. And the one pigeon that kept shedding tiny feathers every time he moved. The peripheral details like that sells me over and over. The tiny white hairs sticking into the black lightning bolt on Bolt, the way Mittens fur was matted and ruffled, but turned soft and silky when she was fed and content. I love attention to details like that^^,
In reality the movie was held up mostly by the supporting roles, Mittens and Rhino were the funny sidekicks that kept the movie from becoming dull. Hard as Travolta tried, a character that's written in two dimensions, regardless of how tragic his story, will never be anything other than a two dimensional character.
All in all it was a fun movie, definitely a good way to spend 103 minutes of my life, but not really worth the outrageous price Oslo Kino are charging for movies nowadays. I am not going to see any film anytime soon if they keep charging 95 kr a person on a regular viewing. And just for any American sulking about having to pay 6 dollars if they want to see a movie when it comes out, those 95kr translates to over 13 USD. And that's a reagular viewing, with no extras. If you want to see it during the first week it plays on the big screen you have to pay almost 15 USD. I do not feel for you.
I have also started watching Dead Like me. Which I will talk about later I think. It's late.
Word of the day:
高い - takai - expensive
Monday, January 12, 2009
Kurt blir grusom
I went to see "Kurt blir grusom" (Kurt becomes gruesome) yesterday, the second ever Norwegian animation movie. As opposed to "Free Jimmy" this one is a children's movie. It's based on Erlend Loe's books about Kurt, which I now have to read. D, who I saw it with, has read the books and says they're much better, and seeing how fun the movie was I have to read the books.
The style of the animation resembled children's drawings, which suited the movie perfectly, and Kurt had this twirly mustache, which was bent all out of shape whenever he was angry^^,
It's about Kurt who is a forklift driver, and who is very good at his job, but then a doctor who thinks he is the most important being alive moves in next door. And Kurt's family falls in love with his bling, which makes Kurt feel small, so he pretends to be a doctor, and it just adds on from there.
Of course it has a clearly visible morale, being a childrens movie and all, which is that money can't make you happy, as a matter of fact it can make you quite gruesome.
It was a fun movie, funny for me at different times than for the kids of course, like most children's movies.
It had lots of fun, caricatured characters, like the giant breasted primeminister, who cares for nothing but her important profession and the fact that she is "nice and popular". The endlessly annoying doctor, who cares for nothing but his own importance. The blatantly gay, black, french sailor>.< The spiritual kinder garden teacher. And the blackmetal daughter who can't hear anything over her music, and the wannabe posh son who wants his father to be like the doctor.^^,
It wasn't really grown up enough the grown up audience, but it's a movie that a parent can enjoy taking his/her child to. It had grown up humor as well as funny gags for the children^^,
Word of the day:
悽絶 - seizetsu - extremely weird, gruesome, lurid, ghastly
The style of the animation resembled children's drawings, which suited the movie perfectly, and Kurt had this twirly mustache, which was bent all out of shape whenever he was angry^^,
It's about Kurt who is a forklift driver, and who is very good at his job, but then a doctor who thinks he is the most important being alive moves in next door. And Kurt's family falls in love with his bling, which makes Kurt feel small, so he pretends to be a doctor, and it just adds on from there.
Of course it has a clearly visible morale, being a childrens movie and all, which is that money can't make you happy, as a matter of fact it can make you quite gruesome.
It was a fun movie, funny for me at different times than for the kids of course, like most children's movies.
It had lots of fun, caricatured characters, like the giant breasted primeminister, who cares for nothing but her important profession and the fact that she is "nice and popular". The endlessly annoying doctor, who cares for nothing but his own importance. The blatantly gay, black, french sailor>.< The spiritual kinder garden teacher. And the blackmetal daughter who can't hear anything over her music, and the wannabe posh son who wants his father to be like the doctor.^^,
It wasn't really grown up enough the grown up audience, but it's a movie that a parent can enjoy taking his/her child to. It had grown up humor as well as funny gags for the children^^,
Word of the day:
悽絶 - seizetsu - extremely weird, gruesome, lurid, ghastly
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