Some Random, but Randomly Awesome Links...

So, first up...I know I'm late to the party, but have you SEEN the trailer for IF I STAY??



Doesn't it look AMAZING? *sighs* I cannot wait to see this one.

Second, I LOVE this link to a blog post that author, Lynne Kelly, did on real author wardrobes... SO FUNNY. Didn't you realize that the snuggie is an author's ultimate comfort tool during writing? LOL.



I really love this blog post that author, Chuck Wendig (author of FIGHT CLUB) did giving some, shall we say upfront and practical, advice to new, aspiring writers. Such as, WRITE OFTEN AND WRITE ENOUGH AND YOUR VOICE WILL FIND YOU and FINISH YOUR SHIT.


Teen Eagle Huntress.  In Mongolia.  Need I say more?  This girl rocks.













So, did you guys come across anything randomly awesome this week?

Movie Review: Divergent

Divergent 
2014
Summit
Rated: PG-13
139 minutes

Set in a futuristic dystopia where society is divided into five factions that each represent a different virtue, teenagers have to decide if they want to stay in their faction or switch to another - for the rest of their lives. Tris Prior makes a choice that surprises everyone. Then Tris and her fellow faction-members have to live through a highly competitive initiation process to live out the choice they have made. They must undergo extreme physical and intense psychological tests, that transform them all. But Tris has a secret that she is Divergent, which means she doesn't fit into any one group. If anyone knew, it would mean a certain death. As she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, this secret might help her save the people she loves... or it might destroy her. (description from IMDB.com)

**Warning! There will be spoilers ahead...**

Friday, I was lucky enough to have the day off and so two friends and I (both also YA junkies, LOL) went to see Divergent during the afternoon. I was stoked to miss the craziness of a weekend night movie. I'm such an "old lady" now and I get really cranky in large crowds at a theater - I paid to hear that whole movie, D@mmit, so stop talking through the whole thing!

ANYWAY, I was thoroughly impressed with the way that this movie turned out.  I was not a huge fan of Shailene Woodley's character on The Secret Life of the American Teenager so it took me some time to

change my opinion of her acting skills, but man, did that girl NAIL it as Tris.  She hit all the high and low notes of the character, delivering a tough, yet physically vulnerable, self-sacrificing and sometimes stupidly brave girl.  I loved her as Tris.

Watching her transform from the Abnegation girl that struggled to meet society's expectations of her to the brave Dauntless that defied everyone's idea of who she should be was inspiring.  I also know that Shailene trained like crazy for a lot of the stunts (she insisted on doing many of her own!) and her strength and ability to be fearless as an actress really impressed me.  I took one look at some of the things she did (like climbing that ferris wheel) and found myself having heart palpitations right in the theater!

Reliving those moments that I only had a vague memory of reading and finding so exciting years ago when  first came to my Library was awesome on the big screen.  I loved the way that they tackled the
Divergent testing scenarios and I thought that the way both Tori and Four acted when seeing Tris' ability to manipulate her visions was really well done.  The fears, both real and imagined, of everyone involved were vivid and apparent on screen, and as Tris came to realize what the testing serums were being developed for...well, let's just say that connecting the dots was easy to do through her.

Speaking of the Erudites and their plan, I thought that Kate Winslet's portrayal of Jeanine Matthews was spot on.  In fact, most of the casting choices were AMAZING.  The actor who played Eric gave me the utter heebie-jeebies, as he should! I loved Ashley Judd as Tris' mom and found myself near to tears in many of their interactions.  When it comes to casting, though, I think the gold star goes to the choice to have Theo
James play Four. *sigh*  Again, I hadn't been sure...he wasn't quite what I'd pictured and yet... man, again, he just NAILS it as Four.  Stubborn, stoic, and well, muscle-y.  *grins*

The only thing that could have improved the movie a little in my opinion would have been more kissing!! LOL. Those two had great chemistry.

All in all, a fabulous film that I can't wait to own on DVD!

The Maze Runner - Movie Trailer

Guess what trailer officially debuted yesterday?



That's right! The Maze Runner...and it looks good... what do you think?

Movie Review: Ender's Game

Ender's Game 
2013
Summit
Rated: PG-13
114 minutes

The International Military seek out a leader who can save the human race from an alien attack. Ender Wiggin, a brilliant young mind, is recruited and trained to lead his fellow soldiers into a battle that will determine the future of Earth. (description from IMDB.com)

So, I may have mentioned once, or twice, or hmmm...numerous times that Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is one of my top five favorite novels of all-time. As such, I have to admit that I was *extremely* nervous when they first announced they were going to attempt a movie adaptation.  As casting was announced and stills were released, though, and then finally the trailer came out, my anticipation grew until I could NOT WAIT for November 1st.  

I am not a midnight release movie-goer, and yet, I seriously considered it for this movie. Happily, I had Friday off from work, so I did end up seeing it on it's first day in the theater!  

I am pleased to report that I really, truly enjoyed the movie.  Now, it was not as good as the book, but I'd expected that, so the movie lived up perfectly to the expectations I had for it.  First off, the casting choices were STELLAR.  Asa Butterfield gave an amazing performance as Ender, as did Harrison Ford playing Colonel Graff. I could not have asked for a better actor for either role. Without those two performances having the nuances and depths that Butterfield and Ford brought to them, the whole movie could have tanked.  Then add in the excellent supporting cast and the movie becomes a blockbuster just from that respect! 

While Sir Ben Kingsley, Nonso Anozie, and Viola Davis played their parts as the other mentors and role models in Ender's life very, very well, this movie is truly about the children who train to become the military heroes of tomorrow.  Again, any of these casting choices failing could have been a crucial mistake and thankfully, these people knew what they were doing.  Hailee Steinfeld was *excellent* as Petra Arkanian. I can see why she'd previously been nominated for an Oscar! 

Petra, Bean (played by Aramis Knight) and Alai (played by Suraj Partha) all hit just the right notes, first as competitors that distrust Ender, then as staunch supporters that will follow Ender all the way to the end.  Watching these actors interact was a pleasure.  Even the choice of Moises Arias as Bonzo Madrid was spot-on.  And though we didn't see a lot of her, Abigail Breslin did a great job as Ender's compassionate sister, Valentine. 

In fact, that was one of the things that left me just a hair disappointed as I came out of the theater. Though I know how difficult it can be to pick and choose which aspects of a story are tackled in a movie adaptation, the complete absence of any reference to Peter and Valentine's subplot as influences on Earth's political government, leading to Peter Wiggin becoming the Hegemon (ultimate head of politics on Earth) I felt was glaring.  Without this being mentioned at all in this movie, I don't understand how a sequel, if one is ever made, would be tackled as each story following this first one touches on Earth's politics fairly heavily...  

I also understand that the timeline had to be tightened up and as such, the focus on the battle school virtual battles became a visually stunning and continuous plot for this movie, but I worry that viewers who have not read the book will not understand the emotional devastation that Ender faces as he becomes more and more isolated and feels more and more empathetic to the race that Earth is trying to destroy.  In fact, the movie is restructured in such a way that Ender's isolation is hardly apparent and the empathy that Ender feels for the "buggers" is not apparent until after the culminating events of the movie. 

However as a purely visual medium for a shortened/less layered version of the classic story, this movie was pretty epic.  The battle room scenes were everything I hoped for, the blend of technologies and Earth and space vistas were breathtaking and I left eager for more. 

My friends know that I'm pretty cheap frugal when it comes to seeing movies in the theater...and I liked this one enough that I'm considering going again... let that sink in, people. I may PAY to see this movie a second time.  That's the highest endorsement I can give it. 

Movie Trailer - Ender's Game

Oh.My.God.  It's here, it's finally here! It's the full length movie trailer for ENDER'S GAME and it looks EPIC!!! I cannot, cannot, cannot wait to see this movie.


Anyone else as stoked as I am??

Monday's Movie and TV Talk! (9)

Welcome to Monday's Movie and TV Talk! I don't know if I'll do this every Monday, or just sporadically on Mondays, but I LOVE TV and movies, so I figured why not add some of that to the blog for fun?? It'll be especially awesome when I can tie things into the YA book world... 

This past week, I went to see The Host with my friend, Danielle. I was both STOKED and sort of nervous.  You have to understand that The Host by Stephenie Meyer is one of my *top five favorite books of all time*... That's a lot for a movie to live up to...and we all know how movie adaptations seem to go, LOL. 

Movie Description: 

A parasitic alien soul is injected into the body of Melanie Stryder. Instead of carrying out her race’s mission of taking over the Earth, ‘Wanda’ (as she comes to be called) forms a bond with her host and sets out to aid other free humans.

So, here's what I thought.  

Overall I pretty much loved the movie.  I thought they did a great job adapting it to the screen...but I know that part of my reaction came from having read the book first.  I read some reviews that thought the movie didn't have enough action and was too focused on the emotional relationships between characters (with too much kissing...LOL), but those people have obviously never read the book.  The book itself delves pretty deeply into the relationships between the characters precisely because the author was trying to define what makes us human, and what love truly looks like.  

Visually, the movie was stunning.  The alien creatures were fascinatingly both beautiful and well, alien.  Their appearance once they took over the human hosts was well defined through calm demeanor, slower movements, and sort of a 1950's vibe in clothing and interpersonal interactions...I loved, too, how the Seekers were only ever in white and drove around in pure silver vehicles. It induced an almost clinically cold feeling when you were watching their scenes. 

I thought Saorise Ronin did a fantastic job as Melanie/Wanderer.She was almost like two different people when she was acting the memories of Melanie's life and then when she was actively inhabited by Wanda. They did a great job with her voiceovers (everytime Melanie spoke inside Wanda's head). There was no awkwardness like the actress couldn't quite match up the timing. It really was as if she had two personalities interacting throughout the movie.  

While at first I had been unsure of the casting for Ian (Jake Abel - who I tend to think of as an actor who plays not-so-good guys...) I found myself completely sucked in by his character...again. Ian is the first ever adult book crush that I had. *Spoiler Alert* In fact, one of the biggest problems I had with the movie was that they altered the scene that absolutely melted my heart where Ian holds Wanda in her true form and still finds her beautiful... I missed that moment! 

*Spoiler Alert!*

The only other problem I really had was the transition from Wanda being in Melanie's body to the new girl at the end. While I was reading the book because I was so emotionally invested it did not feel quite as jarring or perfectly poised to solve all of the characters' problems... but when you see it in the movie, it almost feels like a cop-out.  Oh, you are choosing to sacrifice yourself and leave so Melanie and her family can be happy? Oh, Look! We found a new body for you... you have to take it or she'll die... and look, now you and Ian can live happily ever after...  It just was too...pat...an ending.  (And Emily Browning, while I love you in everything else you've done, I wasn't quite feeling you in this role...sorry!) 

However, aside from those small issues, I found myself totally sucked into a fabulous story again and I will absolutely be buying this on DVD when it comes out. :)

Has anyone else seen it? What did you think?

Movie Trailer - Catching Fire

I know you've probably already seen this, but just in case you haven't...here is the first official trailer for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, coming out this November!



I know I'll be seeing it in the theater...will you?

The First Official ENDER'S GAME Movie Poster!!

I AM STOKED!!
November 1st, I will be there!

Monday's Movie and TV Talk! (7)

Welcome to Monday's Movie and TV Talk! I don't know if I'll do this every Monday, or just sporadically on Mondays, but I LOVE TV and movies, so I figured why not add some of that to the blog for fun?? It'll be especially awesome when I can tie things into the YA book world...

Okay, so remember when I reviewed Beautiful Creatures (read it here) and told ya'll that the main reason I read it was because I was SO excited for the movie? Well, guess what I saw last week on President's Day??!

First off, I have to mention how much I LOVE going to the movies at odd times. I went on Monday morning to the early show (10 a.m.) and I was one of three people in the whole theater! It really makes the experience so much more fun if I can actually hear the whole movie without the crowd noise. (And, yes, I do know that this makes me *that* weird girl that goes to the movies alone...I don't care! LOL.)

 

I also want to mention that I was right *brushes shoulders off proudly* when I said in my review that this book translates really well to the big screen.  This movie was good.  I really liked it and will probably see it again...even though they did change some BIG things!

 

All right, without trying to ruin this for anyone, I will try to disclose how I felt about the changes without giving too much away.  Let's see if I can do it!

 

One: A huge revelation about a character's secret identity is revealed about one third of the way into the movie...allowing viewers to build the story upon that reveal...BUT I loved how in the book, I was pretty sure that was going on, but did not find out for sure until the LAST third of the book.  I thought it was much more dramatic in the book, though the revelation scene in the movie was well done, too!

 

Two: Although the movie still features one of the coolest libraries I've ever seen in fiction, I was saddened that they combined two characters in the movie, cutting out the awesome librarian from the book series. I suppose this was to make it easier for viewers to keep track of characters, but it also inadvertantly changed Ethan's mother's backstory in a way I wasn't too fond of... *and* the library itself is a little downplayed in the movie. *My librarian heart is breaking.*

 

Three: When Lena must finally face what is going to happen on her sixteenth birthday, she decides to handle the situation all on her own.  A HUGE change from the book.  This change sets in motion a bunch of littler changes, including the entire moral character of one of her cousins, and allowed for a very different ending to seem to happen. Thankfully, in truly movie magic fashion, and a very dramatic way, the moviemakers pulled through at the last moment and things work out again...though it will make for an interesting start to the second movie...

 

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and think that people who have not read the book will love it.  I think readers will probably bemoan the same things that I did, but also realize that this made for a great *movie* experience.  And now, I have to read book two!

Monday's Movie and TV Talk! (2)

  

Welcome to Monday's Movie and TV Talk! I don't know if I'll do this every Monday, or just sporadically on Mondays, but I LOVE TV and movies, so I figured why not add some of that to the blog for fun?? It'll be especially awesome when I can tie things into the YA book world...

 

So I LOVE the TV show, Game of Thrones.  LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. It is epic in every sense. Beautifully filmed, great casting choices, surprising storylines (based on the books which I am slowly working my way through)...

Sooooooo...I am beyond excited to be able to share the teaser trailer for season 3 of Game of Thrones which will start up again in March!!




I also wanted to mention that I saw the movie Breaking Dawn, Part Two over the holiday weekend.  (I was super stoked, too, when I realized the tickets were only $5!! SWEET!)

 

Happily I went to the movies with another person who loves to lean over and make little comments like I do, so it wasn't a problem when I kept leaning over and saying things like,

Oh my God, fakest looking baby ever!

They're Amazons and vampires, they don't feel the cold...

OMG, so awkward to film that when you're dating in real life, too!

 

LOL.  Don't get me wrong.  There is just something about the train wreck that is each Twilight movie that I absolutely love...but no one will ever argue that they're really GOOD. These are not meant to be award winning movies...they're campy fun vampire romances, come on...

 

I am very glad at this point that I am done with the Twilight franchise.  It's been eons since the first book came out and honestly I am ready to be done with the whole thing...  but I'm not quite done with Stephenie Meyer.

 

I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THE HOST. LOVE!!

Movie Trailer - The Perks of Being a Wallflower

They just released the movie trailer for "The Perks of Being a Wallflower." I think it looks pretty good! What do you think??



Can I mention, too, how excited I am to see Emma Watson on the big screen again?  LOL.

Movie Trailer: The Great Gatsby

Have you ever read The Great Gatsby? It's a classic...and they're making it into what looks like a great movie version...



I love the casting and the feel of the movie. I think it's going to be epic!

Movie Review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

*Based on the book, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

After years of waiting for this book to be adapted into a movie, I finally got a chance to SEE the world of Panem in all it's dichotomic glory. There were so many things that I loved about this movie...and I only had one very minor complaint. 

I am going to try to make this review as spoiler-free as possible for people who haven't yet seen the movie, but if you haven't read the book yet, you may just want to skip the entire review as I'm sure I'll end up ruining something for you...LOL.

Anyway, these are the things that I liked:

1. The casting - I thought that the entire cast was phenominally chosen.  At first I had been skeptical about a few characters (Lenny Kravitz??), but the choices all turned out to be brilliant on screen.  Jennifer Lawrence was wonderful as Katniss, managing to evoke all the right emotions, especially as with the movie, you don't really get to see inside her head like you do in the book.  Both Peeta and Gale were well chosen and worked really well off of Katniss.  The adults surrounding her?  Epic.  The way that Effie and Haymitch dealt with the kids and played off of each other was great.  The use of Cesar as both comic relief and as an expository character (giving depth to the world and treating the viewer as a "viewer" of the games) was exceedingly well done. (He might even have been my favorite movie character, perchance...) ...And for all my earlier hesitance...I really loved Lenny Kravitz as Cinna.  It turned out to be a great choice.

2. The world building - I actually thought that the movie enabled Collins to expand the viewer's perspective of the world A LOT.  In the book, you are trapped inside Katniss' head, and it is fantastic and compelling and emotional as hell, but in the movie, you are able to FEEL what has been building in Panem for a long time.  You are able to see what the President is doing to control his power over the people. You are able to get the mood of the country, its priviledged, its downtrodden.  You see how the other Hunger Games tributes feel... There is just so much more explored here.

3. The use of camera work to deflect the violence - Okay. There was no way that I was NOT going to see this movie.  It is one of my favorite books of all time and it has looked epic from the moment they started promoting it.  That does not mean that I wasn't mentally steeling myself to make it through the violence of the Games.  I was so pleasantly surprised with how they filmed this.  Yes, there are kids fighting to the death. Yes, you know exactly what happens.  Yes, you see a lot of it...BUT you don't SEE it.  They filmed this with two different techniques that contribute to a lot of the violence being down played...actually three methods.  One, a shaky cam, so that you see what happens, but it's so quick moving or blurry that you don't really know what you've seen until after it's off screen again.  Two, almost like an old Alfred Hitchcock movie, they clip in and out of the violence. You see a sword flash during a wind up, then you cut to a falling body...without seeing the gory slash in between.  Lastly, they utilized the cannon firing and visual display of fallen tributes to alert Katniss that someone had died without the viewer having to see the death at all. I was really pleased over all with how well this turned out.  I knew what happened, I got the emotional devestation of it, but I didn't have to look away from the screen at all... KUDOS.

My only complaint with this film, and it is a minor one, is that I thought it lacked some of the character building that the book had... because we are seeing the whole picture and we weren't inside of Katniss' head, you missed out on feeling her confliction as she deals with her emotions inside the arena and her knowledge that they will have an impact if she makes it out.  You miss seeing some of the cold calculation she must go through to figure out how to survive... Though I loved the movie and felt it was almost perfect, I thought that possibly, they could have added one or two lines somehow here or there that would have explained Katniss' thoughts without bringing in voice-over narration...

Overall, I thought this movie was AMAZING. I plan to go see it again this weekend...and if you know me, you'll know that means it was epic. I hate paying to go to the movies in general...I wait a lot until things come out on DVD, and I cannot remember the last time that I saw a movie in the theater twice. It may have been Harry Potter 4? I'm not sure.  LOL.

What did you all think?? 

Hunger Games sneak peek!

Okay, so for those of you that don't know, I live in eastern CT. We got hit yesterday by "Hurricane Irene" and I thought it was going fairly well - we weren't too badly battered, luckily - until our power went out yesterday afternoon. :(

So, what's my first thought? Not, oh no, will our food go bad, will we have alarm clocks to get up in the morning, can we flush the toilets? No. My first thought was "Oh my god, I hope they get it on in time so that I can DVR the VMA's and see the first trailer from THE HUNGER GAMES movie!!"

...which they did not. We still have no power. SO. I wasn't able to see this until I finally came into work this morning, even though I could see all kinds of tweets, Facebook posts, etc. on my phone...but not the actual trailer!

I am pleased to be able to say I finally saw it! I loved it! I can't wait for this movie to come out.
In case you haven't seen it yet, here you go:

Get More: 2011 VMA, Music

*A quick update - we got power back! Lucky us!! A lot of the state is still out. :(

Gale and Peeta!

The first official look at Gale and Peeta from The Hunger Games movie. A little hairdye does wonders, no? So, what does everyone think?? Though they look a little older than they should be, I think they look remarkably like what I'd pictured for each character...

If you Like...Summer

"If You Like…” is a feature highlighting blogger recommendations for books, authors, TV shows, movies, and music based on the things you already know and love.

Summer is my favorite time of the year. I love the heat. I love the summer clothes. I love how everyone seems happier somehow. This week's If You Like is full of titles celebrating summer...check it out!

First Look at Katniss!

I know that this image broke a few days ago, but I haven't had time to blog and I just wanted to share it again for those who may not have seen it, because I think they did a great job making Jennifer Lawrence into Katniss! I, along with everyone else, took one look at her blond hair, etc, and went..."ummm..." but this is the magic of movies! A little makeup, a lot of training, and whammo...instant new persona. I love it.

Now, finally, I'm really getting excited for the movie, because this is the first time it's really feeling, well...real, for me!

What do you guys think?

Katniss has officially been cast!

Jennifer Lawrence has officially been cast as Katniss Everdeen in the upcoming movie version of "The Hunger Games."

Here's a link if you want to check it out.

Ramona and Beezus

Ramona and Beezus
Movie Review

I saw this several weeks ago and I just have to pass on how cute it was! I honestly cannot remember reading the Ramona Quimby books, so I have no idea how different the movie is from the books.

I thought it was very well done. I loved the casting. I haven't seen the girl who played Ramona before, but I loved Selena Gomez' performance as Beezus, John Corbett as their father, and Gennifer Goodwin as the kooky aunt. They were all perfect.

I also really loved how the movie makers blended the fantasy elements into the real Quimby daily lives. What they can do with movies now...it blows my mind. The way that they could play out what Ramona daydreamed...awesome!

For a feel good movie that will make you tear up a little, but then end with happy smiles, definitely check out Ramona and Beezus!! :)

Avalon High - the Movie

Avalon High: the movie
based on the book, Avalon High by Meg Cabot



The newest Disney TV movie is based on the book, Avalon High.

Ellie, new to Avalon High, suddenly catches the eye of Avalon High's football star, Will. While their friendship develops into potentially something more, Ellie discovers that Will may just be the reincarnation of King Arthur. As stated in a prophecy, Ellie, her new best friend Miles, and her parents must protect Will so he can fulfill his destiny.

This movie was really cute and the cast was great. Ellie was phenomenal and I loved the fact that she was strong...a strong runner, a strong academic, and a strong woman. She was awesome. Jen (played by the cute girl from Castle) and Lance were both good, and Will was really well acted, though he was almost too pretty for me. My favorite character, though, was Miles. He was just the right amount of comic relief for the story... :)

I really enjoyed the movie and might even get it for myself when it comes out on DVD eventually. It's been awhile since I read the book, though, and I've read some internet buzz that confirmed for me that the ending was changed. Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie, a lot, but now I have to go back and reread the book!!

What did you all think of the movie? Love the book more?