So Marvel is at it again. Their newest movie Ant-Man came out this month. When I first saw the trailer I thought, no way am I seeing this movie. I’ve already seen so many Marvel movies and this is just one more. I’d never even heard of this Marvel character before and honestly I thought it sounded stupid. How could shrinking to the size of an ant make a good super power? But somehow I got sucked in, a new trailer came out that made the movie look better, then when it came out friend after friend asked if I’d seen it and said it was good. Finally I got tired of other people telling me it was a good movie so I decided to see it for myself. And what do you know, it was good.
Marvel has gotten their movies down to an art. They have the perfect balance of humor and action along with several references to their other movies and characters. They even made a joke about how stupid of a name Ant-Man is anyway. And of course they throw in a couple of extra scenes during the credits. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and the newest collection of characters it adds to the Marvel universe. And I’ll probably see the movie again, maybe not till it comes out on DVD, but I will see it again.
So if you’re in the slumps of summer and looking for a good movie to see in theaters, go see Ant-Man.
So I got to see the new Avengers movie yesterday and it definitely was a summer blockbuster. It had plenty of action, all the returning Avengers, plus several new faces. It was 2 hours and 20 minutes long and I never got bored during the whole thing. The director also did a good job of balancing fast action with slow character development. The movie definitely was a thrill ride. And if you haven’t seen it yet, go ahead and stop reading now, and see if for yourself. Otherwise, beware of spoilers.
One of my favorite parts of any of the Marvel Universe movies is the banter and jokes between characters and this film did not disappoint. Whether it was in the middle of a thrilling action sequence, or while our heroes are taking it easy at Avenger’s tower or their safe house, there is always a cleaver line thrown in. Even our villain has several humorous comments to add, probably because he was developed by Tony Stark and inherited some of his wit. I also loved the bit about Thor’s Hammer and how no one could pick it up, though Captain America did manage to move it. And then in the climax, our new hero Vision is able to pick it up easily, proving that he can be trusted.
The one downside to this movie is that there is literally so much going on that it can be hard to follow the plot or connect with new characters. It could have just been the mood I was in, but I didn’t get as caught up in this story as I have with other Marvel movies. I didn’t cry when Quicksilver died or when the the Avengers saw their worst fears or memories. Maybe I will the second time through, but the first time I was constantly trying to keep up with who was who, and what was going on so that I didn’t get emotionally invested.
But in any case, it was a fun movie to see and I enjoyed it and will probably see it again soon.
This past week I had the opportunity to see several movies, including the musicals: Into the Woods and Annie. I don’t recall seeing Into the Woods before, but I knew the general plot of rewriting the old fairytales. And Annie has been one of my favorite musicals ever since I was a little kid. I’ve seen it multiple times on stage and I’m pretty sure the old movie version was watched at least once by my family. In any case, I usually like movie adaptations of musicals. I like the music, even if it gets stuck in my head and generally the storylines of musicals are just as compelling as other movies. So into the movie theater I went to see these two movie versions of classic plays.
I’ll start with Into the Woods, since I saw it first. Even with the familiarity of the fairytale stories, I enjoyed getting to see the characters fleshed out by new actors and I particularly liked seeing Little Red Riding Hood being a sneaky little girl who took way more sweets than she needed. Since I hadn’t seen this play before, I actually thought the movie was over when everyone was getting their happily ever after. I had the brief thought of “what about that other bean stalk?” but everyone was so happy that I thought it wasn’t a big deal. And then the change came, people cheated, died and the happily ever after became a lie. I liked the realism this change brought to the characters and I especially liked the song about who to blame. It’s easy to get caught up in finding someone to blame for our problems, when the truth is we are just as much to blame as they are. So in the end, even though the story changed, I was pleased with the outcome, and how the characters who were still alive had changed too. And the “Into the Woods” song won’t be leaving my thoughts anytime soon.
Onto Annie, this story I know very well, and I was intrigued by the preview for this movie and how they were updating it for a new generation. A lot of the classic songs were still included and even a tip of the hat to the old version with the opening scene showing a little red headed girl tap dancing who was also named Annie. But then the story shifts and we get to see a world more similar to what we know. And even though new songs were added, characters were changed, and the story departed from the original, I still found myself enchanted by this movie. I especially liked how the lady who boarded the orphan girls had more of a backstory and was more relateable to the audience. I enjoyed her character a lot more than the previous version and was happy that she got to become more of a heroine than a villain in the end. The only complaint I would have is that a few of the songs sounded a little “fake” to me, as if they were recorded by a different actor and then lip-sinked to the one playing the character. But even with that, I still enjoyed the movie.
So if you too enjoy a good musical, I would highly recommend either of these movies.
So I finally got through the holiday busyness and had time to go see a movie. I had been wanting to see the Hobbit for quite some time. Since I saw it so late, I inevitably heard people’s opinions about it, before I could see it for myself. One person basically said, “If you liked the others, you’ll like this one,” but wasn’t too impressed with it. Another friend hated it, but mostly because her favorite characters died, which was true to the book. And someone else commented on the movie’s simple message, “Don’t be greedy.”
So as I watched the movie, these opinions stayed with me. And now it’s my turn to add an opinion. I agree that this film is on the same standing with the other Hobbit films. They were good movies, but I connected more with the Lord of the Rings trilogy than this one. I think the characters in the Lord of the Rings were based more on the books, whereas a lot of the Hobbit characters weren’t even in the Hobbit, like Legolas, Saruman, and Azog. And certain relationships weren’t ever in the book either, like Fili’s romantic interest. I think that Peter Jackson tried to add so many extra storylines to the Hobbit, that the original story and it’s charm got a little lost.
But even with these separations from the book, I still liked seeing the same characters from the first two movies develop and the action of the story come to a satisfying end. I may not have connected with the Hobbit as much as LOTR, but I will say I enjoyed the movie. I liked seeing Bard kill the dragon, which I originally thought would be the climax of the second movie. And I particularly enjoyed seeing when Bilbo went home and his neighbors were buying all of his stuff because they thought he had died. And I really enjoyed how Thorin’s greediness was portrayed as coming from the dragon and even melded Cumberbatch’s voice with Thorin’s to show the connection to Smaug.
And at the end of the Hobbit trilogy, I can say Bilbo is my favorite character; his courage and wit, loyalty, and wisdom make him a lovable character. And can I say his face expressions are priceless! So if you haven’t seen the Hobbit movies yet, I hope you do.
So I’ve gotten to see two movies in the theaters recently and rather than posting two posts, I’m going to talk about them both in one post. Can you guess which one I liked more?
Well I saw Interstellar first, and boy was it a ride. I felt like I was on a space ride at Epcot. This might be because the volume was turned up super loud in the IMAX theater I watched it in; there were even times I had to stop up my ears. So it did feel as if I was a passenger along for the ride. I enjoyed the exploration of space and how the laws of physics were used fairly accurately in this movie; such as time being relative. I loved Astronomy in college, and I enjoyed this movie’s use of real physics. It was a very unique space movie, and I generally liked the characters and storyline. I also liked the commentary on where our world is headed with all of it’s overproduction and extra stuff. I think the fictionalized future made sense; how the world would come back to a more basic kind of living. And I really liked how history was handled in the film, with the use of interviews throughout the movie, and the government changing the history books to say they’d never gone to space. It reminded me of how history even today can be tweaked depending on our current culture.
So there were a lot of intriguing parts of this movie, and I appreciate the uniqueness. However, I have to say I enjoyed watching the Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 more.
For some reason, it was hard to really empathize with the characters in Interstellar, so I didn’t care very much about what happened. And when I left the movie theater, I just felt numb. But I really did enjoy the new Hunger Games movie. I’ve enjoyed all of the Hunger Games movies, and this new one was no exception. It stuck close enough to the book that I didn’t notice any missing details. And I thought they did an excellent job of creating a compelling story arch out of only half of the final book. It starts with Katniss wanting Peeta back, and wishing they had rescued him instead of her, and it ends with Peeta finally rescued from the capitol, but so messed up psychologically, that he’s still separated from Katniss. So she got what she wanted, but is still disappointed. Which sets up the story nicely to continue in the last film.
I also really liked the comic relief of how Katniss can’t act to save her life, and only is compelling onscreen when she’s just being herself. I also enjoyed seeing how the side characters, like Finnick, Effie, Prim, and Haymitch are continuing to develop. And man, I cannot get the Hanging Tree song out of my head. I loved how it was used as a rebel anthem. So, all in all, Mockingjay did not disappoint and I’m looking forward to the last film installment next year.
I really really really wanted to see this movie and I got to go see it this past weekend. I usually love the animated Disney movies and this one was no exception. It had great characters, a well developed plot line, jokes and touching moments. Everything you would want in a good Disney movie. If you want to stop reading here and just go see it, that’s fine. Maybe you can read the rest once you’ve seen it, if you don’t want any spoilers.
But now on to my thoughts about some of the deeper messages in this film. One thing that stood out to me was the importance of friendships. It can be easy, especially in America to take the individualist approach and say I can handle it on my own, I don’t need help. The protagonist of the movie, Hiro, felt this way. But as the plot progresses, we see the importance of strong relationships. Not only are friends and family important in working through life’s difficulties, like grief, but they also help us stay on track and keep us from making mistakes that we’ll regret later.
In the plot of the movie, I really liked how close Hiro comes to playing a villain role, I think it shows that every person is capable of being a hero or a villain. Indeed Hiro and and the villain share similar goals; taking revenge on the person who was responsible for the death of someone they loved. But because Hiro has friends to tell him what’s right, even if he doesn’t want to hear it, he eventually becomes aware that revenge will not heal his hurt and he must let that desire go. He even tries to help the villain in this story see what he learned and stop the destruction, but it is too late for the villain and he continues down the path he has chosen.
These lessons of friendship and the ability in each person to be a hero or villain remind me of truth in my own life. As a Christian I know that I am a sinner, and that I am capable of horrible things and am no better than any other person, even a murderer. Just like Hiro, I have the capability of being a villain. But because Jesus has saved me, I can choose to follow Him, to do what is right and good, and be heroic. But I cannot do it alone, I need Jesus’s help and the help of a church family. It makes me sad to think that a lot of Christians think they can watch a sermon online or listen to some worship music and that’s all they need, when it really isn’t. Just like Hiro needed his brother, Baymax, and his friends from school to keep pointing him back to what was true and right, I need people in the church to remind me to follow Christ, to not give up, and encourage me when I’ve had a bad day.
So, that’s what stood out to me from this movie. I hope you’ll go see it, if you haven’t yet. I’d like to see it again, that’s for sure.
Have you ever had a bad day? I know I sure have. Most people do. There are some days where everything seems to go wrong.
Well, the other night I went to go see Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Although the title seems a little over the top, this movie was actually quite good. It struck at something that most people go through in life, at least eventually: a bad day. A day when everything that could go wrong does, and you just have to deal with it. I enjoyed the fact that a lot of the things that went wrong in the plot of this movie were ordinary things, but when piled on top of each other, they turn into something that’s really hard to deal with. (Just like in my own life). I know I’ve had my days where it seemed like I was being overwhelmed with all the little things going wrong.
But this movie included a positive message, and I didn’t find it cliche. The message was not “be positive and you’ll automatically get what you want, or everything will work out,” but more like, “stick together through the tough stuff.” Bad days are hard, and your attitude may be able to help, but one of the biggest things that helps is going through it with someone else.
Oddly enough, this is also what stuck with me from my church’s sermon on Sunday. Our pastor mentioned the fact that we should have joy in suffering with Jesus, or in joining in His sufferings. I never really understood that before. How is both of us suffering a good thing? Why should I want that? Hasn’t Jesus suffered enough for the both of us? I always took it to mean that Jesus was with me when I was suffering. But then my pastor said, when you suffer together you’re relationship deepens. And it just clicked. Like of course! You have friends that will have fun with you, and stick with you on your good days. But the people who stick with you in the hard stuff, that’s who you’re really close to. And that’s how close I want to be with Jesus.
Just like in the movie, the family drew closer together through all the hard stuff. This realization brought to mind another show I had recently rewatched: Band of Brothers. This TV show follows the story of a group of men who served together in WWII and details all that they went through together. Even though it was horrible stuff, it made their relationships supper deep, to where they really felt like brothers; like family.
So, maybe this week, you’ve had a bad day, or several bad days, but maybe if you step back and look at the relationships you have, and remember what you have to be thankful for, those bad days, as Alexander said, “can help you appreciate the good ones.”
So I got on Netflix today and found that The Nut Job was available to download. When I saw commercials for this movie I thought it looked like a generic kids movie, and one on the lower end of the spectrum. So I never went to see it in theaters and didn’t have much interest. However, when I saw it on Netflix, I thought eh whatever, might as well watch it.
If you haven’t been reading my blog, here’s a tidbit, I love kids movies. For some reason it’s the genre I like the most. So, here I am watching this movie, expecting some silly storyline and undefined characters and a lot of cheap jokes. But as I kept watching, I was pleasantly surprised.
I actually enjoyed the storyline. The movie seemed to be based in the not too distant past, when bank robbers pulled big heists. The plot weaves around two separate heists, one a group of animals is trying to pull off, in order to survive winter, and the other, a group of thugs who are robbing a bank. There’s some interesting correlations between the two groups, so the audience can see their similarities but also their differences. And there’s enough twists and turns in the storyline to make it interesting.
The characters are fairly well developed as well, especially our hero who goes from a selfish independent scrounger, to a reluctant hero. And the villain is also well hidden so that their real motives are a surprise to the audience.
Even the humor was okay, it’s not a roll on the floor laughing kind of movie, but the jokes aren’t too dumb.
So if you enjoy a good family/kids movie like me, check out The Nut Job on Netflix.
I know I haven’t posted in awhile, and I finally have a bit of free time, so I decided to dedicate a post to something I care a lot about, but haven’t ever written about on this blog. By looking at the title, I’m sure you have a pretty good guess as to what I’m writing about.
Well here it goes, I love Civil War History. It all started with my older brother and my dad. They both love exploring old battle sites, quizzing each other on odd facts, and just reading about times long gone. They love most of American History, but what got me hooked was the Civil War.
You see this PBS special came on when I was little, you’ve probably heard of it, the Ken Burns one. Well some of it really caught my attention, and the music was very memorable to me. It wasn’t something I got excited about watching, but once I started, I found it was hard to stop.
Well, when I got a bit older, I was introduced to Gettysburg, the three-hour-long spectacle made in the 90s. At first I didn’t see the appeal, but as my brother and father watched and rewatched the movie, I started to get it. The characters were hilarious, all their banter and wit drew my affection and I found myself cheering for my favorites as they went into battle.
Then the final straw happened; my family went on vacation and while we were exploring, we came across the battle site of Gettysburg. Before we left the on site gift shop, I purchased a book that would change my reading life forever: Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels. It was the book that spurred the Gettysburg movie. I was thrilled to find all my favorite characters from the movie, along with new dialogue and inner thoughts that the movie had no time to include.
And once I finished that book, I found that Jeff Shaara had continued the legacy by writing a prequel and sequel to the Killer Angels. From that time on I couldn’t stop reading about generals and foot soldiers. Every book Jeff Shaara wrote, was soon in my hands. And I was thrilled when in the past couple of years he decided to return to the Civil War age and write another series about the major battles in the West.
So if there’s anyone out there who needs a good book to read, I would happily suggest any Shaara book. I myself will be starting his newest book “The Smoke at Dawn” shortly.
So I want to start off this post apologizing for being absent for the past few weeks. I was caught up in Jury Duty, and then couldn’t make it to a theater until today. But now I finally got to see How to Train your Dragon 2! So get ready for a critique.
Here’s a preview for anyone who’s interested.
The first How to Train your Dragon was an awesome movie. In fact I might even call it my favorite movie. There was a realness to the story and characters, and the imagery and music were beautiful. I can still stick it in the DVD player and watch it at the drop of a hat. (unlike a lot of movies I like but can only watch a couple of times).
Keeping all this in mind, you can see why I was super excited to see the sequel. Believe me it was hard to wait till today to see it, I’ve been hounding my sister, trying to get her to go with me for the past week.
But all that said, now I have to say what I really thought of it. It was not disappointing, I’m so glad the movie market has figured out a way to make decent sequels. This one dealt with a lot of varying themes, but the one that sticks out to me is Identity. This may be because I have identity on my mind, from my church’s sermons. But in any case, it is one of the prominent themes of the movie and I love how they dealt with it.
For everyone who’s seen the first movie, we have a basis for who everyone is, what their personality, relationships, and character look like. But the movie opens with Hiccup still struggling with who he is. His dad, and most of the village have the expectation that he will be chief. But he doesn’t feel adequate to that position. He is very different from his father, the current chief, and he knows nothing of who his mother was, so he feels at a loss.
The story continues with twists and turns, eventually leading Hiccup to find his long lost mother, and begin to grab hold of a new identity, one that fully embraces his dragon training abilities. But it’s not that simple, and after loss and heartache Hiccup must come to terms with the fact that he is going to have to be both a chief and a dragon rider. Not one or the other. While trying on his new identity as chief, he also has to hold onto the Hiccup we know and love. The one who is best friends with Toothless, and would do anything to save him.
The movie wraps up with a satisfactory climax and Hiccup is now firmly established as both the chief of his village and the same old dragon rider. His mother sums it up well, telling Hiccup, “You have the heart of a chief, and the soul of a dragon.” Hiccup has become a chief who protects his own and is willing to fight to keep peace in the world.
All in all, it was a great movie, and a worthy successor to the first Dragon movie!
Well hopefully I didn’t give away any critical plot points so if you haven’t seen it, you can still enjoy the movie.
NovelSisters 