Weekly Recap #2

This post is linked to Stacking the Shelves (hosted by Tynga Reviews)  and The Sunday Post (hosted by Kimba @Caffeinated Book Reviewer).

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Read

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

This was good.

I'm not really a fan of those first person narration where it's basically their stream consciousness because it can sometimes be hard to read. For example, they tend to lack punctuations, none quotations for dialogue, excessive capitalization and sentences that run a paragraph long. This is guilty of all those, but somehow it works. Maybe because it really seem like the inner thoughts of a teenager instead of an impersonation of one. Plus I like Daisy. Ok yes, she is a little self absorbed in the beginning but there's an honesty to the way she tells her story. Daisy didn't even care much about the war when it broke out because the war had seemed so far away from her, something that they only heard on the news and it didn't really touch them for weeks. Until of course the war finally arrived at their doorstep and Daisy does really buck up and does what needed to be done to survive. Despite the second half being a survival story, How I Live now is really just a coming of age tale which just happened to have a war as a back drop and I really like that. The ending was a little disappointing not that it was terrible just not what I expected and a little drawn out I thought.

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Watched

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

I was never really interested in the Planet of the Apes story, but thought I should get around to seeing this since the sequel is out. Plus I keep reading/hearing that this prequel is surprisingly good.

I think it really sucks to be an intelligent animal. Not even to be super smart like Caesar, just enough to realise that you live in captivity, must be depressing...even if that means you are well fed and free from being prey. A gilded cage is still a cage. Even worse for a highly intelligent one like Caesar. One of the saddest moments in the movie was when Caesar realizes he really lives in a cage and had to be on a leash when taken outside. Is he a pet...he asks Will...which breaks my heart. Then of course things start to get a little worse for Caesar.

With a title like Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I had expected some sort of an action movie. Apes warring against their cruel masters. Which wasn't really the case. There was action but only at the very end. The movie actually took it's time to tell Caesar's story from birth and really show us his character and even gave some time to showing some of the personalities of the other apes ( who I'm guessing will have bigger roles in the second movie) at the shelter Caesar eventually come to live. Caesar's dissatisfaction with his situation was built up slowly which I appreciated. It wasn't simply in a fit of rage or a thirst for revenge that led Caesar to lead the uprising (which would have been so out of character for Caesar). As for the action scenes of the uprising, when it finally came, was great. Definitely something worth waiting for.

So glad I finally saw this. Can't wait to see what happens in Dawn.


Vampire Academy

I keep referring to this movie as Vampire Diaries. It's not by the way. Do not confuse the two because Vampire Academy is so soo bad and Vampire Diaries is so soo good. Because I'm lazy and I shouldn't take any more of my time on something really bad so I'm mostly going to paste the comment I made on Wendell's blog.

In Vampire Academy, Dhamphir Rose is trying to protect Lissa her best friend the Moroi princess from some unknown enemies who wants her dead. Every vampire movie tries to introduce its own brand of Vampires and this one is the same with three different kinds, the Strigoi, Moroi and Dhamphir. The movie tells us all the different kinds of vampire there is and yet doesn't really show us the way they are different such as with the Moroi being mortal thing. Plus what's with the Dhamphir having to protect the Moroi...are the Moroi seemingly so physically weak they need protection? With immortality out of the picture is there no perks to being a vampire? Wait I get it...they're not really vampires right?...They're just anemic. Why too does the Strigoi want to attack the Moroi? I understand they are supposedly the more evil vampire and they like blood, but aren't the humans easier food?

Like most teen movies, romance has to be thrown in there. Dull and wooden. That's what all the love interests are yet trying way too hard to be swoon worthy. Anyway they're just unworthy distractions to the mystery of who wants Lissa dead which isn't really a hard mystery to crack when you know the saying "keep your friends close keep your enemies closer". One annoying thing about the movie that I have to mention is that it makes fun of Twilight, I'm pretty sure more than once. Which I'm fine with if it was actually the better movie...but it is not. Seriously I can't believe Vampire Academy got a theatrical release...it looks like a TV movie. There's the usual bad acting, bad dialogue but most of all it does not look cinematic at all. It also bugged me that Rose was Juno-ish. churning out all those pop culture reference. Aren't the St Vladamir kids living in a secluded protected world. They are not exactly like the rest of us immersed in technology and pop culture...so where does Rose get all the pop culture reference from? Don't tell me the short stint outside of St Vladamir she and Lissa had before they were hauled back?

I actually wanted to read the book before watching the movie...oh well...I do hope it's better.

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Around the Blog

Sunday I did Dell's Against the Crowd Blogathon. My pick was Avatar for the one everyone love but I hate and Something Borrowed was my pick for the reverse.
Tuesday I did Broke and Bookish Top Ten Tuesday meme except that this week it was a non bookish theme so I listed the Top Ten TV Series I am currently following. Are we in the golden age of TV because there are some seriously great TV shows airing now.
Thursday was my first Thursday Movie Picks post and I picked my three favourite Stephen King adaptations. This was the first post for the meme I started. If you like movies, do take part in next week's topic which is Movies with an Ensemble Cast.
Saturday I highlighted a song I can't stop listening to.

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Next Week

I'll be adding more topics to the Thursday Movie Picks...so check out the meme page to see some of the future topics.

I've also picked up the Diary of a Crush series of books which I remember reading like ten years ago. I'm hoping to revisit them soon