I'm a bit of a confusing person. I have a love/hate relationship with horror.
There are certain aspects of horror that I can't stand. Mainly comprised of Torture Porn, Slasher Flicks and Infection/Zombie Movies. I know that cuts out a giant chunk of great classics, but I like to be able to sleep at night thank you very much.
Then there of course is my least favourite Narrative Trope which can be found in ALL OF THESE MOVIES. It goes as follows.
Take a small group of people (for it to be effective you need at least two) put them in a dangerous cut-off location (the bottom of the sea, in space, the outside world flooded with radiation, you know the drill). Then something horrible happen to them, like an alien invasion, an infection, the air supply starts leaking, someone becomes a murder. But of course our group of characters can't get out.
Cue the slaughter.
So along comes Prometheus.
I immediately became obsessed with the trailer. I loved the pacing, I loved the visuals. I just loved everything about it. It was one of the best trailers I have seen in a long time. The trailer also scared the crap out of me. Most of this came from the sound effects. Specifically the alarm like screaming that begins at 1:43 minutes into the trailer. I'm going to refer to that noise as a trigger noise.
Trigger Noises are sound effects that become tied to their movie and are there to invoke a specific reaction from the viewer. They're the noises (and sometimes music) that when you hear them or someone does an impression of them, you know exactly what movie they're from. Think of the Fog Horn in Inception, The Alarm in Kill Bill and the Jaws Theme (Dun Da Dun Dah) for Jaws. In the case of Prometheus, the noise causes panic, fear and terror. It's supposed to set up the dark and dangerous environment and the decent into the horror the characters feel. This noise managed to make me feel uncomfortable every time I watched the trailer.
Like a good trailer should, it did not give away the plot of the film, it gave us a feel of what the film was supposed to be like. To me, Prometheus seemed like a throw back to the older scifi movies I have seen with a nice injection of modern science fiction. It clearly was to take place in the Alien world (which was another reason for uncomfort from me) but it wasn't going to be about Alien. People questioned Ridley Scott about the tie ins to Alien and many of the articles I read referred to it as the Alien Prequel.
This really isn't the case.
So What is it Then?
I don't want to spend a lot of time discussing how Prometheus and Alien relate to one another, it's pretty clear and can be summed up nicely in this one graphic:
Prometheus has its own agenda, and ends with its own form of sequel bait that has nothing to do with Alien. Prometheus ends with our dear Doctor Shaw taking off into the stars with David to try and contact the Engineers and ask why they gave up on humanity and decided it needed to be destroyed. This ending upset me, but I'll talk more on it later. The important thing is that Shaw and David, are going to continue on with their adventures, which will probably be seen in some form of sequel down the line.
Due to actions that occur in this movie, the events of Alien are cemented. It's as if the left over characters have come to a cross road: Shaw and David go in one direction to harass the Engineers. Shaw's Alien Baby goes in the other to start the race of the Xenomorphs that will haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life. It's pretty simple.
So What About the Actual Movie?
The actual movie... I think I liked it?
The movie was okay, if you ignored a lot of the plot holes, lack of explanation about certain things and a lot of explanation on what the characters would clearly not know or understand. On a visual level, the film was absolutely stunning. You can clearly see how much hard work and effort was put into every single frame. The attention to detail was phenomenal, and the use of 3D was unobtrusive. You clearly felt like you had entered another world. Which I absolutely loved. I believed that these characters had been dropped thousand of light years away from earth. The sets were alien enough but at the same time had a humanoid feel to them which connected to the idea that these two species were somewhat related.
And then there was David. But we'll get back to him.
Character Writing: Or How I Learned to Make Realistic Characters and Not Murder Fodder.
Coming into Prometheus, you are fully aware that most of the characters who are paraded infront of you in the first 20 minutes aren't going to make it to the end of the film. We all know how this genre works. We all know how to tell which characters are going to bite it first. When you look at the crew of The Prometheus, a handfull of the people do not even get names. You know they're done for. I went into this with as much of an open mind as possible, but within the introduction of the crew I knew that the only one to survive had to be Shaw. She was the only human who had a somewhat rounded character. She also seemed like the kind of character that a Director would just love to torture. And how how Ridley does.
Say hello to Doctor Shaw.
She's one of the two scientists who discover the cave paintings that kickstart the mission to the home world of the Engineers. She's romantically involved with her partner scientist, Holloway. The kicker is that even though she is a scientist she is still devoutly religious. Shaw comes to represent the "religion" aspect of the plot. Never giving up on the God that she "chooses" to believe in, even though the movie constantly is throwing reasons in her face why she should. The other defining point of her character is that she is sterile. Unlike other women (and unlike the Engineers), Shaw is unable to bring forth life and as it can be guessed this really upsets her. It is also one of her driving motivations in her quest to find out why we were created.
This is when the Director torture begins. Holloway becomes infected with an alien substance and when the two of them have sex... he impregnates her with an alien baby.
An Alien Friggin Baby.
This begins Shaw's best acted scene. She decides that she needs to cut the thing out of herself and runs to a surgical pod. Sadly for her the pod is meant for male use only (Director Torture Number 2). So saw pumps herself up full of painkillers and tels that machine that there is a foreign object in her body and needs to have it removed. The machine then proceeds to slice her open with a laser, drop down a Toy Story inspired claw and rip that little sucker out of her. Shaw is then stapled shut and proceeds through the movie on sheer force of will and super human pain tolerance. She also is popping pain killers to the point where I was expecting the entire second half of the movie to have been a vivid hallucination.
That could have been fun.
What I'm trying to say is, if you're running around with your stomach stapled closed... then your probably going to survive the rest of the film. We all know about The Last Girl Horror Theory.
As for the other human characters, they're kind of meh.
What we need to discuss here is character motivation and character actions.
Characters in films need to make mistakes. If they didn't the film wouldn't be worth watching. There are two different kinds of mistakes that characters can make. There are the logical ones that fit with their characterization and then there are the ones that are clearly there just to make the plot move forward and are stupid.
Take for example the characters taking their helmets off in the caves. NOT SMART
or
David poisoning Holloway. LOGICAL
Prometheus bounced between these two kinds of actions, the characters bumbling along stupidly with looks of horror on their faces till a moment of unspeakable clarity. After that... well it was back to being in the dark.
You Clearly Really Want to Talk About David.
David was by far the most fascinating character in the entire film and the best acted. With the release of the viral marketing add Happy Birthday David. I realized we were going to be in for a treat. David is an android... as Faassbender described him in an interview: "The butler of the ship". While everyone else is in stasis, David is wandering around, taking care of them and making sure the entire ship is running smoothly. He is also teaching himself how to speak many different languages to try and find the root language that he could speak to the Engineers with.
He also obsessively watches Lawrence of Arabia to the point where he dyes his hair blonde and tries out lines from the film as catchphrases. He's adorable.
I do really like how Roger Ebert described him:
David (Michael Fassbender), an android, who knows or can figure out more or less everything, even alien languages, and is sort of a walking, talking, utterly fearless HAL 9000.
David brings a third level of creation to this film. We have the Engineers who created us, and then there is us who created the Android. The relationship between David and the crew can kind of be read as the relationship that the humans could possibly have with the Engineers. Like the humans, David is obsessively curious, and needs to touch everything. Unlike the humans he doesn't have the emotions (like fear) to stop him from doing anything stupid.
David does everything to try and fit in with the human population and make them feel comfortable around him. He is there to help them even if he has a hidden agenda.You see David is hiding an old Peter Weyland on board and the two of them sneak off and have councils every once in a while.
Then comes the Holloway poisoning scene.
The stage is set as follows. Holloway is drinking in a common area of the ship. David walks in. The two of them banter for a while and David asks him what he is willing to do to find out more about the Engineers. Silly Holloway responds: anything and everything. David smiles, pours Holloway a drink and spikes it with the black goo he brought back from to the ship. I've heard a lot of arguments about this scene. Some people think that this was just David being one of the "bad guys" in the movie. I'm going to argue that if Holloway had said something negative, David would have wandered off with the black goo on his finger to try and find someone else to experiment on. David was working within his protocol... and due to the response of Holloway... well he could technically do anything and everything to him. Hell, I'm not saying that this was the right thing to do. This is David's lack of emotions rearing it's ugly head again.
Creepy Crawlies, Aliens and Things That Go Bump in the Night
First off. I really really really need to say this:
Looks a lot like this:
And there is my Sandman reference for the day.
In the world of the film, the Engineers were the ones who created humanity. For some reason they decided that they wanted to destroy humanity and start over. This of course is stopped by the fact that their biological weapon gets out of control and destroys their military base/science lab. It is never really explained what caused this to happen... did someone let out the black goo? Was it the work of a traitor or just a careless employee.
It just happened one day.
Luckily enough we get to see an Engineer create life on a planet that could be earth at the very start of the film. He's dropped on a planet, takes off his clothes and drinks some of the black goo that we will come to know very well, which kills him. His DNA falls into a waterfall and jumpstarts the evolution cycle.
We also get to see the face of the Engineers... which I so fondly described to a friend as: A Jacked Up Voldemort who got Botox... and a Nose.
In all seriousness, the Engineers were interesting and I would have liked to see more of the movie about them.
One of the major problems with this movie is that it tries to do so much. If it had dialed it back they would have been able to go into more detail on things. Instead we have to try and make leaps between the Engineers, the Proto-type Face-Huggers, the Black Goo with Worms in it and the Blue-Alien-like-Alien at the very end of the film. Not to mention they keep jumping around with what each creature can do.
We see the black goo eat through someone's helmet, but David an safely hold it on his finger.
The only creature that really got to me, was when they found one of the crew members all bent up outside of their ship. It wasn't him specifically that freaked me out, it was the idea that he crawled all the way from the cave in that malformed messed up way. That really got my skin crawling.
So Long Mom, I'm Off to Drop the Bomb...
All in all Prometheus was a good summer blockbuster. It was pretty to look at, it held my attention and it gives you something to talk about. It is not the best scifi film I have ever seen, but it's not the worst either. You can't really read into it too much without realizing just how shallow it actually is. And I think that's what has upset the critics and reviewers.
Everyone went into this movie thinking it was going to be the big movie of the summer and that it was going to be perfect. Maybe the viral campaign was too good for it? I don't know.
I was a little let down with the ending and the severe tonal shift.
Shaw and David, the only two surviving members of the crew decide not to head back to earth, instead they take an Engineer Ship and head towards the Engineer Homeworld for answers.
That's all good and fine.
It's the buddy-cop feel that the film devolved into that kind of upset me. I could just hear the cheesy music as the two of them went off adventuring into the stars.
But maybe that's just me.
So if you haven't already, go out and see this one. Even if it's for visuals alone.
One More Thing:
I've attached my initial reaction to the movie, done in the form of a vlog that my friend and I filmed right after we got back from the movie. If you want a more accurate/less thought out analysis to what I saw, here's the videos.
The following review is based off of a Reviewer Copy I received for my Kindle.
For as long as I can remember, there has been a place in my heart for scary stories. Being the coward that I am this has caused me to spend many a night curled up in my bed under blankets with all of the lights on in my home.
So when I picked up the The Dark Horde by Brewin, I was not let down. This book managed to hit me where it hurts at every single point. Not only was it just scary it was creepy and at certain points it made me feel uncomfortable. All three of these are great assets in supernatural horror, and help this book stand out from the many others I have read.
The other aspect that really stood out to me was the rhythm of the writing. The narrative switches between the main story (in normal text) and observations of characters and the demons (in italics). This did wonders to the flow of the text giving the entire novel a catchy rhythm making it super easy to get sucked in to the story.
Yet this book was not without a few weaknesses. The author throws many different characters at the Reader and very few of them have distinct voices. I found that I was getting characters confused and had to backtrack a bit to figure out who was who and how they were related to other characters. This made it hard for me to care about the characters. Danny though (a young boy at a Boarding School) did manage to win my heart over and I really hoped to see him victorious despite all of the odds.
The other weakness was the ending of the novel. It ends on an ambiguous note, which I do like with my horror novels, but the build up to the ending is a little bit rushed. The pacing before the final few chapters is really well done, but it feels like a switch flicks at the end and the author just wanted to story to be done with.
Overall, I found The Dark Horde a great read and Brewin shows extreme potential and I hope to read more of his work. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed The Strain or has a soft spot for slasher flicks.
I present the new project I am working on, ontop of book reviews. I've always had a soft place in my heart for HBO TV Shows and this project offers me a little bit of a change of pace from what I am usually doing.
The Map of Time tells three interconnecting stories that center around the use and discussion of time travel. H.G. Wells' most recent novel The Time Machine and the recent opening of Murray's Time Travel Company, time travel is on the minds of everyone. Murray's Time Travel offers those who can pay the steep price a trip to the year 2000 to watch the final battle between the humans and the automatons.
In the first story we are introduced Andrew, who fell in love with the prostitute Mary Kelly. Mary Kelly is then killed by Jack the Ripper and Andrew spends eight years severely depressed. On the eve of her murder, Andrew decides to commit suicide in her old apartment, only to be stopped by his cousin Charles. Charles proposes that they go to Murray's Time Travel and try to convince Murray to take them back in time to save Andrew's love.
In the second story, we follow Claire, a young woman who feels like she is out of place in her time period. When her friend Lucy proposes that they go on Murray's Second Journey to the year 2000 she decides that no only will she go but she will stay there. During her trip to the year 2000, Claire falls in love with the leader of the humans Captain Derek Shackleton. But there seems to be more to this future then first meets the eye. How can Claire continue her romance with a man who isn't even born in her time period yet?
The final story centers around H.G. Wells, as he tries to stop a time traveller form destroying famous pieces of literature.
The cover also deserves to be looked at. I really like it, it mixes Victorian-Gentlemen- class with Steampunk making you wonder exactly what is going on in this book. I borrowed this book from a friend, and was there when she bought it. The cover caught her eye... yes sometimes we do judge books by their covers. I know. It's bad.
What I liked about this book was how the stories intertwined so well. I liked how it established the different characters and then referenced them throughout the rest of the novel. I was more drawn to the last two stories then the first. The middle story being my favourite narrative wise, while the final story was better character and theme wise. The thing about this book is that it is super heavy (literally and figuratively). I'm a pretty fast reader, but I found myself having a hard time reading it. I was enjoying it immensely... but it did not matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get through it. It seemed like the author was adding pages as I read it. Finally one afternoon I sat down and just powered through 300 pages and was done with the book.
So if you love the Victorian Era or even just Victorian Fiction, you might be interested in this book. If you loved H.G. Wells' Time Machine definitely give this book a read. This book is the perfect cross of historical-fiction and science-fiction.
This book has motivated me to re-read The Time Machine this summer. So there will be more on that later.
Also known as "The-Lord-of-the-Rings-Star-Wars-Belgariad-Doctor-Who-If-It's-Fantasy-And-Published-It's-In-Here-Somewhere" Book
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away my Little Brother told me about a book called Eragon. Staring a farm boy named Eragon who found a magical dragon egg and became a Dragon Rider. Of course Eragon lives in a fantasy world ruled by an Evil Dark Lord and only Eragon can defeat him. You know, the usual stuff.
I've been trying to write this Review for a while now, but it's been difficult. I think the major problem is that I have been trying to write a spoiler free review, like I usually write. Given the nature of these books I think I'm going to have to give up on my usual format.
From here on, there will be spoilers:
When I finished reading the third book in the Inheritance Cycle, I vowed to myself that I would finish this series even if it killed me. My logic was that I had already fought my way through 1,934 pages... I might as well see this to the very bitter end. I might as well find out how the story ended... maybe this was going to be that one series where the author pulls a fast one and the villain will win. Honestly, if that was how it ended this series would have been worth the uphill climb. But Paolini isn't one to break tradition.
I have a few theories why this book didn't work out so well.
THE LENGTH
Sitting at a whopping 849 pages, Inheritance is one of the larger books that I have ever read.. but it doesn't really need to be. Lets take for example, George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Each of the books in that series is around 600-800 pages long, yet the length works. Something is always happening. There are no tangents, every sentence is part of a well oiled machine that serves a purpose. In the case of Inheritance, the novel goes off on tangents that aren't vital at all. They could be completely cut out and it wouldn't even be noticeable that they were missing. If you were to take Brisingr for example, stuff happens at the beginning, then there are 600 pages of padding then something at the end. In the case of Inheritance, the book meanders around for a while eventually leading to Eragon to face off with Galbitorax in one of the most anti-climactic endings ever.
Looking back at Eragon and Eldest, I'm not sure if they suffered from the same problem as the last two. It's been years since I read them and I really have no interest to go back and try them again. Maybe I'm being a little too hard here. The thing is I just don't care.
LETS TALK ABOUT ERAGON AS A CHARACTER
The biggest question that needs to be asked is what makes a likeable character? For me I would say it is complexity. When I think of the books I love with a passion, the characters who inhabit them are mutli-dimensional. They're more than a stereotype, you can believe that they could exist in the real world (personality-wise). Not to say there are certain books that I love where the characters are stereotypes, but that's a topic for another day. When you break down Eragon's character he is lacking flaws. He suffers from the Richard Cypher Syndrome. Since he is the Protagonist, he has to be awesome. He just works so hard to be so awesome you just have to love him. But you don't. Eragon is completely unrelate-able to his readers. He goes through NO CHARACTER development in THE ENTIRE NOVEL. You just don't care what he does. The weight of the entire world is supposed to be on this boy's shoulders, but that stress and (I can just hear the fangirls screaming and sharpening the pitchforks) the pressure doesn't seem to effect him at all, other than him mentioning once in while that the job seems so hard. He doesn't suffer though, in fact he leaves the army and his advisors behind to go and do other stuff. I mean REALLY?
THREE GOOD CHAPTERS?
Surprisingly yes, there were three good chapters. About one third into the book, Eragon and friends are captured by a religious cult that worships the Raz'ac. I guess it's my fascination with cults and black magic portrayed in books... but these chapters were actually interesting. Or maybe it was because Eragon did seem like he was actually in a bit of trouble during these sequences. As I mentioned in the character section, you get so used to Eragon being awesome and always able to save himself... and here he is... screwed. Of course Eragon is able to escape. But you just kind of hope he doesn't.
FUTURISTIC STUFF EXPLAINED IN MAGICAL TERMS (LIKE BOMBS)
So, I think this was what my biggest issue was. Eragorn, Saphira and Glaedr travel to Vroengard Island where the Dragon Riders used to reside. Unbeknowest to them it is now a severely dangerous place. During the battle with the Foresworn, one of the elves cast a spell that caused him to explode. But wait, there is more this explosion caused a sickness to spread across the land... for things to change... to mutate.. for people to get sick... and it left a crater.
Yes.
Yes.
Are you catching my drift? The Elf went nuclear and there was RADIATION. But because this is a fantasy book... that can't be said. This just bugged me to no end. I don't really know exactly why. It felt to forced? It seemed like a cop-out? I'm not exactly sure.
But this ties into the ending.
KILLING WITH LOVE: MAKE YOUR EVIL OVERLORD GO NUCLEAR IN TEN EASY STEPS!
So, we have all been waiting for this moment. Eragon and Galbatorix have to have their epic face off. This is it, the most epic battle of the century and Galibatorix pretty much wipes the group out with one foul swoop. You see, our Evil Overlord has figured out the name of the Ancient Language, none of Eragorn and Co.'s magic can touch him. At this point it feels like the book has hit a wall. How can Eragon get around this one? Well somehow Murtaugh has found out the name too and he saves everyone. The Eragon is able to cast a spell to make Galbatorix feel EVERY EMOTION EVER. But mainly love.
Yes. It's happened. This is a book that kills the villain with love. I'm seriously having flashbacks to my childhood and the Care Bears.
So poor Galbatorix can't handle ALL OF THE FEELINGS and goes nuclear... just like that poor Elf at Vroengard. BAM. His castle explodes, nuclear radiation floods the city. But Eragon saves them all. Because he's Eragon and that's just what he does.
OVERALL THOUGHTS AND ANGRY RANTING
As you can tell from this review... I hated this book and I hated this series. What the book really needed was someone to help cut down on the useless information and keep the story on a straightforward path, not let it wander off in random directions.
The internet seems to love these books and I can't really understand why. But I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinions.
I would like to hear other people's thoughts and opinions on this one.
I was one of those Whedon Fangirls who knew about The Cabin in the Woods when it was originally mentioned years ago. I've been following the Science Fiction-Fantasy-All round nerdy awesome blog io9 for what feels like a million years now. Way back in 2010 they posted their excitement for the new Whedon-Goddard Project with the most fantastic posters ever:
If something is chasing you.... split up.
Absolute brilliance.
Around this time there was a rise in the need to be meta. This film was either going to be a piece of meta brilliance, similar to the Scream films... or well just the usual Whedon awesomeness. Sadly, the company releasing it went under and The Cabin in the Woods was lost into the Nether of the Films that will never be.
But I still hoped.
If you follow this blog with any form of dedication, you probably have realized my love/hate relationship with the horror genre. I knew that if The Cabin in the Woods was ever released, then I would most likely wait for it to come out on DVD and watch it at home. As long as it had the same kinda nature as Zombieland I should be alright. I expected that the Whedon sense of humour would make any form of horror in this movie easy to handle... and tie that in with the meta-horror-making-fun-of-horror... it should be a cake walk. As long as I watched it at home with all the lights on... and maybe clutching a pillow (just in case)
But then as if by miracle, there was a trailer and a release date. The fangirls went wild, two Whedon movies in under 30 days? What is this madness? (I'm talking about The Avengers of course).
Not only did the film get the trailer, it also got a spiffy new poster:
My interest was peaked. But I still wasn't willing to watch it in the theatre though.
Sadly for me, I have some really persuasive friends, so one night on our way back from getting amazing Burgers at a local Burger Joint my two friends decided that we would go see The Cabin in the Woods. They spent a good twenty minutes telling me it wasn't scary, or that gory and that I could easily watch it and not regret it later. Only until AFTER I agreed to see the film, they revoked the statement on the gore. By that point I had already said yes and we were on the bus to the theatre.
Spoilers from here down.....
The intro sequence gave away the premise of the film to me pretty quickly. We were going to be dealing with a sacrifice to some form of God. Tie that in with the trailer and well... there's the main plot of the film. There are five friends who go for a relaxing weekend at a cabin in the woods. They're cut off from the rest of the world and picked off one by one by some form of axe murderer. We're all really familiar with that horror trope. Hell, I'm working on a script based off of that idea. What we know going into this film from the trailer is that there is an even more sinister level to the story. *Cough* sacrificing these kids to the evil gods from before *cough*
What Cabin in the Woods does that is absolutely brilliant, is to make you question all the other slasher flicks that you have seen previously. When we were busing back from the theatre one of my friends raised a pretty interesting point: "Do you think The Cabin in the Woods is saying that all the other horror movies before it are actually sacrifices?" Yes. I think that's exactly what this film is going for. Whedon and Goddard keep coming back to the point that there are cultural narratives that we all are extremely familiar with. The American Scenario portrays our fascination with type casting. In our horror movies we need to have the different basic characters dichotomies: The Whore and the Virgin, The Athlete and the Scholar and of course the Fool. The film also references the different dichotomies and cultural narratives in different countries (I LOVED the side plot about the Japan Scenario. It was brilliant).
If you are interested in looking into more research on cultural narratives and archetypal theory, I highly recommend you look into the works of Carl Jung. I could start talking about that right now, but then I would never be able to finish this blog post. Notes on Carl Jung will have to happen another day.
Come on guys, we know exactly which stereotype these
characters will be.
I've heard people argue that the characters in Cabin have their own distinct personalities that end up getting morphed into the stereotypes through the use of chemicals. I have to argue that this claim is false. Yes, the kids do have some distinct personality characteristics that are different from the usual slasher basic personas, but right from the very beginning we know that Chris Hemsworth is the Jock and his girlfriend is the traditional Blond Bombshell who is one of the first to die. The beauty of Cabin is that it acknowledges all these stereotypes and has fun with them, it doesn't try and take itself seriously.
I absolutely loved the Stoner Marty. All of his little asides and how he easily figures out what is going on before everyone else. He's easily the most loveable character out of the group and his "death" comes as a shock. Marty is the second character to be killed off. What is found out later is that he managed to escape and is undermining the entire system. Good job Marty, it's nice to see someone actually doing something productive in a horror film. That doesn't happen that often.
Cabin in the Woods as I mentioned earlier is focused on ritual sacrifice. The five kids need to be sacrificed to appease the Old God and stop him from rising and destroying the world. The humans who perform this sacrifice have fine tuned it to the extreme. They can control the environment of the killing ground, they can control the moods of their victims and they are able to see everything as it happens. I had a sick wish that I could have the job that the two main controller's have (similar to my wish that I could control the Hunger Games... It's the tech, I swear). But even with all this control, it's interesting to look at the control that the victims have. As mentioned by one of the Controller's the victims have to make the choice. They have to ignore the warning at the gas station, they need to select their artifact to choose their monster.
Witches, Sexy Witches, Kevin, What more could you ask for?
Which of course leads to the morbid game that the office workers play where they bet on which monster the kids will end up picking.
Where the film really shines is when Dana and Marty manage to enter the Office underneath the Cabin. The shot where they show the entire matrix of monsters is amazing. I personally loved the reference to Hellrazer with the circle puzzle and the razorblade-headed dude. Even his name was fantastic Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain. The film from this point takes on that of a blood bath, but it doesn't really faze you. Instead the joy from these scenes is the ability to recognize all the different horror icons and the films that Cabin is referencing. Hell, they even reference Supernatural!
Cabin in the Woods ends in a way that you don't see often, the two characters choose not to save the world by killing themselves, instead they let the world burn while they share a joint. The last shot of the film is the hand of the God bursting through the ground to rain destruction down on the world. Not many films end with the world ending, and even few end with the protagonists choosing to end it. Marty or Dana, I can't remember which, exclaims during the final showdown that "If this is the what needs to be done to keep humanity alive then maybe it's time we give someone else a chance."
All in all, what everyone thought was going to be a regular slasher film with a few quirks turns out to be something a lot deeper with a lot more going on. I loved Cabin in the Woods it was a breath of fresh air in a stale period of cinema. So if you haven't seen it, even though the movie has been significantly spoiled... still go see it. It's worth it, I swear.
If you want to see the list of all the creature references in the Cabin in the Woods click here.
(the following review is based off a Reviewer Copy I received)
Wraith's Forest shows much promise. L.J. Leger has a budding grasp on her use of prose, parts of the story read beautifully and were extremely enjoyable. The story is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast Fairy Tale with a few minor changes. Jenna is a sixteen year old girl who is appointed with the job of harvesting fruit from a magical tree so the local Wizard can make an elixer that would help keep the balance of the valley. One of the fruits is bruised, with the weight of her failure on her shoulders, Jenna needs to venture into the forest to find a magical blade from the mysterious and dangerous Wraith.
The book's only real flaw is the execution of the story. The fruit and the elixir portion of the story feels a little bit forced. Since this idea feels slightly far-fetched it is hard to feel any connection to Jenna or the people in her village. You find yourself asking: why is the elixir important? The character of the Wizard is also a little bit sketchy bouncing between a young man and a stereotypical mustache twirling denizen.
Jenna's interaction with the Wraith is the strongest portion of the story, but it feels a little bit rushed. I expect this is just because of the length of the story (it is a novella). There is much room for more interactions between Jenna and the Wraith, and possibly more information on his backstory. He is by far the most fascinating character in the story. The ending is a little bit cliche, but cute none the less.
All in all I did enjoy this story, it just needs a little bit of work. If the Author even chose to, this story could end up being fleshed out into an entire novel.
A friend just sent me this link, and it is by far one of the most brilliant things I have seen in a very long time. I present to you: Holy Musical B@tman! If you are a fan of the comics, any incarnation of the television show or any of the films I highly suggest you check this out. As a long time Batman fangirl I couldn’t help but squeal and hyperventilate when I saw this for the first time. The humour is great, the songs are catchy. It reminds me of the Live Action Show that I used to watch as a kid on the Space Channel but if the cheesy Batman was replaced by the Christopher Nolan Batman.
After watching the first episode I really wanted to see the second one. I dreamed and wished and hoped. I really really really didn't want to have to wait another week and a bit before I could find out what happens next. And then the episode leaked and all my wishing came true.
The second episode was much stronger then the first one. It didn't feel like they were jumping around as much between the different characters. I was right (it seemed) when I assumed that the first episode was more erratic because they needed to introduce all of the new major players. The episode managed to find a nice flow between all their stories similar to what they had going on in the previous season. As I've come to expect (and what has been said in many of the interviews) this season will be much more difficult to keep a clear story since most of the characters have wandered off in different directions and it takes a long time before they wander back together.
Alright. Pros and Cons.
From here on there will be spoilers.
MAJOR GLORIOUS PRO
"Salladhor Saan is a good name for songs"
Davos and Salladhor Saan. My GOD was that scene well done. The show managed to capture the essence of Davos, his undying loyalty to Stannis and his straight forward outlook on life. I'm slightly upset that they haven't given more of his backstory. The whole concept of his luck (the fingers that Stannis chopped off) and the story of the Onion Knight is a really interesting one, and it definitly would help shine some light on why he is the way he is and way he loves Stannis as much as he does. This sequence touched on that briefly. I'm hoping that we do go deeper into that later on in the season. I wouldn't be surprised if it is Melisadre who brings it out in the open.
But back to this scene. The banter between the two characters felt extremely real and playful. It is clear that there is a history behind these two and I hope we get to see more of it. Salladhor's comments towards Davos's son were priceless.
SECOND PRO
The men in the cage. As Arya heads towards the wall she is accompanied by many other boys and men. Yet the ones of real interest are the guys in the cage. When I got to this part in the book I was extremely confused. If they were that dangerous that they had to be dragged to the wall in a cage, how could they be sure that when they arrived and took on the Black, that they would keep to the oath?
The actor playing Jagen H'ghar (Tom Wlaschiha) gets across just how weird and different he is. Not to mention he's strangely attractive in a dangerous caged man kind of way. The show is able to get it across to the audience that this man is going to be important later on... but it doesn't spoil anything. Which is kind of nice. I'm excited to see more of him.
THIRD PRO
Littlefinger, you God among men. Littlefinger is by far one of my favourite characters in the show. It was nice to see him given a reprieve after last episode's run in with Cersei. The scene with Littlefinger in the Brothel is a good character study. What make him such a fascinating man is how he somehow knows how to get the best out of everyone he knows, and by best I men the most useful for himself. He is not a heartless man, he just is a business man.
THE FINAL QUESTIONABLE PRO
I think it's the sideways looks that she gives creep me out the most.
Melisandre both scares the hell out of me. But it's a good kind of scare. When I was reading the book I was worried about how she was going to be portrayed in the show. She is a rather complicated woman who has her own goals to fulfill. The relationship between her and Stannis is a complete power struggle. Davos exists to balance the two of them out, but the scene the episode ends on... we get to see Stannis and Melisandre behind closed-doors. The Producers of Game of Thrones gleefully released that the fourth episode is going to have one of the most disturbing birth sequences to air on television. As we all can guess this is the direct outcome of the final seconds in this episode. Melisandre is going to give Stannis a son.... and it's not going to be pretty.
CON?
Alright Theon, I was waiting for this scene and it was only slightly fulfilling. You hit on your sister, it was awkward. You moved on. Your sister is a threat to your rightful throne, you have some work to do. Yara, his sister was just not.... right. I'm waiting to see more of her before I make my final judgement.
All in all I think the second episode was much stronger then the first. There is still so much more to get into before the meat of the season begins. I'm hoping episode three will finish up with our introductions to characters and by episode four we'll be live and kicking.
So last night the first episode of the second season of HBO's Game of Thrones aired and the fans went wild. After the major cliffhanger from the previous season, millions of fans were left hyperventilating and driving off to the nearest bookstore so they could figure out what would happen next. There was no way on God's green earth that these fans were going to wait another year till they could find out what happened next. And if that meant they had to crack a spine of a 800+ page book then by god they were going to do it!
So true.
I really didn't want to read the books, I knew if I read the books it was going to spoil the show for me. This of course broke my usual vow of reading before watching... but the show was just so good and I was so weak. Until three days later when I found myself standing in Chapters looking at the "Buy the first Four Books of A Song of Ice and Fire for Twenty Dollars" sign did I give in. I bought them all without a second thought and dove into the series and never looked back.
Like almost every other fantasy nerd, I counted down the days till the show was back, I read and watched everything that was released about the filming. I knew George R.R. Martin's touring schedule. I changed my cover photo on facebook to a direwolf. I've planned a Game of Thrones feast for the Season Finale on june 3rd. I was an all round fangirl.
And then the episode aired.
From here down there be spoilers:
So I was little sad with how the episode opened. In the book it opens on Dragonstone with the introduction of Melisandre. The sequence is a slow build which ends with the Reader realizing that there is more to this woman then just being a Priestess. She manages to survive a poisoning attempt with no side effects. This sequence is shown in the television series, but it is quickly rushed through. There is no information give about the man (The Maester of Dragonstone) and why he chose to sacrifice himself to try and kill Melisandre. I think this sequence represents my major fear of what could happen with this season. That it is going to try and do everything, and thus have to rush through everything at break neck speed. If you've read the books, you'll be fine... but if you haven't you'll find yourself scratching your head.
This was cleverly done. It's a little hard to see from the picture. But Melisandre is the only character wearing vivid colour It makes her stand out. Makes her seem like the odd person out.
Don't get me wrong. The episode was really good. It had its fantastic moments. For example, right before the poisoning incident, Stannis is dictating a letter that he plans to send out to every Lord bringing to light the Incest between Cersei and Jaimie. As Stannis corrects the letter, he makes little comments such as reminding the scribe to call him "Ser Jaimie Lannister the King Slayer," cause he still is a knight after all. Stannis is a really interesting character. I'm not sure how I feel about the casting of him or Davos... but Melisandre was spot on. I mean seriously.... she looks like she's going to end up being scary.
My other major issue with the episode is how they painted the Lannisters. Cersei and Joffery are labelled as villains, and will never ever be able to do anything right because they are so evil. There are many scenes that are dedicated to how horrible these characters are. Yes, I am not their biggest fans. I love the scenes were Joffery gets slapped (that 10 hour video of Joffery being slapped is one of the most fulfilling things I have ever seen in my life). But, this isn't a story focused on a big bad. Everyone here is out for something, either themselves, their family or what they deem to be what is right. Cersei and Joffery aren't good people, but then again there are a lot of bad people in this world. Tyrion on the other hand, will always be a fan favourite of the audience. Even though he's a Lannister... he's not a bad guy. Hell, he's the best guy in the whole wide world. I'll talk about him later on in the season... when more interesting things happen to him.... Hint, Hint.
All in all, as I said before. I really did enjoy the episode. I expect the series is going to be awesome. Its HBO, we have to expect only the best from them. It is rather nice to have a television show that has the same level of production values as most film sets. I am going to keep an open mind, I expect the show just needs to get the ball rolling and prove to me all my fears are for not.
So my posts haven't been that frequent lately, this mostly has to do with the stupid amount of school work I'm dealing with right now. Papers and tests are stressing me out and taking up all of my time these days. But I just wanted to post a note to say that I'm still working away at this blog and have many new and exciting things to talk about starting soon.
Right now I'm reading Christopher Paolini's Inheritance, well more like labouring through it. One thing about me, is that I will see a story through to the end even if it really pisses me off. That about sums up my relationship with the Inheritance Cycle. I've been sitting on this book for a while now trying to read it but I keep getting overly frustrated and setting it aside.
On the movie side of things, I want to do a few blog posts looking at Film Noir: Femme Fatales, Classical Noir and Neo-Noir. The interest in this topic not only has to do with the film noir class that I took this semester, but my plans to try and write a film noir for Script Frenzy this year.
Also, of course the Hunger Games comes out tomorrow. I'm going to be heading out to see the midnight premiere tonight... which is really exciting. You'll probably hear more from me on that soon.
So don't worry,I'm still around and you'll be hearing more from me shortly!
I loved The Mortal Instruments so when I found out that Cassandra Clare was writing another trilogy I got really excited. But the first book was kind of a disappointment. Like many people I felt that the new series was just a rehashing of the first one but this time set in Victorian London. The character archetypes were pretty much the same. We had a leading lady who was introduced to a new world. A hot boy who had a bad attitude, a best guy friend who falls in love with our leading lady. And finally another female character who makes our lead feel uncomfortable in her own skin just because she's just that good looking. Even though I was a little disappointed by the first book, I dutifully picked up the second one the day it was released. It gathered dust on my shelf for a couple of months until the other day when I thought: "well hell, it can't be that bad" and decided to finally read it. And you know what? I was pleasantly surprised.
Clockwork Prince picks up pretty soon after we left off in Clockwork Angel. Tessa and her Shadowhunter friends are still trying to solve the mystery of Tessa's origins and what she actually is while they also look into stopping the dangerous Magister. And on top of that Tessa needs to come to understand which boy she wants, the gentle Jem or the wild and crazy Will. This book packs in just the right amount of teen angst with the steam-punk inspired fantasy. Cassandra Clare built off of the basics that she set down in the first book in a clever and refreshing way giving these new characters a different feel then her contemporary crew in The Mortal Instruments.
I think my appreciation for these book still steams from her first series. In The Mortal Instruments I built a love of the Shadowhunter World, this new prequel series is able to expand this love. But needs to lean on the books that came before it. I am still excited for the final book in this trilogy. When it is released I will do a more informative critique of the series. There's no real point in analyzing the picture until I have all the pieces I think. That being said there is something that I want to look at, but it's extremely entrenched in spoilers. If you've read the book or want to ruin it for yourself read that here.
So to sum it all up. This book was enjoyable and kept my interest in the series but I'm not going to pass my final judgement until I have read the final installment.
Here's another book for my Science Fiction Course! This book is not really science fiction. It does possess science fiction elements in the form of giant lizard creatures (think Godzilla) and the idea of letting them lose on Japan to bring the Second World War to a firey, lizard-ocalypse. As you can guess, this book is a fun ride.
In Shambling Towards Hiroshima, we are introduced to Syms Thorley a B Movie Creature Feature Actor, who has played every monster under the sun (expect vampires, those are against his principle). Thorley is approached by the Navy to serve his country in the only way he can, by wearing a giant rubber dinosaur suit and destroying a model of a Japanese City. The fate of World War Two is in his short stubby rubber hands, and thousands of lives depend on him giving the performance of his life.
Thorley is a fun smart talking guy with a wicked sense of humour. You can't help but like him. He interacts with a few characters, but they're all pretty much stereotypes (Hollywood directors and actors, scientists, US Navy officials, nothing too deep). But this is a satire, the focus isn't on the characters per say, but on the message the author is trying to get across.
The premise of this book is kind of silly. But I kid you not, it works really well. Shambling is both a WWII satire and a love letter to the B-Movie and Horror Movie Scene. Even if you're not one to appriciate WWII narratives, if you have any love for the cinema, this book is definatly something you should check it out. The subject matter that this novel explores is a dark one, but it manages to do it in a lighthearted fun manner that somehow is though provoking at the same time. There is a rather intensive shift in the tone in the last twenty pages. I can't get much into that without spoiling the book. But it works and fits with the flow of the story.
So I highly suggest you check this one out. It's a pretty quick read and gives you a lot to think about and some awesome one liners you're going to want to quote in your next conversation.
Idoru is the second book in Gibson's Bridge Trilogy. I haven't read the other books. But I'm going to have too.
I'm going to be honest here. I didn't think I was actually going to like this one. I know by admitting this I may have the hordes of science fiction fans setting their phazers to kill and targeting me. William Gibson just happens to be one of the BIG NAMES in science fiction and a pioneer in the field of Cyberpunk, so saying anything negative about his books would be blasphemous.
So why did I read it if I thought I wasn't going to like it? Well, for school of course! I'm in a Science Fiction in Japanese Culture course and this book is one of the required course readings. So I found myself bunkering down with a mug of tea ready to take it on. Don't get me wrong, I'm a giant science fiction fan, but I just prefer my scifi in other mediums. I prefer to watch then to read my scifi.
But back to the book.
Idoru follows two protagonists. Chia Pet McKenzie is a fourteen year old girl and the member of the local Chapter of Rez's Fan Club. Rez is a rockstar and half of the band Lo/Rez. Chia's Chapter hears that Rez is going to be marrying the Idoru Rei Toei and sends Chia to Japan to figure out exactly what is going on. Why are the fangirls obsessed with this marriage to the point where they send one of their own to Japan? Well seeings as Rei is an Idoru, she's not actually real. Rei like Rez is a singer, but she's a digital one, similar to the current Japanese star Hatsune Miku. She's a synthetic person. While in Japan Chia accidentally gets mixed up with some unsavoury people and needs to try and navigate the cyber culture to find a way home.
Our other main character is Colin Laney. When he was younger he underwent an experiment that rewired his brain causing him to be able to shift through large amounts of data and find Nodal Points. Laney gets hired by Rez's team to figure out what is going on with their eccentric popstar and why he insists on marrying Rei Toei.
In a world completely flooded with technology, Idoru asks it's reader what actually constitutes as human. Is Rei Toei more than a program? Has she managed to transcend the boundaries of technology and become something real? And while you're at it... what is real? Gibson raises these questions cleverly through his narrative and it doesn't feel like he is trying to attack you with them.
On another note, the concept of Nodal points fascinated me. It makes perfect sense that you can create an accurate depiction of someone by taking all of their online records (social networking, shopping, instant messaging) and piecing them all together. This concept may have been a foreign one when this book was originally published in 1996 but now it is common knowledge. No one maybe as skilled as Laney (yet) but everyone knows a thing or two about online facebook stalking these days.
All in all, this book was extremely interesting. I recommend it to any scifi fan, or anyone in the mood to try something new. It starts out rather slow, but by the time you get sixty pages in I guarantee you'll be hooked.
Well it's time for a short updated. Sadly not a full blog post. People are trying to get a Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge Nerdfighter Gathering off the ground. Here is the information for it.
If you're in the area, we hope to see you there!
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Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge Nerdfighter Gathering: 2pm on Saturday afternoon @ Symposium in Uptown Waterloo.
2-4 King Street North
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
N2J 2W7
All the yummy desserts, milkshakes and other lovely things!
Pass it on to any other local nerdfighters you know!
DFTBA Hope to see you there.
Any questions contact: loki@dofthea.com
Saturday, January 28, 2012
As you all know, I recently read John Green's new novel The Fault in Our Stars. I'm happy to announce that Death of the Author Reviews has just posted its review. It was a lot of fun filming it, well other than the fact that Read got sick just near the end. But here it is so enjoy:
So today I went out to the theatres and took part in what many people label a cash grab on Disney's part. Maybe that's exactly what it was, but seeing it on the big screen was totally worth it. When Beauty and the Beast came out in 1991, I was way too young to go to the theatre and sit still through an entire movie (or so my parents decided) so when I was first introduced to the movie, it was at home on my TV Screen. I'm not exactly sure what sparked the re-release of the Disney movies back into theatres, but I'm assuming the success of The Lion King had a major effect.
Okay, so I kind of just lied there. Walt Disney, had originally wanted to re-release his films in theatres every couple of years, but this was before the beauty of home video. Sadly, Disney's plan was taken and twisted and what we have now is pure evil in the form of the Disney Vault (man I really want Aladdin on DVD).
So Beauty and the Beast. If you've been living under a rock since 1991, Beauty and the Beast is the story of a total douche-bag of a prince who has a spell cast on him to turn him into a Beast (and makes him forget his real name) and everyone in the castle is turned into talking household objects and supplies. There is hope though, if the Beast can fall in love and be loved in return, then the spell can be broken. But he only has up until his 21 birthday. This is about when Belle walks in. She's the pretty odd ball in her small French Town and wins over the audience with her "I want more" song. Her biggest problem is that she is being pursued by the "traditional hero" Gaston. She has no interest in him, at all but since she's pretty and proving to be a challenge Gaston gets his creeper on and tries to marry her. Also he abuses a book.
Belle's father takes a wrong turn and ends up at the Beast's Castle and becomes his prisoner, Belle a good daughter runs off to rescue him. When the Beast confronts her, she trades her freedom for her Father's, leaving her stuck in the castle. With Belle stuck in the castle, the movie is now set up for the usual Disney romance... you know what I'm talking about.
But wait, the Beast is a total douche. Did you forget that? The thing about Beauty and the Beast that always amazed me was that Belle doesn't actually fall madly in love with the Beast right away and give into the Stockholm Syndrome story that's waiting to happen. The Beast continues to be a jerk to Belle for a while, and rewatching it now I could believe that there was no hope for the flowers of love to blossom between them. But we all know in the end it does. The Beast saves her, and she in turn cleans his wound. The two of them begin to bond and get to know each other like normal people. Which is refreshing.
Don't get me wrong, I love this movie. I love the story (remember, hopeless romantic), I love the animation, the songs, the side characters, I love to hate Gaston. The movie is beautiful. It did lose some of its majesty in 3D though. This was a hand-drawn 2D movie (mostly) so by adapting it for 3D the movie looked flat. It was like watching paper cut outs play infront of you. There were some scenes were the 3D really did work. When Belle's Father first arrives at the castle, the castle is just made to seem that much lager by the 3D Animation, the Gargoyles look pretty damn creepy. The dance sequence with the title song was gorgeous in 3D and so was the Beast's transformation into the Prince.
The Beast as ???????? The Prince
Speaking of which, last term in one of my courses we were talking about the transformation of the Beast into a Human. When the Beast became a human, he just loses something. He's not as cool as he's been when he was a monster. I'm interested in other people's opinions on that. As a kid, I think I fell into the category where I liked the Beast more than I liked the Prince. He was cooler, he could protect Belle, he lived in a creepy castle and he looked hilarious in that blue suit that he had to squeeze himself into. When it comes to marketing the Beauty and the Beast, you don't really see the Prince. There are no posters of Belle with the Beast Prince-afied. I expect that has to do with marketing. But the bottom line is. When you watch Beauty and the Beast, you're there to see The Beast not a Prince, you're there to watch that giant water-buffalo of a creature. Just saying.
So all in all. I loved finally getting to see the movie on the large screen. I loved hearing the questions the little kids asked their parents as they watched the movie (probably) for the first time. If you love the movie, I highly recommend going to see it. Remember, you get to see the Tangled short too.
Today is the day of two posts and both of them had to do with The Fault in Our Stars!
The mystery of my Hanklerfish has been solved. I noticed that Hank Green had commented on my tumblr, (meaning that both the vlogbrothers had commented on my tumblr in a two day time period which is pretty ridiculously crazy i don't know what to think or do) with an answer to my question:
"It says “Ducklerfish” and it is extremely rare. In fact, this is the only Ducklerfish in existence. It’s simply an Hanklerfish that looked kinda like a duck because I screwed it up.It’s nice to see he found a good home!"
Which is totally and completely awesome. I think this is the most random but awesome thing that has happened and is definitely and awesome start to 2012!
I also have to say that this is completely fitting. You see, when it comes to making purchases I have extremely bad luck. I'm the type of person who goes out and decides to buy an iPod or a computer monitor and when I bring it home find that it just happens to be faulty. So here I am with a faulty Hanklerfish and I absolutely love it.
Thanks to everyone for all their help and theories :)
Coming into Prometheus, you are fully aware that most of the characters who are paraded infront of you in the first 20 minutes aren't going to make it to the end of the film. We all know how this genre works. We all know how to tell which characters are going to bite it first. When you look at the crew of The Prometheus, a handfull of the people do not even get names. You know they're done for. I went into this with as much of an open mind as possible, but within the introduction of the crew I knew that the only one to survive had to be Shaw. She was the only human who had a somewhat rounded character. She also seemed like the kind of character that a Director would just love to torture. And how how Ridley does.
We also get to see the face of the Engineers... which I so fondly described to a friend as: A Jacked Up Voldemort who got Botox... and a Nose.
The Map of Time tells three interconnecting stories that center around the use and discussion of time travel. H.G. Wells' most recent novel The Time Machine and the recent opening of Murray's Time Travel Company, time travel is on the minds of everyone. Murray's Time Travel offers those who can pay the steep price a trip to the year 2000 to watch the final battle between the humans and the automatons.
SECOND PRO
Here's another book for my Science Fiction Course! This book is not really science fiction. It does possess science fiction elements in the form of giant lizard creatures (think Godzilla) and the idea of letting them lose on Japan to bring the Second World War to a firey, lizard-ocalypse. As you can guess, this book is a fun ride.
So today I went out to the theatres and took part in what many people label a cash grab on Disney's part. Maybe that's exactly what it was, but seeing it on the big screen was totally worth it. When Beauty and the Beast came out in 1991, I was way too young to go to the theatre and sit still through an entire movie (or so my parents decided) so when I was first introduced to the movie, it was at home on my TV Screen. I'm not exactly sure what sparked the re-release of the Disney movies back into theatres, but I'm assuming the success of The Lion King had a major effect.
