Game of Thrones: Dreams for Season 3

Game of Thrones: Dreams for Season 3

Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk

I am in love with Game of Thrones, my DVR is full of all the available season so far, I read up to book 3 so far cause I like to watch the show and read the book within close proximity to each other. After watching season one and two with my friends to prepare for season three I look back at the challenges interpreting a book to film can present.

                Season one and two were very well made and the casting choices so far have been phenomenal, well my personal preference might start to get in here  I felt that Melisandra could have been a little more exotic, and so far Game of Thrones only has one black guy and he’s a pirate. I wish in the last seasons I could have seen a better ineraction of Sansa and the Hound to show their very “intense” relationship and the hidden side to the Hound that many don’t see. Daenerys I wished we got to see her develop more of a character that she is rather than the other forces pushing her forward that the series is doing to her. In the novel Daenerys has this internal struggle between trying to find a way to recover her birthright and trying to stand all on her own for the first time. The series rather uses certain situations that causes her to behave in a cause and reaction but doesn’t spend the time to build up her internal struggles that eats away at her

                Enough looking to the past and to view toward the future with 3 episodes deep into Season 3 of Game of Thrones in the time line we are in book three Storm of Swords in the series a Song of Ice and Fire. I want to see Same Slay a White Walker, Jon and Ingrid finally just get it over with. More Dire wolves , enough said; Arya Stark need to be to be more confident and bring back her spirit , so far Kristin Steward from the Twilight series is doing a better job. I’m happy that the CGI  artists at HBO are doing a better job of making the Dragons look much fiercer than the small dogs that they were last season. I cannot wait to see how they finish this season with a huge spoiler right here The Red wedding where there’s a huge massacre of main characters will be portrayed will be fantastic.

Colin N.

Gods Behaving Badly

Be ready and read because Gods Behaving Badly is coming to a theather by you. So while we wait for a trailer the novel Gods Behaving Badly to premier why not get a poorly written review by me. Greek mythology is a fantastic topic and I love the stories behind each god, between their constant meddling in mortal affairs and the high amount of sex what’s not to love about it.  Then if that suites your fancy then I recommend reading Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Philips. What a fantastic read, there a nice appearance of the pretty much the main Gods of   Olympus but they got displaced from their high mountain and are bumming around in London sharing a Flat.

So its basically the jersey shore is you know with Gods. Apollo like the guy who prime was being the high school football star and he’s trying to cope with not being in the spotlight. Artemis is that girl that exercise all the makes even the most athletic of people feel fat. Aphrodite is well…um… she’s special and bit of a not a nice word. Seeing how I am falling head over heels for three out of the twelve that make an appearance Philips really did her research. Philips made seamless transitions into references and used material to spin both the contemporary living of modern London and the historical background of the Gods from ancient Greece very well it’s had a really good flow to it. The Mortals involved in the book tend to be the rather oblivious bystanders to the Gods and its great fun to watch them squirm. I would recommend this book its you’re a fan of Greek mythology , looking for a light and funny read , and wonder what your favorite gods are up to. Fun fact Christopher Walken is playing Zuess, which is many levels of awesome.

                Colin N.

Carrie III

“They’re all gonna laugh at you”

I guess 3^rd time is the charm. The acclaimed novel from Stephan King, Carrie is going to be remade into a movie, again. The novel published in 1974 was King’s first one.

Sissy Spacek in 1976 Carrie

The story Carrie is about an outcast high school girl who is tormented by her peers and her overly religious mother. In one particular scene Carrie gets her first menstruation and believes she is hemorrhaging and dying. Instead of the girls in the locker rooms helping her, they decide to humiliate her. As punishment for the girls who ridiculed her, they are not allowed to go to the senior Prom. Carrie discovers that she has an unusual gift, telepathy; she can make objects move without touching them. One of the girls feels remorse for Carrie and asks her boyfriend to assort Carrie to prom. The other girls feel no remorse and plot against Carrie. They plot to make her Prom Queen and humiliate her by pouring pig’s blood over her. They succeed, but Carrie unleashed the rage inside of her. Carrie used her telepathy to wreak havoc on all who made fun of her. Carrie destroys everything and everyone insight, and finally herself.  

It was first remade in 1976, starring Sissy Spacek and John Travolta. It became extremely popular. It holds some truth to the novel. Stephen King acknowledged the film was better than his book.

Angela Bettis in 2002 Carrie

Carrie was remade again in a TV movie in 2002, starry Angela Bettis as Carrie. What was different from this movie to the first one was that the newer adaptation has scenes of Carrie’s childhood, which was in the novel. The 2002 film created a different ending where Carrie was meant to live.

Chloe Grace Mortez in 2013 Carrie

The newest remake is set for Halloween time this year. Starring the trailblazing young actress Chloë Grace Mortez. Entertainment Weekly also reported that the film is going to be a “more faithful adaptation” of the book. Personally, I think Mortez is way too pretty, the production team should have drabbed that girl up. Carrie is supposed to be an ugly girl. I am very excited to see how this adaptation will play out. If you are a Stephan King fan then I suggest you check out the previous movies and go see Carrie in theaters October 18.

Danielle D.

The Host: Book-to-Movie Review

            The Host is one of Stephenie Meyer’s better written novels. Not only is the 600+ page novel better written, but the story itself gives a more thorough and in depth look at this fictional world. I personally think it is better written and a better story than the Twilight series. Unlike Twilight, this is not a saga. The Host is a one novel story. It takes place in a futuristic world where an alien race called “Souls” has invaded earth. They survive by inserting themselves into the bodies of humans, taking over control of the body. However, the humans are able to survive within their own bodies and resist the Souls due to the human’s powerful will and memories. In the past, the Souls has coexisted with the beings of the other worlds they have invaded, but the humans are more violent than those other beings and therefore the Souls have decided to completely take over. The Souls are taking over the earth to restore peace and balance to it. They believe that their actions are not wrong or murderous, because their intentions are about helping make the world a better place. The humans view this as a form of genocide. A small group of humans have been able to survive being possessed by these aliens and are hiding out and fighting back. The story follows human Melanie and the soul possessing her named Wanderer as the two fall in love, Melanie with Jared and Wanderer with Ian.

             The books were rather successful and the movie has had an okay reception grossing about $20 million domestically, but they are not as popular as the Twilight Saga. I went to see the movie on Friday, April 5, 2013. I thought the movie was well cast with capable actors. Unlike the Twilight cast, the cast of The Host were very capable actors and were not as cold as some of the actors in Twilight were. Although this story gets compared to Twilight, there is not much that is similar. The only similarities are that both are fantasy stories, both are written by the same author and both have very good looking young actors. Other than that the quality of the stories as well as the plots, are not similar at all. I think The Host was much better written, and the story was much more interesting because it had more depth to it. However there were some differences in the book and the movie.

             I do agree though with most fans, that the concept of the book works better in novel format than in movie format. The first major difference is the explanation of what has happened to the human race. Meyer did a good job of giving a thorough explanation of what has happened and who the “Souls” are but the movie flies by that and gives a very surface explanation of it. The other difference is that the love story between Melanie and Jared is told through flashback as Wanderer is accessing Melanie’s memories. Wanderer is given an option about how to deal with Melanie’s resistance in the movie, but she is not given any options in the book. In the movie, the character development in the story is rushed, as is the progression of the story. However, we do get to see movie action of what the male characters are doing, instead of just getting this information from Wanderer or Melanie, we see it happening. Also, the relationship between Wanderer and Melanie is rushed. They very quickly turn from being enemies to becoming best friends. Overall there are many differences between the movies and the books, which is normal for many books-to-movie adaptations. Since I do not want to give any of the story away; anyone looking for more information about the differences can visit: http://thatwasnotinthebook.com/diff/the-host/0#diffPage. I have not used any of the information provided from their website since I did not want to spoil the movie or the book for you.

            Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. There are many things I missed about the books, such as how in depth the books were, but I love being able to visual stories I have read. I think the movie was well cast and the main actors in the movie are all capable actors and actresses. I think anyone looking for a good love story with a side of action should go see this movie. Saoirse Ronan is reason enough to go see it. Overall, I think the movie was great and did a pretty good job of portraying such a complex concept as having two people in one body. However, there could have been improvements to the movie. There was a lot of time spent on just visual aspects of the movie, and there were many explanations, character developments and relationships left out of the movie, which gave substance to the book. Although the movie was well made and well cast, I do not think it was that good. Therefore I generously give this movie a 3.5/5 for the cast alone. However, I do recommend people go see it. It is entertaining after all. 

~ Sarina T

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images used in this blog post. The views and opinions in this post do not reflect the opinions of the other two bloggers.

Off to see the Wizard

Off to see the Wizard

The Great and Powerful Oz

To start off spring break on a good note be and my fellow Blogger Dani and I went to go see The Great and Powerful Oz. The worst thing about going to a movie on a Wednesday at 2pm is that it is empty, we were the only people there to see it in 3D, which made for an interesting experience. So the movie was staring James Franco as OZ, Mila Kunis as Thedora, Rachel Weisz as the evil Evanora, Michelle Williams as the good witch Glinda seem to be a nice formula for a Wizard of Oz spin off movie. The movie was a mixture of new and the old, subtle hints to the original movie while giving the movie its own tone. Unlike the original Wizard of Oz the lack of musical numbers is made up for well-timed heartfelt moments and a good sense of humor. While they gave some subtle hints to the origins of other original cast of the Wizard of Oz I felt that the tin man was missing from the rest of the film. The introduction of other themes and unfinished plot holes were aplenty, what happened to the cowardly lion, was he a friend of Glinda? What about the porcelain girl’s town and family that was destroyed by the Evil witches and that she and went through the five stages of grief very fast, she should write a book on grieving.

The visual design of Oz was breathe taking and they pulled out all the stops to make it not only feel like you were returning or visiting Oz for the first time all the while adding a distinct feel to the world of Oz. There were time that the 3D was overwhelming, I never quite understood why people enjoy having CGI spears being thrown at their face, and it does take away from the experience during the more action intense scenes. While there was a lot of talk about magic, there was very little use of magic between all the witches and I was left wanting more from the final confrontation. Besides my complaints I felt that the CGI and the backgrounds worked in smoothly and was a great re-imagination of the world of Oz.

Colin N.