Quote #194

"He grew away from old associations, and saw something new in life and humanity. Secondarily, he made close acquaintance with phenomena which he had before known but darkly-the seasons in their moods, morning and evening, night and noon, winds in their different tempers, trees, waters, and mists, shades and silences, and the voices of inanimate things."
~Thomas Hardy

Quote #193

"Duty of a citizen to the defective state is to betray it. Because the defective state has already betrayed its citizens."
~Ilkin Santak

Quote #192

"You think you've accepted that someone is out of your life, that you've grieved and it's over, and then bam. One little thing, and you feel like you've lost that person all over again."
~Rachel Hawkins

Quote #191

"Eventually, everything goes away."
~Elizabeth Gilbert

Quote #190

"That voice was a part of who she was-warrior to her core, beautiful disaster...unintentional nightmare."
~Gena Showalter 

Quote #189

"I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skill is in their capacity to escalate."
~Markus Zusak

Quote #188

"Because normal human activity is is worse for nature than the greatest nuclear accident in history."
~Martin Cruz Smith

Quote #187

"We're all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding."
~Rudyard Kipling

Quote #186

"The saints are in the black list."
~Ilkin Santak

Quote #185

"They are so frail, humans. So easily crumpled and broken, like flower petals underfoot."
~Jennifer Hudock 

Quote #184

"We stumble on, bring a little noise into the silence, find in others the ongoing of ourselves. It is almost enough."
~Colum McCann 

'City of Bones' Film Review

Hey, guys, I am doing another film review! I couldn't not do one for this movie, though! I'm a Shadowhunter, so it would be borderline disgraceful. Anyway, to the review we get.

GUYS! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS! I'm not going to sensor spoilers! If you have not read the book, or are at least not okay with being spoiled, then you need to LEAVE! Go read the book, see the movie, then come back and read, okay? If you have viewed and read, or are okay with being spoiled, then read on! 

The novel City of Bones in the Mortal Instruments series came out as a movie today, and I of course, had to go see it! It was directed by Harald Zwart, Lily Collins played our main character, Clary, and Jamie Campbell Bower played Jace! Simon was played by Robert Sheehan! 

This was an amazing movie! I had my issues with Kevin and Jemima before seeing the movie, but the film completely erased all of my doubts! Kevin and Jemima, along with Lily, Jamie, Robbie, Lena, Aidan, and Jonathan, were spectacular! I was just a tad worried about Godfrey being a model and all, but he delivered his lines and character very well. We truly have a wonderful cast. 

They didn't say the characters names as often as I would have liked them to. Sometimes I would be sitting there going, when was the last time they called Alec by his name? Simon did a good job of calling Isabelle by her name, though, so that was good. 

Harald really stuck to how the book went, for the most part, but every film adaptation has to be a bit different. 

The greenhouse scene was amazing. It looked great in the trailers, but it was even better in the real film. Lily and Jamie really do have a wonderful chemistry together, and it is so easy for me to really imagine them as the characters. It was really how I pictured it from the book. It was so SURREAL to see all this that I had been dreaming of coming to life in front of me!

The Madame Dorothea scene was really the only major problem I had, and it was only major compared to my other problems with the movie. It just wasn’t like from the book, and I really wanted it to be more like the scene from the book. I wanted Simon to shoot the skylight,because that was really clever and really how he gained sort of the “trust” of the other Shadowhunters. I wanted Dorothea to change to Abbadon, because that would just have been so amazing to see on the big screen. And, there was no Portal in her apartment, but that wasn’t a big thing for me. 

I kind of think that in the beginning to the film, when Jace says that demons can take possession of any living thing, and that you can’t trust anyone, that might have been a bit of a warning to the fans like, ‘hey, we’re not going to put Abbadon in here, we’re just going to make Dorothea herself a demon’. 

I loved the whole concept of Bach’s notes! First, you must understand what a big classical music fan I am. I naturally loved that they included Bach in the movie. :P I just really thought that was something really clever of them to include, because it wasn’t in the book. I loved that the double-crossing notes is almost poisonous to demons, and used to detect them! And then Jace, I totally saw him catching onto Dorothea when she told him to leave all of his weapons outside. And then him doing the thing with the piano notes was just so cool to watch! They really did do that scene well, it was just that I really think it would have been very beneficial to have it more like from the novel.

The Simon/Jace/Clary scene broke my heart! And it really was very easy to tell the Shadowhunters from the mundanes in my theater because whenever an important scene came up, or a comment from the book was used, they would ooh and ahh and scream along with me, my sister, Steven, and EG. And me, my sister, and EG dressed up, so I was in black jeans, a black tank, black boots, and all runed up, and when we came into the theater, from the cluster of Shadowhunters I could hear ‘look, they dressed up!’! It was really nice to be around other people from the fandom, though there weren’t as many as I had hoped, and I really did feel very comfortable to be noisy and friendly, because it felt like I was just in my own living room watching a movie with people who didn’t expect me to quiet. I mean, of course I was still respectful, I didn’t scream or anything, I just was noisier than I normally was. 

They really didn't give a lot of attention to Alec and Jace being parabatai. The focus seemed to really be on Alec being in love with Jace, which I'm glad that they didn't shy away from Alec being gay, I'm not complaining, but I think it would have added way more depth to both their characters to spend like five minutes explaining parabatai and that bound that they have.

They never mentioned that Magnus’s party was for his cat. Just a minor thing. 

When the Portal in the Institute shattered, i really wish there had been a piece left for Jace to pick up, like he did in the book. I would have been fine with it being an ice shard, rather than a glass shard, as long as he had a shard to look at, because that really helps along some of the events in City of Ashes. I mean, after this movie I have lots of faith in the directing crew to think of a way to make those events happen, but I hope that it is still like the book way. 

Simon was not turned into a rat. That really was a key type thing, because it added humor to the Hotel Dumort scene. They're about to die fighting, and then the one vampire is like 'what this evil rat? Oh, he's bit like a bijillion times, gosh, just take him!'. Instead, the scene was very, deadly. Which I liked, mind you! I just really liked the scene when Isabelle comes up, 'and is like 'he's rat', and then that whole exchange with Alec and Jace! i wouldn't have minded if we'd seen him turned into a rat, then the vampires had taken him, and he'd changed back at the hotel and they'd tied him up. I just wanted rat-Simon. 

I really liked, however, that we saw the bite marks on Simon's shoulder. It was a nice building step to his transformation in City of Ashes, that way they will save some time in explaining all that then. It was really quick, and simple, but it saved time later. That part when Simon was putting his glasses on and off was hilarious! i loved that little bit of humor, then they explained why he didn't need them anymore to the non-readers using the bite-mark as a hint. Very clever.

I know a lot of people have a problem that they told the audience that Jace and Clary are not brother and sister, but I understand it. Incest is a HUGE risk to take, and I don't think people get that. If we want the rest of these movies, this one needs to do well. It was a very subtle way of sneaking it in there, it wasn't like Valentine said, 'I know that the kids aren't related but, Hodge, I'm gonna tell them they are anyway!'. Hodge very sneakily said, 'if you lie to them and say that they are, it will break their hearts'. I understand and agree with their decision to expose the incest plot-line. 

This was over-all a great movie. Like a nine-star movie. It was wonderful to Shadowhunters and to non-readers. I love this movie, and highly recommend it. 

Quote #183

"Everybody is talented because everyone who is human has something to express."
~Brenda Ueland

Quote #182

"I'll measure your words against your actions, and from that I'll prove your worth."
~Jackie Kessler

Quote #181

"Though we longed not to be lonely, we also feared the pain it would take us to be brought out of our lonely states. And after that fear, could we be guaranteed that we would never be returned to a state of loneliness again? We could not."
~Edward Carey

Quote #180

"It is of men, and of them only, that one should always be frightened."
~Louis-Ferdinand Celine

Quote #179

"A broken soul is not the absence of beauty, but a cracked and torn soul reeks of the sweet incense it contains."
~C JoyBell C

Quote #178

"If citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us."
~Carl Sagan

Quote #177

"How wrong we were to think immortality meant never dying."
~Gerad Way

Quote #176

"Because inside me is a beast that snarls, and growls, and strains toward freedom...and as hard as I can try, I cannot kill it."
~Veronica Roth

Quote #175

"There are such repulsive faces in the world."
~Leo Tolstoy

Quote #174

"It's an unnerving thought that we may be the living universe's supreme achievement and its worst nightmare simultaneously."
~Bill Bryson

Quote #173

"'They didn't understand what they were doing'. I'm afraid that will be on the tombstone of the human race."
~Micheal Crichton

Quote #172

"It is so painfully easy to define human beings. They are beings who, for no good reason at all, create their own unnecessary suffering."
~Soseki Natsume

Quote #171

"Isn't everyone a part of everyone else?"
~Budd Schulberg

Quote #170

"I have to believe much in God because I have lost faith in man."
~Jose Rizal

'Sea of Monsters' Film Review

This is new, huh? Normally these things come before a book review, but today, I saw the movie, and I am going to right a review! Let's hope this goes well...

There will be spoilers! I'm sorry, but there are just going to be so many, that I'm not going to sensor them. So, if you haven't read the book, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! 

The novel Sea of Monsters in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series was released as a film today on the big screen! Directed by Thor Fruedenthal, Logan Lerman returned to play Percy, our main character! Alexandra Daddario also came back to play Annabeth(Thank GOD they dyed her hair!), and Brandon T Jackson played Grover again. 

This movie was definitely different from the book, as to be expected. However, I am pleased to say it was much better than The Lightning Thief adaptation! So, we open with a voice-over from our beloved Percy, giving us a recap from The Lightning Thief, because, guys, it's been three years and, uh, WE NEED IT. We leave the voice-over, only after a Twilight-worthy tree line shot, and jump right into a prologue of Luke, Annabeth, and Thalia's Grover-guided journey to Camp Half-Blood, and Thalia's sacrifice. (Another recap that we needed, as it was completely cut from the last movie.) We then head straight in to this bizarre, spinning, poking, giant-helmet-topped, what I think was an obstacle course scene. 

Grover did not start out captured as he did in the novel, but he was eventually captured, so for the most part I am satisfied with that plot thread. It was key, we got it in some way or another. I loved that they included the coordinates given by the Gray Sisters to Percy. I wish Luke and Hermes looked a bit more like each other, but, that's a really small detail. I did like the actor who played Hermes. We got George and Martha! Oh, they were so wonderful! Not how I pictured them, but they were there! They were in the movie, how can I complain?

A note on the manticore, though, what was it's purpose? They snuck past it once, and then it stabbed Annabeth. I really think we could have achieved the Fleece-healing-Annabeth plot thread differently without adding a weird manticore into the film. Kronus could have threw her, one of Luke's thugs could have stabbed her, we just really could have done something much better. The manticore just felt unneeded and extra. However, the CGI was very well done. That was a definite plus; a lot of the mystical elements looked very real. 

What was with this 'Mist in a bottle' thing? Couldn't Tyson have just wore his sunglasses all the time? But, there's a lens over where his right eye should be, and one where his left eye should be, but his one eye is in the middle of his head, so I feel like that would be blinding him. 

Uhm, they got swallowed??? What? That never happened, and again, really what was that purpose? We met up with Clarisse. That's it. They could have easily done that differently, but I am glad we got at least one monster in the journey to Polyphemus's island, because we got no other monsters! I was really looking forward to getting my guinea pig scene with Circe, and the Siren scene, where Annabeth has that flashback-type-thingy. I did not get my fatal flaw talk, as I wanted and that I feel was very important to Percy, and Annabeth's, character. 

I don't remember Kronus reforming in the Sea of Monsters novel, did he? I did not like Kronus ate Luke! I think that might kind of break some trust when Kronus wants Luke to host him, right? That's not just me? I wouldn't be doing anyone who ate me any favors!

Tyson didn't "die" like he was supposed to, but he did die and come back, so that plot thread was just achieved in a different way, so I'm not going to complain. I still got Grover in a wedding dress, but, did Clarisse pull out a PHONE? Seriously? I'm surprised that Polyphemus wasn't picking up those signals and knew they were there immediately! And before that, Annabeth looked up a cure for Thalia's tree of a TABLET! Electronics, I do not think should have been in the movie at all. 

Annabeth was blonde, and I like Alexandra as Annabeth. Logan Lerman was good, don't like that Grover was black only because he wasn't in the book, and they really did modify his character. 

It was a much better adaptation than The Lightning Thief, and for that I am very grateful. Good CGI, semi-correct plot, good small details; I am very glad it did not turn out like The Lightning Thief. 

Quote #169

"In solitude we realize that nothing human is alien to us."
~Henri J M Nouwen

Quote #168

"We must all make do with the rags of love we find flapping on thee scarecrow of humanity."
~Angela Carter

Quote #167

"I held it truth, with him who sings,
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping-stones,
Of their dead selves to higher things."
~Lord Alfred Tennyson

Quote #166

"Emotion are what makes us human. Makes us real."
~Robert T Kiyosaki

Quote #165

"The more inhuman we became the more we understood each other as humans."
~Cameron Conaway

Quote #164

"Humanity is a comic role."
~Novalis