My Favorite Movie Adaptations

Posted on March 29, 2014 by Ana

I would have to say that books and movies are two of my absolute favorite things.
So when there is a movie adaption of one of my favorite books, count me in… even if it means that I will end up utterly disappointed, mad with world, crying my eyes out (most of the times), making me momentarily loose all the faith in the human race.

Favorite Movie Adaptations (by no particular order):

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – This is probably my favorite book trilogy, I cannot tell you how much of a nerd I am concerning LOTR. Peter Jackson dusted off the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy, published in the mid-’50s, in a film trilogy that boasted a first-rate cast and never-before-seen special effects, especially in its creation of Gollum, a CGI creature voiced and embodied by actor Andy Serkis. It won a well-deserved Best Picture Oscar, among others, for the final 2003 installment. I will admit that I watch this trilogy every single month (sometimes more than once :P)

The Harry Potter Series – I grew up reading these series and I LOVE the books and the movies, some a little more than others, still I love them. Though they occasionally suffered from being too close to a literal interpretation of the books, the Harry Potter movies by and large proved that a fantasy series could be brought to the big screen in glorious, engaging, humanized detail and satisfy the vast majority of its all-ages readership.
I’m a big fan o J.K.Rowling and I’m thankful to her every single day for welcoming me to the wonderful world of literature.
The Notebook – I like to consider Mr.Sparks one of the biggest romance writers of our generation.
The heartbreaking 2004 adaptation of Mr.Sparks’ first novel about a lifelong, tortured love affair made Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams instant stars. Subsequent Sparks books-to-films have not fared as well. As a Notebook book fan, I have to say that the movie in my honest opinion the movie is really faithful.
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – So.. An adaptation and a Hollywood re-make. I wouldn’t usually touch this with a ten foot barge poll and initially I got on my high horse and said, ‘No.. Not even going to watch it when it comes to DVD.’ Having seen the Swedish trilogy I was already annoyed because I believed they just didn’t come up to scratch to the extraordinary trilogy of books by Stieg Larsson. What made me give it a try was what my two of my friends said, both lovers of the book too, when they came back from watching it at the cinema. They said it was good and that they really enjoyed the watch, but I wasn’t inclined to believe them. Then I asked, How did it end?’ ‘It ended as it did in the first book.’ they told me. Well.. this grabbed me. The Swedish films missed out this part, which devastated me because it missed out one of the most interesting character developments that then make the next two books so interesting. The American version’s dedication to the preservation of the literature and even the locations and settings is something that blew me away. I loved the story from the books an this film doesn’t mess with it. Brilliant.
Requiem for a Dream – Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream is arguably one of the best anti-drug films to come out of Hollywood in the past few decades. Based on the acclaimed Hubert Selby Jr novel of the same name, the film explores addiction in its purest form. The beauty of the film is that it itself is an addiction that sucks you in with its brilliant script, soundtrack, characterization, and cinematography until you’re hooked, and then the inevitable happens. Like Trainspotting, the film projects the effects that drugs has on the mind on screen, but unlike the Danny Boyle classic, there is no bleak humor, there is no comic relief at all. This film simply injects itself into your veins and stays there for a very long time.

So far these are the ones that make my Top 5 favorites.
I do have to say that I’m looking forward to a few movie adaptations coming out this year, such as:

The Fault in Our Stars,
Divergent,
The Maze Runner,
The Giver,
Gone Girl,
Mockingjay.

Top Ten Tuesday – Fictional Characters that I’d crush on

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Ana

I’ve been reading a lot of top ten Tuesday posts from other bloggers and some of them have inspired me.
This weeks topic: Top Ten Fictional Boys I Would Crush On If I Were Also Fictional or if they were real. The only problem is that I just don’t know if I can narrow it down to ten. These authors know how to create some very attractive gentleman.

(In no particular order)

George Knightly (Jane Austen’s Emma) – I know that most people go for Mr.Darcy, and I though we would be in my top ten, but giving it a second though, Mr.Knightly is a much better choice. He is everything that Mr. Darcy should be and a little bit more. He’s funny, sweet, loyal, he wants to help the people that he loves be better and guess what? He’s smart enough to marry is best friend.
Park Sheridan (Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park) – First of all, he’s half-Korean. I just can’t being to describe how much I crush on good looking Korean guys. 😛 Park is such a great character. He likes comic books, awesome music taste, great sense of style. He’s the sweetest, cutest, most interesting fictional boy that I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. I can’t even being to describe my feelings for him.
Augustus Waters (John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars) – Augustus Waters is the boyfriend I always wanted and the boyfriend I was (am) also scared to love so much. He’s sweet, he’s sarcastic, he introduces you to video games and makes them really dirty and hysterical, and the most important, he’ll be there for you in the hard times. He is the guy who gives up his own Make-A-Wish request to make sure you got to live your life’s dream. He’ll waste no time because he knows that’s the one thing he can’t give, so he makes sure that all the time you spend together is worth it. But the one true thing that makes Augustus probably one of the best is that he’ll truly love you until the very end.
Etienne St.Clair (Stephanie Perkins Anna and The French Kiss) – It’s really hard not to love Etienne. He’s an America boy with a British accent and French name. He may be a little bit on the short size, but that doesn’t really matter, since he’s so smart, interesting, charming and totally sweet. I just can’t help myself but smile when thinking about him.
Jase Garrett (Huntley Fitzpatrick’s My Life Next Door) – There isn’t much to be said about Jase, but the fact that he is very much perfect. He’s sweet, funny, beautiful and sexy, caring and hardworking.
Peeta Mellark (Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games) – This catch of a man is clever and classy, rebellious and realistic. With his sharp wit and determination, Peeta is a natural leader who is man enough to let the strong lady in his life shine. Most importantly, he possesses that most underrated of human qualities: kindness. I just find Peeta such a good person and let’s not forget that he bakes!
Ronald Weasley (J.K.Rowling’s Harry Potter) – I think that has a boyfriend, Ron would totally be the type to make sure you didn’t take everything so seriously, and let’s face it, if you’re even slightly as high strung as Hermione can be at times, you totally need someone like Ron in your life to remind you not to sweat the small stuff! He’s fiercely loyal and unafraid to stand by his friends, even when it means putting his own life on the line, and I’d say that makes Mr. Ron Weasley quite the catch indeed!
Gilbert Blythe (Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables) – Gilbert is one of the most wonderful men ever written about, period. From the time he was about thirteen, he has wanted one thing: Anne Shirley’s love. He is most girls’ idea of “the perfect man,” one who waited for her for years. He’s so funny and smart and sweet and handsome. Love him.
Tobias Eaton/Four (Veronica Roth’s Divergent) – Tobias is the bad boy fantasy of my list. He’s tall and dark, has deep blue eyes, and a full lower lip (YUM!). He’s mysterious, quiet, and likes to think of things first before he does something. He’s also intelligent and loving.
Daemon Black (Jennifer L.Armentrout) – Daemon is great, that said there isn’t much more to be said. Sexy and arrogant and brooding and hilarious with a very sweet and compassionate side.

I had such a hard time to narrow it down to just ten and I know that I’m probably missing some very important names in here, but this is really difficult. 😛
I would love to know your fictional crushes are! So that I know that I’m not alone with my obsession with fictional man.

Ana

Soundtrack of the day

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Ana

I’m one of those people that love to listen to music while reading.
So since I posted the review for the Divergent Trilogy, I tough it would be only proper to share with you the album that accompanied me from finish to start.

The Carpenter by The Avett Brothers.

Genre: Folk Rock

Length: 46:40

Winter in my heart and February Seven are my two absolute favorite tracks.
They just make me feel happy and warm inside.

Divergent Trilogy Review

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Ana

Rating:

I have to admit that I wasn’t that keen on reading this books, I don’t really know why, but they were on my reading list for months.
So last month I decided since the movie is coming out soon, I might as well give it a go before watching the movie.
To anyone out there that is having second thoughts on reading this books, please don’t! It was quite a good reading, with quite a few disappointments, but still, worth the time.

The series is set in a dystopian version of Chicago, where the population is divided into factions, kind of like in The Hunger Games where the world is divided into 13 districts (or 12 if you don’t count District 13) or even in Harry Potter where they are divided into different houses. Divergent is set after a terrible war, everyone lives by one of five principles: the selfless Abnegation, the brave Dauntless, the intelligent Erudite, the peaceful Amity, the honest Candor. At sixteen a person takes a test to see which principle they best emulate, and then they must choose to either stay in the faction they were born, or choose to leave their family to emulate a different principle and live with a different faction.

The young adult series has firmly landed Veronica Roth on the top of the best-seller list, but I have to say I wasn’t terribly impressed with the trilogy as whole. Maybe because I don’t really agree with finale and the third book seemed I little rushed to me. The first book – Divergent – was probably my favorite. It tells us all about this new fascinating world, and the main character, Tris, was compelling and engaging in a not obnoxious and whiny way like some of the YA protagonists out there. All three books are narrated from Tris perspective (except the last book of the series, which is alternated from Tris to Four). Tris is a Divergent – someone who doesn’t categorize in just one faction – and the series revolve mostly around that fact.

I’m a big fan of the romance in this books. Tris becomes romantically involve with Four – also called Tobias – who she first meets because he is her tutor/teacher. I know that some people didn’t quite agree with the idea of the heroine being involve with a Teacher, but I just don’t see what’s the problem. It’s a completely different world, he is only two years older than her and there is no rule against it. So I say why not? I would love to be romantically involve with Four. 😛

Unfortunately, the things I liked about Divergent didn’t get carried through the series very well and Insurgent and Allegiant developed far more problems as the series went on.

I could argue that Insurgent is the worst of all three books simply because it features far too much of Tris and Four bickering and arguing, with a lot of sexual tension in between. Now, I get that Veronica is apparently deeply uncomfortable in writing love scenes, but that doesn’t mean that you can make the rest of us feel frustrated about it. I think that with so much bigger problems to be discussed, Veronica, decided to focused on the problems of their relationship and to not resolve them until the end of the book.

The plot of Allegiant revolves around human nature and requires an explanation of genetics. Most portions of this explanation are straight up wrong, and genetics isn’t exactly complicated science either. So yeah, a “science fiction” series which is anti-science is probably not the best thing for me to be reading, and may have biased my opinion. Still I more than happy to discover that Tris and Four overcome their relationship issues to establish a bond of mutual trust and respect.

That said, I think there are several fundamental problems with the series on the writing front. Veronica seemed to eager to finish the series and didn’t really took time to think the second and the third book through. The majority of the characters are not very well-developed. The protagonist, Tris, and several of the major villains have their motives extensively detailed, and Tris in particular fights an interesting psychological battle with herself over the course of the series. But most of the minor characters are woefully underdeveloped, and large portions of the population tend to act as the plot tells them too, and not in a natural or convincing manner. The author seems to have particular issues with portraying male characters realistically, and I felt the most prominent male characters, Tobias, Marcus, Perter and David were all forced to act against the characters established for them in order to provide resolution for the series.

With this in mind, I liked the first book, and thought it showed promise, but the second two books really fell flat for me. Still I recommend this series, at least the first book.

One last note, and this may be a little spoilery so if you haven’t read the series and plan to you may want to skip this last paragraph. Love also becomes a central theme, true selfless, sacrificial love. While many readers were angry with the conclusion to the final book (I have to say that, I was one of those angry people in the beginning, because I couldn’t understand why would the author, after making the characters go through so much pain, would not give them a happy ending), keeping these themes in mind, the book concludes exactly as it should, and is ultimately beautiful, true and poetic.

Ana