Tag Archives: reviews

I read “Out of the Silent Planet”!

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Hello!

I recently read C.S. Lewis’s “Out of the Silent Planet”. It’s the first of his space trilogy.

I enjoyed it. It was not, however, exactly like I was expecting. It was exactly like I should have expected, but I didn’t actually quite believe it. You see, people had told me it was “C.S. Lewis writes a sci-fi story”. And it really is. But just like when people told me Firefly was a space western, I didn’t actually expect the cows, I didn’t expect “Out of the Silent Planet” to actually really so closely follow the ideals of sci-fi story-telling.

It was fun.

Enjoy!

Rather late review of Thor 2

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Greetings, readers!

I had been very delayed in watching Thor 2: The Dark World. However, I recently rectified the situation.

Overall, I rather enjoyed it. This is especially because of the existence of Loki; without that character, the movie would have fallen rather flat for me.

as it is, however, Loki’s mischief and one-liners helped bring life to an otherwise… scattered… movie.

The visual effects were also rather lovely.

I have yet to decide if the fact that the movie started with a scene quite reminiscent of Lord of the Rings was a positive or a negative contribution.

Regardless, I am pleased at having finally seen it.

Have a lovely day.

I can officially recommend “Oathbringer”

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Greetings, readers!

Yesterday, I was (FINALLY) able to finish reading Oathbringer. I can therefore now tell you that I have read it, and really enjoyed it. I also continue to very highly recommend the Stormlight Archives series by Brandon Sanderson.

And if you are able to, I also recommend reading Warbreaker. Not only is it available for free from the author’s website, but also it gets referenced in Oathbringer. (One of the fantastic things Sanderson does is set a number of his stories in the same universe… and then have crossovers. Or the equivalent thereof.)

Enjoy.

Guardians Vol. 2: Minor Credits Spoiler

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Hi!

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I got to see Guardians of the Galaxy recently. And as you may have noticed from the promos and everything, the young Groot is basically the cutest, most absolutely adorable character ever.

Part of it is the continuing gag from the first film, where Groot will say his line (“I am Groot”) and Rocket (the raccoon) will translate. And even the credits played with this. Periodically, the words “I am Groot” would show up… and then promptly be translated.

It was very well done.

Anyway, have a lovely day!

The Disappointment Known as “Supergirl”

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Readers, I am disappointed.

I decided to watch the first episode of the new series “Supergirl” recently. I had seen commercials for it, and it looked like it might be potentially interesting.

My response, however, was significantly less than enthusiastic.

It started off well enough. The scene at the very beginning was emotional enough. The young actress did a reasonable job of portraying a young girl saying goodbye to her family for forever.

After our heroine arrived on Earth, however, things went downhill. Granted, it was nice that she saw her cousin. However, if family was truly important, her cousin (Superman) should have taken an active part in her adjustment to life on earth. Instead, she gets placed with foster-parents who supposedly helped Superman figure out some of his powers and things, and their daughter. This leads to one of my biggest problems with the pilot episode:

The sister relationship.

As mentioned, we meet the adopted sister (who obviously is jealous of our heroine) only very briefly.

The producers even threw in the “staring moodily out window through the curtains” scene to indicate how the two “sisters'” relationship would start off.

Naturally, our heroine does not notice her new sister being less than thrilled, as far as we can tell. Actually, that is the extent we see of the “Younger Life” of our heroine. And that is all we see of developing relationships. Everything else is just assumed.

This is one of the big problems in the show, from my perspective. The writers appeared to want to have the sisters’ relationship be one of the main parts of the show. Our heroine reveals herself as a potential superhero only when her sister’s plane runs into difficulties. Our heroine angsts dramatically when her sister has a less than exuberant response. To audience members, it is clearly because the sister is jealous. Our heroine makes no comment about that, and simply continues to bubble. (That is not unreasonable– she is still on a flying-and-saving-people adrenaline rush.) The sister makes no comment about jealousy, and neither does our heroine.

Later, when our heroine is upset about not having performed as well against a villain as she would have liked, it is her sister’s total tell-not-show explanation of sister’s jealousy that leads our heroine to be ok with superhero-ing again.

The dialogue in that scene was painful.

And much of the painfulness could have been avoided by even a three-minute montage of our heroine growing up, and sister trying to hide jealousy when our heroine used her powers. Instead, we do get the sister needing to tell her jealousy.

Okay, to be fair, the entire thing could have been made better if there had been a montage of the sister’s jealousy during the ridiculous exposition bit.

But no. It stayed boring, stilted, and over-dramatic.

We have no basis for judging whether the sister actually gets along well with the heroine, or whether it is all another act. Similarly, I expect that the jealousy is “magically cured”. That causes me to be further annoyed.

My problem is not only with this sister relationship, however. Another problem lies in the very thing it is touted for:

This is supposedly a feminist show, and therefore worthwhile?

Please note, I was originally excited, in part for this very reason. I do not know of any reasonable female superheroes that have their own shows or movies. (I have heard mixed reviews of Agent Carter, but I have not watched it. Furthermore, I do not know if she qualifies as a true “Superhero”, since I do not know what her special talents are.)

My excitement, however, was based upon the assumption that the story would still be even somewhat reasonable. It is unfair to have a show that is not particularly excellent be praised as “worthwhile” simply because it stars a female. Deliberately calling attention to that fact may be part of the problem. There should be a natural quality to it.

Instead, this show appears to be relying on its “It is feminist!” message in order to get viewership. This is a problem.

What this show actually needs is good storytelling.

So far, this show has not delivered. I will consider giving the second episode a chance to redeem the show, but I do not go in with high expectations.

Hopefully the Marvel/Netflix Jessica Jones provides better.

NEWEST STAR WARS TRAILER IS OUT!!

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Hiya, Fluffsters!

So, I am REALLY excited to announce that the newest Star Wars trailer is out!!

And it looks FANTASTIC.

AND THAT TRAILER. *Swoon*.

I mean, seriously. I LOVE Disney trailers. And this one has some of the great elements of the good ones. Matching the Epic Music swells exactly to scene changes? Check. Matching epic music to gestures? Check.

MATCHING EXPLOSIONS AND LIGHTSABER NOISES TO THE EPIC MUSIC? DOUBLE CHECK!

Again, I say, seriously. That was a really good trailer. Especially after the first minute or so. And Han! “It’s true… All of it.”

Almost as good as “Chewie… We’re home!”

Or something.

Seriously. I am on a major Fangirl High about this thing. Can December please get here? Now? (And besides, then I’d be done with all that I need to do before then…?)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go rewatch that trailer.

Have a lovely Tuesday!

(Oh, right. As a side note– this is post 995. That should be significantish or something.)

A season finale that did not ruin the show!

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Greetings, readers!

These past few days, I have been what I believe your world calls “binge-watching” the Netflix show Daredevil. Last night, I finished what was available.

I really enjoyed the show. It was interesting, had deeper ideas to think about, and yet was still basically a superhero show.

One thing I especially appreciated about it is that the season finale did not leave a pointlessly stupid cliffhanger as a come-on for the next season. It was open-ended enough for me to be anticipating the next season, but did not do so by throwing any of the infuriating “curve-balls” that some other shows (such as Once Upon a Time) have. Furthermore, the characters were generally fairly consistent.

I rather recommend this show.*

Have a great day!

*Please note, this is a rather more violent and gory show than many. If such things bother you, you probably do better not watching Daredevil.

An old Sizzler Ad left me Essentially Speechless.

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Greetings, readers!

I do not know if you have seen this yet– I encountered it yesterday, and it seems to be gaining popularity.

It is an extraordinarily over-the-top patriotic advertisement… for Sizzler restaurants.

Wow.

That is definitely similar to my reaction, although were a few surprises for me in this ad.

First, I found it amusing how “American patriotic” the music sounds. There must be something in the instrumentation of that style that is associated with American Patriotism.

Second, after accounting for the patriotism: I am quite surprised the member of the Navy did not propose to the woman he was with. (Maybe that would have been even more too-over-the-top for them?)

Third, what on earth were the creators of this advertisement doing with the creepy whisper at the end? The sinister sound clashes with the “Hooray America!” feel of the rest of the video.

But what are your thoughts, readers?

Sorcery and Cecelia

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Hiya, Fluffsters!

Today, I reread a friendly book: “Sorcery and Cecelia” by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer.

It is a charming book, and probably about as close to a “manners” style book as I’m likely to recommend. Because, it really is more of a “period piece” than a plot-driven book… sort of. Except that it still definitely has a plot. Oh, and the time period it’s a “period piece” of is early 19th century, in a setting where there’s magic.

One of the really fun things about it is that the two authors wrote the book in the style of a game. They wrote letters back and forth to each other, and thus created the plot.

It is not necessarily the most plot-driven of all of Wrede’s works, but it is still quite amusing, and I recommend it.

Happy Tuesday!