Julia Slaughter

Archive for February, 2010

At the end of December, I got an iPhone (the 3GS if you’re into that kind of thing) – I was really hesitant to join the ranks of the iPhone users, frankly at first I felt like I had willingly given myself over to the Borg. However, I am now a proud convert – listening to the AppSlappy Podcast, browsing through the app libraries looking for new and interesting apps, so far my iPhone is a nice mix of camera, cooking, and game apps with some apps for book lovers thrown in. However, I’ve been having a hard time finding apps for book lovers, so I thought I would share my gems here for you, just in case you are a book lover too! I’ll categorize and tag all the apps to try to make theme easier to find so that if a search engine brought you here you don’t have to sort through ALL the nonsense just to find them.

The Movie Poster for The Lightning Thief

I had mentioned in a previous post that I was so excited to go see The Lightning Thief movie. The only thing that kept me from seeing it opening weekend was that one of my friends who had read, and loved the books as much as I did was too sick to see it and I didn’t want to see it without him. (I like to have someone to compare notes with on these things.)

This past Friday, six of us went to the theater – three who had read the book (two who had read the whole series and one who had just read the first book) and three who had not. My friend Michael and I were sitting next to each other squealing like adolescent girls who had stumbled across Rob Pattinson in dark secluded corner.

From what we knew, we had every reason to believe the movie was going to be wonderful. I had been studying the casting and was pleased with the cast. Kevin McKidd as Poseidon, Sean Bean as Zeus, and Pierce Brosnan as Chiron had me more than hopeful. There were little casting decisions that I was a little hesitant about Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth was going to take some getting used to but I wasn’t ready to write her off  just because she didn’t fit the picture I had in my head of Annabeth.

Of course there was also Chris Columbus heading up the whole thing and anyone who loved Harry Potter and saw what he did for those movies would have to feel safe with any beloved piece of work placed in his hands. The man is meticulous in his attention to detail and really seems interested in preserving the integrity of the work.

As I was sitting in that seat waiting for the movie to start there was only one thing that I was worried about, one thing that could really make or break it, I thought, and that was the special effects. However as the lights dimmed and Kevin McKidd strode out of the waves larger than life and then in an explosion of waves he became a mundane human I breathed easy and settled back into the seat – this was going to be great. However, this was unequivocally not great.

The one part of the movie that I never doubted or questioned was the actual story, after all I read the book, twice in fact, I knew the story. The inconsistencies were small at first, the way Percy learns about his heritage, his introduction to camp and camp life and then things took a turn for the strange.

***There will be spoilers not super specific but still spoilers about the books and the movies, if this sort of thing bothers you, please skip down until you see the next blue!***

When we walked out of the theater, the people who hadn’t read the book were relatively happy with the movie, but I looked at Michael and whispered – “I missed Ares.” It was like opening a flood gate, as we talked about all the things that we were disappointed in that were different between the books and the movies.

If you did a broad overview of the books and the movies they seem similar, but if you dig a little deeper things start to get different. In the books the world of mythology is almost seamlessly integrated into the modern world, but in the movies there is a tangible barrier between the two somehow. It somehow makes the mythological world seem less real for me than it did in the books. The relationships in the book seem more shallow than they do in the books, all of the relationships – Percy and Grover are best friends, but that doesn’t resonate in the movie, not to mention the Demigod relationships with their parents in the book are very complicated and in the movie they are merely dismissed as being made complicated because of a whim of Zeus. The characters themselves come across as very one dimensional – the good guys are all wearing the white hats and once the bad guy puts on his black hat, he’s without any redemption. I know it’s a common thing to say but the book was just so much better.

***Spoilers Ended***

The more I reflected on the movie, the more I wondered how did things go so wrong? How were so many of the pieces there but the most important piece fell short?

I got my answer on Rick Riordan’s website. Apparently he sold the rights to the movie before the books were written, for extra buzz for the series. Therefore, he had no creative control over the movies whatsoever. Rowling and Meyer were smarter in that regard, they cared more for their audience, because when you fall in love with a story – it becomes important to you. I would be interested to see what Riordan thought of the movie, though I suspect that he’s savvy enough not to make any negatives comments in the press, but he can’t be pleased. His writing was sharp, his characters complex, and there are threads that travel from the first book to the end of the series, and the movie plot was not.

I will say that one part of the movie exceeded my expectations though – Grover, portrayed by Brandon T. Jackson made the movie, the character had all the best lines and never failed to steal the show when he stepped onto the screen.

I wonder with the relative success of the movie, where will they go from here? I just hope they decide to take advantage of the wonderful resource available – Rick Riordan save us!

I did NOT see the Lightning Thief over the weekend, I have friends who have read and loved the books and they were unable to go so I put it off waiting for a time when we can all go. However, I did finish the fifth and final (?) book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. If you notice, usually I try to keep my reading library (on the left) up to date and when I finish books I tend to rate it and write a mini-review, but I didn’t do that with this series, the problem was that I read them all back to back to back so I’m having a hard time remembering where one book ends and another begins.

The Percy Jackson and the Olympians Hardback Complete Set

For Christmas I got the complete Percy Jackson set, and I love these books – they are technically children’s books (the age range is 9-12) but if you are in touch with your inner child or if you have a vivid imagination the series is captivating.

I love that the whole series is steeped in Mythology. (I am shocked by the negative reviews that comment that there are plot elements similar to Greek mythology – hello, Percy Jackson is Poseidon’s son, really you didn’t see that coming?) I’ve always loved Greek and Roman mythology so these were right up my alley. Once I picked up the first book it was almost impossible to put the series down until I was finished. They are fast paced and so much fun. Yes there are elements in the book that give a nod to some of the old school Greek Myths that we know and love, but I think it’s a respectful nod, not an issue of Riordan stealing from the classics.

I really enjoyed the characters, I liked that the series was chock full of heroes and heroines who were amazing warriors. I also liked that the characters were incredibly complex – the good guys weren’t without flaws and the bad guys were not bad beyond the point of redemption. I liked the dimension that this added to the characters and how, despite their super powers, it made them more real.

Now that I’ve read the whole series I am chomping at the bit to see the movie, I can’t wait to see how faithful they were to the plot and characters I’ve grown so terribly fond of.

It is a nasty habit that I have that during the holidays, everything suffers. I don’t read as much, I don’t see as many movies (though there seem to be plenty of movies to see), and clearly I don’t blog as much. (Though I am frustrated because I have been tweeting more frequently than my Twitter feed seems to indicate which means I’ve got to poke at that soon.) I will not make excuses, it’s life it happens and you really don’t want to read any excuses so let me instead get on with it…

I picked up some extra work days during the holidays, which means that I get to take a random day off later. I love having a holiday when everyone else is working – it feels decadent to me somehow. Frequently I use these days off to do one of the things I love to do best and I go to the movies early on a Friday.

Not surprisingly on one such Friday I saw Avatar again and I liked it even MORE the second time. I could regal you with charming details and other tidbits I’ve picked up about it since then but I won’t. Avatar has set records, has won some awards, and is nominated for plenty more. I am confident that you’ve heard of, if you’re here you probably know how I feel about it – I’ll spare you the rest.

The Book of Eli Poster

If you’re like I am you might have seen trailers for this, and felt like the trailers seemed interesting but perhaps not interesting enough to motivate you to actually go see it. I was motivated to see it because apparently the author of the material is a friend of my friend Kathryn. (Maybe I’ve found my link to Kevin Bacon?) Kathryn was adamant that I should go see and as she rarely leads me astray – off I went.

I was amused that there was a pair of tiny older Southern ladies sitting in front of me at the theater. (Okay, I admit that I wasn’t so amused when one turned to the other loudly and said “I don’t know why anyone would want to see that” LOUDLY during the Clash of the Titans trailer.) However about two minutes in when a cat gets shot for dinner and they physically recoiled – I was very amused.

I have been telling my friends that the movie is like Mad Max with soul. We’re in a post-apocalyptic world, where people are eating people for want of food (the people who have gone cannibal develop the shakes which identifies them as what they are) and there are people who are pulling together to try to rebuild some semblance of society, the good and bad parts of society are manifested in the various pockets of civilization that appear on the landscape. Eli is a nomad, making his way west, he carries a book and most trailers give you an indication as to what book it is, but I won’t spill the beans here.

I really enjoyed the movie, it was portrayed by a GREAT cast. In addition to Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, I was thrilled when Ray Stevenson flashed up on screen – I love him! I think he’s a tremendously talented actor. The plot has a twist at the end  that absolutely shocked me! It was something that I just never anticipated. However, I think that despite the sometimes grim and grisly scenes the movie brings in an unexpected audience because it has a powerful message.

I’ve seen a few other movies here and there, I went with a friend and her kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeekel (how the heck do you spell that?!?!). The next movie coming up that I am really excited about opens tomorrow Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief – I’ll let you know how it goes.