Movies | Amy C. Shaw

Mini Movie Reviews: Inside Out, Ant-Man, and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

August 21, 2015 • 6 Comments

Inside Out

I have not been happy with Pixar’s sudden shift from creating brand new, original stories to CRANKING OUT ALL THE SEQUELS, though admittedly, I had also not been happy with their last original offering, Brave. My expectations for Inside Out were cautiously optimistic. Thankfully, I really enjoyed it! The main character, Ryleigh, is about 11 or 12 when her family makes a big move from Minnesota to San Francisco, and I was really able to relate to it with the big moves I’ve made in my life. I really enjoyed all the characters and, as a movie about emotions should do, it gave me all the feels. Definitely recommended.

Ant-Man

With Ant-Man, the latest offering of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (note: do there is a difference between Marvel’s cinematic universe and other Marvel films that are being released like X-Men, the new Fantastic Four, etc.), I was again cautiously optimistic. The marketing department had not done much to convince me this would going to be better than an average superhero movie (because I expect better these days), but I also hoped it was probably going to be pretty good because, well, Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thankfully, it was quite enjoyable, maybe not profound or earth-shattering, but very funny. I think this movie for me is what Guardians of the Galaxy was for a lot of other people, with just a little twist in the typical superhero image and fun. Paul Rudd really sold the show for me. Recommended.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

I like the first MI movie. I kind of liked the second and third ones for a while… and I still think the third one is a pretty strong movie, but man does Phillip Seymour Hoffman freak me out in it… but recently I have grown a little less interested in them. Probably because they’re all overshadowed in my mind by the fourth one, Ghost Protocol. Brad Bird did an amazing job with the direction, I liked the addition of Jeremy Renner to the team… I don’t know, it just hit all the right notes for me. It’s got to be one of my favorite action movies. So my hopes were high for Rogue Nation and THEY WERE MET. This movie was twisty and left me guessing constantly. This is definitely going to be one I will want to watch over and over again like Ghost Protocol. Highly recommended!

Have you seen any of these movies yet? What are your thoughts?

The Top 10 Books I’d Love To See As Movies/TV Shows

June 2, 2015 • 26 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books I’d Love To See As Movies/TV Shows. This one was hard because I think we all have love/hate relationships with movie adaptations of our beloved books… sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn’t. Here are some I think I would like to see though… just please don’t ruin them! This week’s list is in no particular order…

1. The Lunar Chronicles as Animated Movies

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I never would have dreamed I would suggest this (I figured they couldn’t do the story justice), but once I saw the above image (+more!) from Tumblr I was sold. MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

2. The Scorpio Races as a Movie

I think The Scorpio Races could make for a really interesting movie. The book is a little slow and the movie would have to be faster, more focused on Puck’s family, training, her and Sean’s backstories, not to mention more of the island and these dangerous horses!

See my Scorpio Races dreamcast here

3. For Darkness Shows the Stars and Across A Star-Swept Sea as Movies

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I have a lot of love for these books, and I would REALLY like to see them as movies!

4. Code Name Verity as a Movie

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As long as the movie didn’t linger too much on the brutality and was more focused on the backstory and the aftermath, I think this would be a really good one to watch (though we’d all still need tissues for sure!).

5. Crime & Punishment (a good modern-day adaptation) as a Movie or YouTube Series

For my thesis project to graduate from the honors college years ago, I made a short film based on Crime and Punishment, set in modern times. While working on this project one of the things I did was watch a few film adaptations of the story, including a modern one called Crime and Punishment in Suburbia which, quite frankly, was terrible. So I would like to see a really good, modern adaptation of the story (to say my short film was “really good” would be an overstatement, ha).

The reason why I also added “or YouTube series” is because I can see this working out really well. Raskolinkov (we can rename him; I did for my project) is an ex-student with a lot of ideas, and I can see him doing YouTube videos to share these ideas. He would have to commit a crime not nearly as heinous and felonious as murder though if the audience is going to know what’s going on with him, or maybe we just watch his degradation from guilt without explanation until later. There would be interactions with his friend, his sister, Sonia… I just seeing it working if done well.

6. Finding Alice as a Movie

This story about a girl diagnosed with schizophrenia has stayed with me for years, and I think it could be a really good movie.

7. The Mistborn Books as an Epic, High-Budget TV Mini-Series

This would be amazing. I don’t think there is need for elaboration.

8. Ready Player One as a Movie

Images Found Via readyplayerone.com

I know the film rights were bought recently and I honestly believe that, if done well, I could really end up enjoying the movie more than the book.

9. The Silver Chair as a Movie

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I was talking with some friends recently and one of them said this supposed to be happening so I REALLY hope so! Aside from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, this is my favorite of the Narnia books.

10. Leviathan Trilogy as Movies

I think these books adapted to film would be such a fun ride! Alternate history, steampunk, interesting creatures, and adventures all around make these books an excellent candidate for the big screen I believe!

Also check out Jessi @ A Novel Heartbeat’s recent post about upcoming YA adaptations!

What books would you like to see on the big or small screen?

Discussion: The Hero’s Arc

May 28, 2015 • 8 Comments

I was thinking about what is it that makes me “approve” of a hero’s arc, because really, that is what makes or breaks an ending for me. Do I feel the hero’s journey changed them, was worthwhile, helped them grow? I discussed this briefly in my post Plot Vs. Character?, but wanted to go more in depth with the idea of a character’s arc.

If you’ve ever read any of my book reviews on the blog, you’ve probably seen me talk about character arc. If you’ve seen me fangirl about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, you’ve probably noticed the character arcs were a big part of that show for me. I just love to see characters go through a significant change. I may be adverse to change in my own personal life, but that’s a different story. 😉

It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

This quote from The Two Towers is one of my favorites. We want the character to overcome trials. In the end, we want them to come out stronger, that’s what makes the story worthwhile.

In Star Wars, we see Luke overcome the power of the Dark Side, even though it means opposition against his father. In Harry Potter, we see Harry defeat Voldemort and usher a new era for wizards through sacrifice. In Lord of the Rings, we see Sauron defeated through two little hobbits’ tumultuous journey. These are stories I think most all of us agree are powerful.

Not every story that is told is going to be on the same epic levels as the aforementioned examples, nor do they need to be. The resolution of a story doesn’t even have to be tied up neatly where everyone and everything is happy for it to be satisfying. I just need to glean emotional satisfaction from the main character’s journey, that they are changed in the end, hopefully for the better. If not for the better, I need to feel satisfied with the reasoning of why, of what the journey was about then, instead.

I think one reason I enjoyed Jane Austen’s Emma so much is that, though the story is about romance, it’s also largely about Emma making mistakes, learning from them, and becoming a better person. It may not be a sweeping epic journey, Emma lived a pretty normal life in regency England, but she grew in the story, and there’s more to it than just her happily-ever-after.

In the movie Inception, Dom’s one goal is to get back to his family, but there are complications caused by his inability to let go of his deceased wife and what caused her tragic death. While the last image of the ending is left somewhat ambiguous (which is appropriate given the theme of dreams vs. reality), Dom has let go of his wife and is home with his children, thus completing his journey emotionally at the very least.

We get frustrated with TV series finales at times because we don’t like where the character ends up, what their absolute resolution is. I’ve discussed before how the TV show finales for Chuck and Star Trek: Enterprise really left the characters worse off than before for reasons that seemed senseless and meaningless, whereas the show Fringe resolved all the emotional aspects of the character’s journey and, even if it was logically confounding, put them back in a place where we wanted them to be and made it overall satisfying.

What about you? What makes a story’s ending satisfying, the character’s journey worth it to you?

Also check out this recent post on Publishing Crawl about writing about change.

Movie Review: Avengers Age of Ultron

May 11, 2015 • 15 Comments

I saw this movie on opening night. I enjoyed it. I went home.

I almost forgot about it.

Almost.

But let me back up. I love what Marvel has done with superhero films. I think what made Iron Man so great was that it didn’t take itself too seriously. It was self-aware. It was what we all wanted deep down and didn’t even realize.

Captain America was very different, more historical and tragic, but it was about the American spirit and hero we all want. It touched something different inside us than Iron Man did.

And then Thor was different because it took place in Asgard, a whole new world that was fascinating. And he’s a fish out of water when he’s on Earth.

And all these movies have great lines and great side characters: Pepper Potts, Peggy Carter, Sif and Loki, etc.

Where The Incredible Hulk unfortunately suffered in all this is that it was still just a regular superhero movie, like all the others we had seen before Marvel and Christopher Nolan changed the game. Apparently Edward Norton, who played the Hulk back then, was super involved in the writing of the movie, and he was a big fanboy of the Hulk. This sounds awesome in theory, but I wonder if he was trying so hard to fit the Hulk in this box that he had created that it didn’t give the character the chance to shine.

I’ll admit, I still wasn’t sold on Mark Ruffalo’s version of the character in the first Avengers movie, but I can give Age of Ultron the credit for making me care about him much more this time around. Or maybe what I should say is for making me care about Bruce Banner, the person underneath the Hulk.

While we are talking about character exploration in Age of Ultron, I’m going to say that is the movie’s strength, and that is what has stuck with me since walking out of the theater.

There’s been a lot of talk about Black Widow in this movie, and say what you will about her role, but I think we got to see a whole new side of her and I was really glad to see it. Would it be cool if this was explored more in a movie or TV show? Yes. Will I move on with my life if it’s not? Yes. We see a much more vulnerable side of Natasha, but I don’t think she’s ever portrayed as weak. And while (mild spoiler) the interest between her and Banner did kind of surprise me and I wasn’t entirely sure I was 100% there with it (since we’ve had no build-up to this it felt like it came out of left field), I don’t think this weakened her either. It made her human. Same with their talk about infertility, which he started.

I also appreciated that we finally got more from Hawkeye, after that poor guy got brainwashed in the first Avengers movie. His character has become a more relatable, almost every-man sort from this movie, and I thought that was a nice touch.

The addition of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch really didn’t do a whole lot for me, though funnily enough, their best moments were when they were with Hawkeye. Quicksilver and Hawkeye had their running, “What, you didn’t see that coming?” joke, and Hawkeye hyped up Scarlet Witch for the battle against Ultron.

(Highlight for spoilers) Ultimately, the death of Quicksilver did very little for me. It made me sad for his sister, because it obviously put her in a lot of shock and pain, but I wasn’t sad for anyone else or for me. I had barely started kind of liking the guy when he died, though I appreciated the act that led to his death, especially when I was starting to worry that Hawkeye was going to be a goner. There was no real emotional resonance with it.

There’s also the introduction of Vision, who is sort of interesting? We’ll have to see what happens to him in the future. We really get very little development with him at all.

Now let’s talk about the villain, Ultron. Even though he demonstrates just how much he is capable of, I never really feared that the whole entire world was actually in danger of this guy. I know it sounds ridiculous to say the stakes weren’t high enough when the whole idea was that he wanted to destroy the world but seriously, they weren’t high enough, because I was never worried that he would actually accomplish this, and not just because it’s a movie and I know it’s going to turn out OK in the end. But that could have been part of the problem. In Captain America: The Winter Solider the movie ends with SHIELD in shambles. It’s not a happy ending. While it was still probably surprising for many people watching the movie (unless they watched Agents of SHIELD, which they should have, honestly), destroying SHIELD is a much more viable option for a movie ending than destroying the world. But really, I think it was mostly that Ultron never truly frightened me enough.

But, the way Ultron was created was fascinated and I hope that comes back up because even though there is heated debating about it in the movie, it definitely feels kind of glossed over in the grand scheme of things.

All in all, this is another solid movie from Marvel, enjoyable, witty lines, and some pretty good character development, but there were some weak spots in the movie that keeps it from being a favorite in the long run.

If you’ve see Age of Ultron, what are your thoughts?

Thoughts on The Deathly Hallows & the Harry Potter Series Overall

May 4, 2015 • 30 Comments

In case you are not a frequent visitor of my blog and thus unaware, I spent the latter part of last year and the early part of this year reading all the Harry Potter books and watching all the Harry Potter movies for the first time ever. I have really enjoyed my experience and am so happy that now I understand all HP references and don’t have to worry any more about spoilers!

I wanted to discuss briefly my feelings on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, book and movies, and then give a bit of a recap on my feelings of the series overall.

On the Thursday I intended to start reading The Deathly Hallows, I got some bad news that ended up kind of working out for me. I felt pretty terrible the night before, and woke up feeling not significantly better, so I decided to go to a walk-in clinic. I ended up testing positive for strep throat and was instructed to stay home for the next two days. So while I didn’t feel so great, and would have rather been at work than not feeling good, after taking my first antibiotic and a quick nap, I was feeling well enough to start reading.

And in my time home sick, I devoured this book. A book that would have normally taken two weeks to read over my lunch breaks took me just slightly over 2 days at home (a friend of mine told me recently that he read this book in 4 hours, and I pretty much hate him for that because I don’t even know how that’s humanly possible). So while I wonder if I might have had a problem with all that camping out had I taken my time to read this book, I had no problem with it while reading it in large chunks. In fact, I really never wanted to put the book down. I was completely engaged and wanted to know exactly what was going to happen.

Truly, all the fantastic character moments in this book was what I had been waiting the whole series for. Everyone who’s read Harry Potter talks about how much they love the characters, and while reading this book I completely understood why. I don’t even know how to express in words my strong love for Hermione, Luna, and Neville now, but I think you guys understand. And I had somehow (thankfully) been spared of details of how it all went down between Harry and Voldemort, and all I can say is WOW.

And the movies? They were near flawless. Seriously, again, these were the Harry Potter movies I had been waiting for! I gave them both 4.5 stars, which considering I pretty much only give a movie 5 stars if I know it’s going to be one of my absolute faves, is pretty dang good. There were a lot less changes, and the ones they had didn’t bother me. Like that scene of Harry and Hermione dancing? LOVE. And that cute Neville and Luna thing? Oh yeah, you know the director totally shipped them (me too!).

I will voice one opinion I have that will not be popular. I still don’t really get the Snape thing. I will say, I thought I could never forgive him or find him redeemable and actually found myself doing so (but he was still a bullying jerk to Harry and it was not cool), so that’s not “the Snape thing” I’m referring to. It’s referring mostly to these famous lines…

After all this time?

Always.

When I read those words I was like, “Wait? What?” I was confused as heck. He’s just cast a Patronus and is talking to Dumbledore. This exchange made literally no sense to me. I had a hunch, and it was right, but until it was spelled-out I felt myself frustrated for reading these famous lines and not feeling whatever it was I was supposed to feel. So just that moment being over-hyped kind of made me not care for it much. And really, why does this surprise Dumbledore? It’s clear Snape isn’t Harry’s number one fan, and that his motivation to care about him at all in the first place would still be in tact otherwise he would have pulled the ripcord and gone back to Voldemort the second he had the chance.

All in all though, I was extremely satisfied with the series. The ending was pretty close to perfection. I understand all the love, it’s well deserved. Bravo, J.K., bravo.

Overall assessment…

My ranking of the books:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (5 stars)

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (5 stars)

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (4.5 stars)

4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (4.5 stars)

5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (4.5 stars)

6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (4 stars)

7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (3.5 stars)

My ranking of the movies:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2 (4.5 stars for both)

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (4 stars)

3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (4 stars)

4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (4 stars)

5/6. (tie) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone/Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (I don’t remember the differences enough to choose one over the other) (3.5 stars for both)

7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (3 stars)

And then of course, like everyone else, I have fantasized about living in Harry’s world, going to Hogwarts, and all that jazz. After I finished the book I signed up for Pottermore solely for to get my official House Sorting. I knew it was between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, and I had even taken an “are you a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff quiz” shortly before and gotten Ravenclaw, but the Sorting Hat spoke and…

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Even before I read the series I was aware of the Hufflepuff hate, so this sorting made me a little less excited than I feel it should have. I mean, Hufflepuffs are good people. They are loyal and hardworking. For some reason people don’t like that. Cedric was a good guy. So, whateves. I’ll claim it.

Also: like half the reason why I wanted to be Ravenclaw so I could be BFF’s with Luna, which I think ironically just proves I’m probably more Hufflepuff.

What are your thoughts on The Deathly Hallows book and movies? Who are your favorite characters? Which house do you belong in?

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