Thor: The Dark World is the latest addition in the Marvel movie franchise as well as the continuation of Thor’s story… but I’m sure you knew that! I wanted to keep this review short and sweet by covering the movie’s good points and “meh” points…
Good: The Snarky Dialogue… Especially with Loki
As all Marvel movies should be, Thor: The Dark World has many quotable moments. I don’t know why Thor goes from speaking Shakespearean-style English to telling Loki to shut up, but regardless, I still enjoyed a lot of the dialogue, especially where Loki was involved. They had some great brother banter moments.
Good: Darcy!!!
I absolutely adored Darcy in the first Thor film and was thrilled she was coming back. She did not disappoint!
Meh: Thor + Jane = Still Not Buying It
I like Natalie Portman and I like Jane, but I didn’t find Jane and Thor together believable in either the first film or this film. (Team Sif all the way!)
Good: Thor’s Mom is Awesome!
I thought Thor’s mom was awesome, but I don’t want to spoil anything, so you’ll just have to watch to see why.
Meh: Poor Dr. Selvig
It was sad to see that state Dr. Erik Selvig ended up in after The Avengers. 🙁
Good: Zachary Levi!
I think Zachary Levi did a pretty seamless job filling in for the role of an actor who was in the previous installment of Thor. And I’m always happy to see Zachary Levi!
Meh: Just OK Villain
The villain, The Dark Elf or whatever he was called, didn’t impress me in the slightest and I never really felt a sense of danger with him. I never thought about this until a few days after I had seen the movie though, which tells you how little I think about villains (unless they’re awesome), but I would compare him to Nero in the 2009 Star Trek movie… just not that impressive. But without getting too spoilery, let’s just say there’s plenty of questioning Loki’s motives throughout the film, and that is much more interesting… and then there’s the mid-credit scene that opens a new door…
Warning: I can’t talk about this season without talking spoilers. So don’t read this unless you’ve already seen Fringe season 4. Seriously.
Season 4, how I love you. And yet I also hate you. I don’t hate you as much as season 3, which I guess doesn’t actually exist anymore thanks to you, but did you have to go and erase seasons 1 and 2 too? White Tulip, one of my absolute faves, means basically nothing anymore? But oh, thank you for more Lincoln Lee, and specifically Blueverse Lincoln.
Red Lincoln and Blue Lincoln meet.
At the end of season 3, Peter disappears and no one remembers him. We find out that he’s been “erased from the timeline,” as the Observers put it (which turned out to be total bull – dying early does not constitute being completely erased from time, but I digress). So season 4 starts with the Fringe team, without Peter. Everything feels off. Walter is even a little more nutty without Peter there, and Olivia actually seems a bit more confident but also a little empty, and Astrid is basically the same but the role she plays is a little different. Things carry on with glimmers of Peter trying to get back, or at least that’s the way it seems (later we find out it’s really love conquering all). Meanwhile, they work on a shapeshifter case that kills Blueverse Lincoln Lee (who apparently they had not met in this timeline)’s partner, and he ends up coming in to work with the Fringe division. Before Peter appears, Olivia says “no way” to Astrid about dating Lincoln , but then she seems to be reconsidering, even after the mysterious Peter that no one remembers returns…
And somehow, I, who have been Team Peter and Olivia since Season 1, suddenly found myself seriously shipping Lincoln and Olivia. He was so shy and cute and sweet around her I JUST COULDN’T HELP IT. Seth Gabel, the writers, the directors, the producers, THEY DID IT TO ME. (Sidenote: I specifically wanted this version of Lincoln to end up with this version of Olivia. I still wanted Peter to be able to go back to “his Olivia.”)
Lincoln around Olivia.
Needless to say, I was frustrated when September told Peter that he was in the right universe/timeline/whatever-the-crap-this-amber-colored-title-sequence-place-is, that he had no where to go back to. “A Short Story About Love” was obviously supposed to make me feel happy but instead it made me feel like this:
I’m pretty sure this is how Lincoln felt too.
But we’ll get back to this whole Lincoln subplot thing. I want to address other issues I have with this season. Like, the fact that for everyone who isn’t Peter, and sort of Olivia, it erases everything we’ve seen about them before on the show. And then for Olivia, that she forgets about this whole other life where she got away from her crazy and abusive stepfather and was raised by a nice Nina. And then poor Walter, he doesn’t have the same benefits of knowing this Peter and knowing that God’s forgiven him.
And then the crazy weird inconsistencies this created when we decide to re-do cases from season 1, where somehow magically, the same guy wearing the same shirt with the same people on the same flight of the same plane has almost the same thing happen to him four years later than originally when Peter was around. What? I try to justify it happening later due to a change of plans with David Robert Jones and William Bell due to Peter’s premature death, but that still doesn’t justify SAME CLOTHES SAME PEOPLE SAME FLIGHT SAME PLANE other than the obvious reason: budget.
But let’s talk about something positive this whole catawampus storyline shift did, and that is the return of David Robert Jones.
DRJ is a great villain, and I felt his first story arc in Fringe was a little unsatisfactory, so I was happy to see more of him. So yay for more DRJ! But I am still a little unsatisfied with the conclusion of his overall story, especially since we never get the answers to his connection with ZFT (does it still exist is this timeline, or did Peter somehow change that too? Or does this come up in season 5?). However, having his second demise somewhat reflect his first was great. And I don’t really understand how the shapeshifters were going to play a role in Jones’ and Bell’s new world.
Speaking of that, what is up with totally whacked-out crazy William Bell?!
I hope there will be more answers about Bell in season 5. I really liked the old Bell better though…
Now, back to another positive thing about this season with the new timeline: Walternate and Fauxlivia are much nicer! Guys, in season 3 I hated Fauxlivia with a passion. I hated her at least as much as I hated Walternate. I don’t think Fauxlivia was inherently more evil in season 3, but she quickly chose to take that turn, I think largely because of Walternate and Newton’s influence. (Sidenote: I found Newton’s end in season 3 also unsatisfactory. Basically, I don’t like the way Fringe ends the storylines of their villains. Except Harris.)
So, this brings me back to Lincoln. After Redverse Lincoln dies, he decides to stay in the Redverse, presumably in part to see how things go with Fauxlivia. And while I wanted Redverse Lincoln and Redverse Olivia to hook up, and I wanted Blueverse Lincoln to feel wanted and needed… as a compromise… I think this might be OK with me.
How you doing?
Mostly, I want Lincoln to be happy. I’m just sad he isn’t a regular in season 5. *Cries*
You’re a good guy, Lincoln Lee. *Cries again*
Here’s Gene with a FBI hat to make me feel better:
I don’t know how to rate this season. Some of it I really liked, but some of it frustrated me. I gave season three, which I felt the same way about, 4.5 stars, but I still can’t decide if I like this season more or less than season 3. I do want to give kudos to a finale that really wrapped up the season nicely, and that even made me like Peter and Olivia being back together again (after basically hating them being together from “A Short Story About Love” up until “Brave New World Part 1,” minus “Letters of Transit,” in which we don’t actually see them together but we see their daughter). It’s either 4 stars or 4.5, but I don’t know which quite yet. So I’ll just leave us with this still from the season 4 gag reel:
Joshua: “Welcome to the gag reel, Seth Gabel.”
Help me out with my rating! How do you feel season 4 compares to the others? Were you as frustrated by new timeline stuff as I was? Are you a Lincoln Lee fan?
Every once in a while, there’s a book you feel a strange and unknown draw towards to read, and Ender’s Game was that for me earlier this year. I think it was partly due to the movie coming out, but not completely, as there are plenty of book-to-move adaptations that I don’t pay attention to. But the story sounded interesting and I wanted to check it out. I was surprised by how dark and gritty it was for a book about children, but it’s painting a picture of a desperate society who has barely survived war once and is on the brink of another. It’s a cautionary science fiction tale of how far we will stretch someone, particularly a child, to receive a desired result.
I don’t think I realized how much I got from the book emotionally until I watched the movie and felt much of a lack of emotion. I know this sounds like the start of a negative review, but it’s not. It is just to say that the book is about warfare and its psychological damage and the real-life causalities of it, as seen through the eyes of the child. I don’t think the movie adaption of Ender’s Game expressed this as fully as it could have, yet at the same time, it did help recall those feelings I had from the book.
I saw this movie with my husband and two friends. My husband has not read the book, but thankfully he was somehow able to follow along with what felt like an extremely accelerated pacing in the movie. The highlights are all there (or at least in my opinion, one friend missed the Peter-Valentine subplot, which I get the point of but I can take it or leave it) in terms of scenes. But we don’t get to experience the full development of Ender’s mental battle in Battle School or his relationships with Valentine, Petra, Bean, and others. The relationships were my favorite part of the book, so while we see glimpses of these in the movie, they are more of a quick acknowledgment. I do think the relationship that was best represented in the movie was probably that of his and Petra’s, even though I wanted so much more of it! And speaking of Petra, I loved Hailee Steinfield’s portrayal of her. Really, I felt all of the main actors did a solid job in their roles, and even most of the minor kid actors.
The movie does not really take liberties or change a whole lot, it just mostly skims. The ending of the movie also felt less strange than the ending of the book, and I was satisfied with it. Another part of the movie I thought was really well-done was how everything looked: the Battle school, the technology, etc., I felt all looked great and believable.
As a supplement to the book, I’d give Ender’s Game the movie four stars, but as a stand-alone, I would give it three. So overall, I’ll average it out for 3.5 stars.
I do feel it would be a decent introduction to the ideas of science fiction to someone who may be skeptical, but I feel it’s too obvious in many plot points instead of being delivered organically as it is in the book. Though the movie was already two hours, another half hour at least could have really made it a better film.
Have you seen Ender’s Game? What were your thoughts on it as a standalone and as compared to the book?
Early on in Thirteen Reasons Why, I pegged it as the reason I don’t like reading contemporaries. Teenagers making stupid decisions, using bad language just because, thinking they have a clue about romance, but then the deeper I got into the story, the more I started to understand the heart behind it. The more I felt for Hannah, who even though she was making extremely dumb decisions, didn’t deserve the suffering she went through and obviously needed better guidance in her life. I grew more sympathetic towards Clay, who obviously was a nice guy who wanted the best for Hannah.
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.
On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list.
Through Hannah and Clay’s dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.
I attended a writing conference where Jay Asher was the keynote speaker, and I appreciated how honest he was about his writing career. He deemed himself a slow writer, and shared how it took over a decade for him to get his first book published. It was oddly encouraging and discouraging at the same. It’s nice to know published authors have struggles too… but it also makes you worry just how much you’ll struggle in your own process! But it’s worth it, or so I’m led to believe!
All that to say, even though Thirteen Reasons Why is not normally something I would gravitate towards, when my co-worker who also attended the conference asked me if I wanted to borrow it and read it, I decided I did want to read the story that was on Jay’s heart and that first got him published. Funnily enough, this book first came on my radar several years ago when I was in college, when I was mostly removed from reading YA but not opposed to it, I just read hardly any for fun at the time due to busyness of life. I didn’t read it then, but I’m glad I read it now; I think I understood it better now than I would have then.
I saw one review on Goodreads where the reviewer said that the book was unrealistic in that Hannah’s reasons for suicide didn’t make sense, and that Mr. Porter didn’t handle the situation well when she came to him. But I have to disagree. I might have felt the same way ten years ago, but after living a little more life I find that I understand it a little better than I would have even as a teen. Because I used to think depression was something you could just “get over,” like many people sadly think. But I have taken enough psychology classes to realize that isn’t true, that it’s real and it may not be rational, but it hurts and it’s not something easy to handle. And while her situations, though sad, may not have seemed extreme to or me, to her it was more than she could bear. As far as Mr. Porter goes, he was teacher trying to play the role of counselor, trying his very, very best to get to the heart of the issues that Hannah brought him, but he did not even have the proper training. She shut him out when he accidentally said the wrong thing. It was a lose-lose situation.
I liked the way the story was told in the dual POV between Clay in current time and Hannah on the tapes, but I admit I got confused more than once, even though the different view points are clearly distinguished by italics or regular font. I also liked that Asher decided to use tapes, and have the characters acknowledge it was old, instead of using CDs or MP3s and acting like it’s normal, when those may seem outdated ten years from now. The lack of pop culture references in general made this a better contemporary in my opinion.
But speaking of the tapes, I got lost in the number of tapes Clay had listened to and how many people had been mentioned. I assume Jay matched it up right, but I thought only five people have been mentioned and all of a sudden we were on person #9. It distracted me some. And also speaking of confusion, I got lost on who was who among all the people Hannah talked about, since they all had fairly normal names and we didn’t get to know any of them well enough to be distinguishable.
It’s not an easy read or a fun read because of the subject matter, and it was frustrating at times, but I think it tells an important story. And in the end, there’s a glimmer of hope, which I appreciate.
If you’re looking for an “issues” book or just curious about the story, I would recommend Thirteen Reasons Why. I give it four stars for its poignancy.
Content Advisory: Moderate language and sexual content. Non-graphic description of a rape and a couple of other sexually charged activities. None of this is for shock, however, but to tell Hannah’s story.
Have you read Thirteen Reasons Why? If so, what were your thoughts?
A few months ago, some fellow bloggers and I decided to form an online book club where we would chat quarterly about a book we had chosen to read. Our first book of choice was What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang. While buying the book at a local bookstore, I was informed that Kat is local and was going to be coming there in a couple of weeks to sign books, including her second book Once We Were, which would be available for sale a couple of weeks before it would be available everywhere else! So I came back a couple of weeks later to grab the second book and to have both signed.
I knew then that I would have to read the books back-to-back and review them both together! My feelings for both, overall, are positive. There are mild spoilers below for both books.
The concept for the series is interesting: everyone is born a hybrid, with two souls in one body. However, one soul is supposed to “settle” over time, essentially just disappear and allow the dominant soul take control. However, as we discussed in our group chat, we were filled with many questions: How is everyone born with two souls? How does one just fade away? How awkward is it to hear someone else’s thoughts alongside your own?
Eva is the POV character in both books, and she is the more silent soul trapped inside a body shared with Addie, the dominant soul. Though Addie is more dominant, Eva has never completely faded away, always present in Addie’s mind. The only true problem this seems to present is the secrecy of it, though it is hard for Eva to cope with the inability to move their body herself, or to experience things for herself, like a kiss or even practicing a hobby she enjoys. She feels completely alone until a girl from school, Hally, reveals that she too is a hybrid and offers to help Eva be able to take control of hers and Addie’s body. Unfortunately, Hally/Lissa, Addie/Eva, and H/L’s brother Devon/Ryan are all found out and taken away to a facility. By the end of book one they manage to escape the facility, and book two is about the characters trying to hide their identities, meeting with other hybrids, and partaking in some revolution efforts.
What I liked about both books:
I liked Eva’s arc. At the beginning of Once We Were, I wasn’t even sure if I would like her. I was still slightly weirded out by the concept that Eva was alone and detached in someone else’s body, watching everything from a distance. Honestly, she felt so detached I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to connect with her, but thankfully somewhere before page 100, I finally started to feel that connection and she started to feel more real.
I also really like Ryan, the slightly less dominant soul of Hally’s brother Devon. He and Eva have a bond that is clear early on, and they grow closer together throughout the first book. By the second book they are more or less together, as much as you can be in such a situation as they are, but I am not sure if their relationship really flourished. But once again, of course it is difficult under the circumstances. Just the same, I liked how sweet he was, and I would consider him my favorite character.
I also enjoyed both the writing style and the story itself (more so for the first book than the second though).
What I did not like as much:
The world-building is vague. When does the book take place? All through the first book I was wondering, this is in America, right? (The second book confirms this.) Why does it seem pretty contemporary in every way except in that not everyone has a computer? And to further complicate all my questions, we hear references to wars that sound like they are wars we really fought, The American Revolution and the World Wars, but the names are slightly differently and the propaganda from the government makes it seem like it all had to do with hybrids. I could buy that if I understood why. But in the second book there is still no explanation. The second book does talk a little bit more about the world, but it still left me quite confused. I suppose I should take it as some sort of alternate version of our world, a sort of “what if everyone was born with two souls?” question that is plopped into what we know, but it’s hard for me to know for sure. I like to know exactly where I am in place and time.
Also, the level of action in these two books, while admirable because I enjoy good action, almost goes overboard. Addie/Eva is a normal girl but she’s jumping out of windows, coming toe-to-toe with baddies, dealing with bomb-related activities… I’ve seen Red Dawn, and I understand drastic times call for drastic measures, but the shift from normal to doing all these things felt a little unrealistic. I mostly accepted it because I want to believe I could play the hero too, but I would have like to have seen a more natural progression from who she was to revolutionary.
Final Thoughts
Again, overall I really enjoyed both books. The story stays interesting, the relationship between Eva and Ryan gave me feels, especially in the first book, and it’s a unique concept that is pretty well executed. I do feel the second book did struggle some in its pacing, as most second books do, so I hope to see a good, tight wrap-up in the third book as everything meets the end of an arc. The first book is a very solid four stars for me, but the second book is a little lower, more like a 3.75. Still, I don’t reward 3.75’s, so they both get 4 stars from me.
If you’ve read one or both of the books of The Hybrid Chronicles, what are your thoughts?
As all Marvel movies should be, Thor: The Dark World has many quotable moments. I don’t know why Thor goes from speaking Shakespearean-style English to telling Loki to shut up, but regardless, I still enjoyed a lot of the dialogue, especially where Loki was involved. They had some great brother banter moments.
I absolutely adored Darcy in the first Thor film and was thrilled she was coming back. She did not disappoint!
I like Natalie Portman and I like Jane, but I didn’t find Jane and Thor together believable in either the first film or this film. (Team Sif all the way!)
I thought Thor’s mom was awesome, but I don’t want to spoil anything, so you’ll just have to watch to see why.
It was sad to see that state Dr. Erik Selvig ended up in after The Avengers. 🙁
I think Zachary Levi did a pretty seamless job filling in for the role of an actor who was in the previous installment of Thor. And I’m always happy to see Zachary Levi!
The villain, The Dark Elf or whatever he was called, didn’t impress me in the slightest and I never really felt a sense of danger with him. I never thought about this until a few days after I had seen the movie though, which tells you how little I think about villains (unless they’re awesome), but I would compare him to Nero in the 2009 Star Trek movie… just not that impressive. But without getting too spoilery, let’s just say there’s plenty of questioning Loki’s motives throughout the film, and that is much more interesting… and then there’s the mid-credit scene that opens a new door…
It’s Thor, it’s the Avengers, and it’s just fun.
Others’ thoughts:
