Movie Review: Beauty and the Beast (2017)

IMDB

Live Action Remake (1991)

IMDB Blurb:

"An adaptation of the Disney fairy tale about a monstrous-looking prince and a young woman who fall in love."

Movie Round Up: Mini Reviews Galore!

So recently, I was going through my notebook of review notes and came across a lot of movies I had written down that I had seen but I didn't write down all that many notes about them!  I still have thoughts, though, so I thought I'd do a little Round Up post and collect all those mini reviews.  I have so many that I'll probably end up doing a part 2 a bit later with more reviews.

Review and Compare Thursday: The Martian by Andy Weir

The Book

Amazon  Goodreads  Book Depository  Barnes and Noble

Stand-alone to date

Goodreads Blurb:

"Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars' surface, completely alone, with no way to signal Earth that he’s alive — and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark's not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills — and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength – he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth.

As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive – but Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet.

Grounded in real, present-day science from the first page to the last, yet propelled by a brilliantly ingenious plot that surprises the reader again and again, The Martian is a truly remarkable thriller: an impossible-to-put-down suspense novel that manages to read like a real-life survival tale."

Review:

I've decided to write more list-based reviews because of the feedback but also because it helps me be so much more organized with my thoughts!  So without further ado, let's get into it!

1.  The reality.  This isn't something that's unique to this book (it's pretty common in science fiction) but I loved how real this situation was.  If you've been following the news in the past decade, you'll know that the NASA space program was cancelled while different companies compete for money granted to the company that can propose a doable method for commercial space travel.  We have been looking at Mars for quite some time as a potential human mission.  With that said, this book is set a bit in the future in the midst of the Mars missions.  The author went to such lengths to make sure that everything was explained with real world physics and chemistry.  The amount of work that went into this book must have been astronomical!

2.  The characters.  I really loved all of the characters but the MC especially.  His humor was the perfect thing to buoy up the story and keep it from getting too dark.  It made me laugh and kept me reading along with the suspense.  All of the other characters are very nicely developed as well and are very 3-dimensional.

3.  The science.  I've already brushed on this but I want to talk about more in depth.  I really liked the amount of science that was included.  It kept it very real and made it feel as though this had actually already happened.  It also held the plot accountable and made sure that nothing that was against the rules of physics and chemistry could happen (to my knowledge, of course).

4.  The spatial aspects and building scenes.  I do wish that the author would have included sketches or something of the sort to show visually what everything looked like.  This requires a lot of imagination and sometimes I just couldn't picture everything.  This may seem like a small thing but it's the only reason why this book is 4 stars.  Yes, it's a small issue to begin with but it cascades over the rest of the book and soon I was just glazing over those parts.

5.  The overarching plotline and the journey back home.  I really loved how the plot was developed.  It's perfectly paced and the different steps that had to take place to get Mark home are great and are very realistic.

The Final Verdict:

Overall, this book is so realistic and so cool and suspenseful.  I really loved the characters (especially the humor!) as well as the science that was included extensively.  However, I do wish there had been sketches or something of the sort included so I could visualize everything better.

4 stars

Quotes:

“Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.” 


“He’s stuck out there. He thinks he’s totally alone and that we all gave up on him. What kind of effect does that have on a man’s psychology?” He turned back to Venkat. “I wonder what he’s thinking right now.” 
LOG ENTRY: SOL 61 How come Aquaman can control whales? They’re mammals! Makes no sense.”


“Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.” 


“I guess you could call it a "failure", but I prefer the term "learning experience".”


“I started the day with some nothin’ tea. Nothin’ tea is easy to make. First, get some hot water, then add nothin’.” 


“Also, I have duct tape. Ordinary duct tape, like you buy at a hardware store. Turns out even NASA can’t improve on duct tape.”

The Movie

IMDB

Stand-alone to date

IMDB Blurb:

"During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive."

Movie Review Monday: Jurassic World

IMDB

IMDB Blurb:

"A new theme park is built on the original site of Jurassic Park. Everything is going well until the park's newest attraction--a genetically modified giant stealth killing machine--escapes containment and goes on a killing spree."

Review and Compare Thursday: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Amazon  Goodreads  Book Depository  Barnes and Noble

Stand alone to date

Goodreads Blurb:

"First, there were ten - a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal - and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. And only the dead are above suspicion."

Movie Review Monday: Jupiter Ascending

IMDB

Stand-alone to date

PG-13

Notable Cast:

Channing Tatum

Mila Kunis

Eddie Redmayne

IMDB Blurb:

"A young woman discovers her destiny as an heiress of intergalactic nobility and must fight to protect the inhabitants of Earth from an ancient and destructive industry."

Movie Review Monday: Selma

IMDB - PG-13

IMDB Blurb:

"A chronicle of Martin Luther King's campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965."

Movie Review Monday: Furious Seven

IMDB

IMDB Blurb:

"Deckard Shaw seeks revenge against Dominic Toretto and his family for his comatose brother."

Movie Review Monday: The Imitation Game

IMDB

IMDB Blurb:

"During World War II, mathematician Alan Turing tries to crack the enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians."

Movie Review Monday: Vampire Academy

IMDB

IMDB Blurb:

"Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, half human-half vampire, a guardian of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discreetly within our world. Her calling is to protect the Moroi from bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi."

Movie Review Monday: Insurgent

IMDB Blurb:
"Beatrice Prior must confront her inner demons and continue her fight against a powerful alliance which threatens to tear her society apart with the help from others on her side."

Monday Movie Review: Into The Woods

IMDB Blurb:
"A witch tasks a childless baker and his wife with procuring magical items from classic fairy tales to reverse the curse put on their family tree."

The Giver Movie Reaction

I have a surprise for you all!  I went to the midnight showing of The Giver today with some friends!  I was so excited when they offered to take me along!  Here is my reaction.  There are a few spoilery things that you have to highlight to see however I only did that for things in the movie that are spoilery.  So if you haven't read the book, go read it and then read this!  Or if you don't mind spoilers, go ahead.

IMDB  Goodreads (book)

In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

This is such a powerful and touching movie.  I started having tingles during the last scene!  The message it sends, I think the producers did a fabulous job maintaining that message.  There is really only  one thing that bugged me about it.

They invented a romance between Jonas and Fiona (or at least, he tried to start one and show her what she was missing in her life).  I realize that the producers and directors were trying to make this movie sellable but really?  That just made it like any other dystopian/fantasy book to movie adaption out there.

They did change things from the book.  Sometimes bigish things.  But I think that was all necessary and I understand why they did it.  It didn't change the message or the outcome or really the way Jonas and the community got there so I don't really mind that they changed it.

How they slowly progressed from black and white to color really illustrated the change in Jonas and his way of thinking and realizing the shadowed life that he was living.  The way it was done was truly marvelous.

I said it once before and I'll say it again: the last scene was just wow.  All those recognizable images from history speak to you and show you what the human condition really is.  It perfectly embodied the book and it's message.

I'm on the fence for the casting choices.  It's late, so I don't want to go tramping through the internet to find my dream cast so I don't know off the top of my head if there would have been better casting choices made.  They were okay... not perfect but good enough.

Overall, I loved the movie and while it did leave out some things and add some, I feel that was a necessary part of the conversion between book and movie.  I, however, do not approve of the romance.  I really hope they make another movie!

Do you have plans to see The Giver?  And if you've already seen it, what's your opinion?

Divergent Movie Review

Original Release Date: March 21, 2014

DVD Release Date: August 5, 2014

I finally saw Divergent!!  Before I watched it, I talked to a bunch of people and read a bunch of reviews to see what complaints there were about the movie.  I have mostly the same complaints but overall, I still love the movie.  Here's a list of everything that they cut out or changed that I thought was relatively significant.  Highlight it to read it.

• No Uriah.  I heard they are including Uriah in Insurgent though.  He does play a significant role in Divergent but I understand why they cut him out.  The movie was already pushing the limits of the number of characters and time.
• Tris' and Four's relationship was very rushed.  It was nearly insta-love which I despise.  I think they could have done more with there relationship and still keep the time low.
• There was no explanation of Tris' bird tattoo.  In the book, Veronica Roth explains the significance of it (one bird for each member of her family).  That didn't happen in the movie.
• At the end Four wasn't alone in the room controlling the simulation.  In the movie, he was just sitting in a chair.  Still under a simulation but he wasn't controlling the other Dauntless.  Jeanine and her people were there which made Tris' rescue more daring.
• Tris didn't graduate in first place.  Or at least they didn't mention it.
• They changed the scene when Al and some other initiates try to push her over the edge of the pit.  In the book, they groped her as well as threatened her but in the movie, they just tried to push her off before Four came to the rescue.  This is where I think they could have expanded on Tris' and Four's relationship more because in the book, it's this incident that brings them closer especially when Tris tells Four that they groped her.
• After Tris' final simulation test, she and Four don't have a discussion about it.  They don't talk about the whole Six and Four thing or Tris' fear of intimacy.  This also deepens their relationship in the book and I was disappointed that it wasn't in the movie.

Despite all that, I feel that they did a pretty good job in adapting the book to a movie.  I absolutely loved the casting choices and the scenery is exactly how I pictured it in my mind!

Have you seen Divergent?  Did you like it?

The Fault in Our Stars Movie + Exciting Wendy Higgins Update!!

So guess what I saw yesterday?!  The Fault in Our Stars!  I BAWLED basically the last half of the movie.  My friend actually asked if I was okay at one point or if I needed to step out of the theater for a minute.  Like I was going to do that and miss the movie!  So anyway, as you could probably tell, I loved it.  It was just perfection like the book.  I know a lot of you don't really like book to movie adaptions because the directors leave out crucial scenes that they don't think the movie needs or messes up the characters or whatever else but this movie was really good!  Yes, they had to cut out some parts Highlight for spoiler(I especially missed Gus and Hazel selling the swing set.  The swing set was shown but not the ad or anything.  How it was directed was just beautiful.  If you loved the book I can almost guarantee that you will love the movie.)That's how good it was.

Here are the IMDB(movie), Goodreads(book), Amazon (book), and Amazon (movie) links!

Have you seen TFIOS yet or read the book?

Now for the exciting news about Wendy Higgins!  This was on her website!

"You see, I said I would never write this *particular* story, and I truly did not think I would.  Many of you have begged me time and time again to write more of the Sweet series from a certain character's point of view and I could NOT see it happening.  The thought alone was overwhelming because this character exhausts me and challenges me and tests my limits in the best possible way.  I didn't think I'd ever be able to tell his story.

Until the trilogy ended.  And I missed him more than I could possibly imagine.  I started to kind of crave having him in my head again, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.  So I wrote my agent who wrote my editor, and we weren't sure if it was going to happen, but IT HAS!  They want it!

I'm writing a complete novel from Kaidan Rowe's point of view!!"

Read more HERE.

I'll also be posting a book review later today... I feel like I should get on a regular schedule of posting so that'll be starting today!  I'll be doing book reviews on Sundays and Thursdays and possibly on Monday's if I read a lot that week!