Thursday, December 29, 2011

War Horse Review

So if you don't know of what I'm talking about, here is the War Horse trailer:


So overall, I would say that this is a good movie. It's definitely more of a family film than a blockbuster or date movie (unless your significant other really likes horses- like my girlfriend). Directed by Steven Spielberg and soundtrack by John Williams (definitely a good reason to go see it!).

The character stories in this movie were amazing- you really cared about the people. Unfortunately, at least for me, is where the problem lies. The movie makes you care about the people, and not so much about the horse...and it's a movie about a horse. I'm not totally uncaring though, as there's definitely one scene that made me cringe and feel bad for Joey (won't spoil the details for those of you who have not seen it yet), but I feel like I cared more about Emilie, the German brothers (Gunther and Friedrich were their names, I believe), or the Narracott family, but not Joey.

I feel like in a way, this movie is like Pearl Harbor (the 2001 movie with Ben Affleck). By that I mean that they tried to combine two movie genres that don't usually work well together (not all the time, there are some that did work out). Pearl Harbor was a war movie that had a romance plot shoved in, and War Horse is a war movie that had what I call a "horse movie" plot shoved in.

Even though the entire experience wasn't all that enjoyable (an older lady tripped and fell on top of me walking up the steps of the theater, spilling a full soda onto my brand new argyle sweater I had just gotten for Christmas earlier that day), it was still a good movie despite my personal preferences. I would  definitely recommend you go see it.

I would rate it 4 stars out of 5

And if you want to read a real movie review blog, check out a blog written by a friend of mine here: Puzzle Noggin Paradoxes

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Further Fantasy Reading

This was originally going to be the "Advanced" guide to fantasy, but I feel like people wouldn't necessarily agree with my choices. The great thing is that people all read at different levels. I read The Lord of the Rings when I was in junior high, but someone else could have read it earlier, or later. This list is for either books with more mature content or ones I have left out in my other lists (see here: Beginner's Guide to Fantasy & Intermediate Guide to Fantasy). Note that I have not read all of the books on this list, nor necessarily enjoyed them myself (I hated Jonathan Strange), but they come highly recommended by lots of other people. I hope you enjoy these books if you ever get the opportunity to! These are in no particular order.


The Silmarillion- J.R.R. Tolkien

Wizard's First Rule- Terry Goodkind

The Eye of the World- Robert Jordan

A Game of Thrones- George R.R. Martin

Tigana- Guy Gavriel Kay

Gardens of the Moon- Steven Erikson

Mistborn- Brandon Sanderson

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell- Susanna Clarke

The Name of the Wind- Patrick Rothfuss

Sabriel- Garth Nix