By guest poster LM Preston from lmpreston.blogspot.com and lmpreston.com
This movie was on my must-see list. Why? Because as a science fiction author I love science fiction movies. I loved the concept of this sick tale of repo men coming to take back organs. It had potential to be a good movie. It got off to a great start with great actors Forest Whittaker and Jude Law – definitely a great combination. It shows their friendship, their job of going after organs recipients who don’t pay their bills, and it’s brutal – did I say brutal?
Okay, then it happens. The movie makes a turn in such a predictable way that you can tell the writers got lazy. That’s when I wanted to get up. I mean it’s such a bad transition that the movie stops making sense. It just gets – well kinda boring (but gory nasty to boot).
The redeeming quality of this movie – which made me give it a 3 out of 5 stars and say it’s – Okay, was the ending. They totally threw me for a loop with the very ending, and the funny part was – it fit. So if you are in the mood for a violent, twisted, sometimes stupid scifi action flick – check out Repo Men.
I don’t know where to start. I really wanted to see this movie. It looked like it would be exciting, suspenseful – kinda like one of my favorite movies of this sort, The Sixth Sense (my absolute favorite). In a word – I was disappointed.
I checked the reviews and figured they were decent. (Truth is – I would have gone anyway.)
The movie got off to a pretty good start. Leonardo and his partner set off to investigate an mysterious escape from Alcatraz. They questioned the prisoners, hurt some too, and slowly we saw Leonardo sink into a dismal conspiracy. Unfortunately, it was downright boring. If I hadn’t have spend my $10 I would have left about halfway through the movie. Really, I would have, and I really like Leonardo.
The good part of this boring journey was the twist at the end (If you want to call it a twist – because my spoil sport husband figured out the ending about 1/4th through the movie). All that corny dullness led up to an ending that made seeing the movie worth it. Because the ending was so good, I give this movie 2 starts out of 5. Wait for the video (rent it).
I’m about to give away my age here, but I saw the old version of the Wolfman when I was a kid. I didn’t really care for it then. I liked a little more gore as a teen and let me tell ya…the modern day Wolfman delivered the gore.
One of the things I liked about the movie was the setting. It was dark, grainy and gave the feeling of doom and danger – loved it! Now I must complain about special effects. Don’t get me wrong overall they were good, but – yep there is a but…why didn’t they make the Wolfman look more fierce. They had all these great special effects of him changing, then he changes and it’s like – blah…a wimpy looking werewolf.
The storyline was okay – kinda like the Bram Stoker’s Dracula…dramatic yet entertaining but kinda – umm – boring.
Now I give this a 2.75 out of 5 stars because I think the story could have been less predictable, and I was extremely disappointed in the end result of the wolfman’s werewolf looks.
If you want a comparison to the old movie, it was similar. Yet, much better because there was a good amount of gore.
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Okay, first let me start with saying I love adventure movies. I get it that you can’t fit all the details of a book into an itty bitty 1.5hr movie. So if you’ve read the Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan and you are expecting all the adventures and storyline to be the same in the movie that you’ve read in the book – you are in for a surprise. Not a good one.
THE MOVIE
The movie was rather good. It had a kid turned hero. It had great strong sidekicks that helped him out in a jam. It had conflict and a Mission. Percy Jackson didn’t realize that he was the son of Poseidon – the god of the sea. Yet he finds out as a victim of circumstances when he is thrust in the middle of a battle between Zeus, Hades and Poseidon as he is falsely accused of stealing Zeus’ lightening bolt.
This movie was action packed, had great special effects and for my husband, oldest son, and younger two kids this was a top notch 4 star movie. For my daughter and I who’d read the book, we rated it only 2.75 stars because the storyline was drastically changed from the book. Major plot points were squished together for me and the biggest twist was that they didn’t have to change it. But to be fair – it was still a ride. I will definitely be buying it in dvd, because it’s a keeper.
THE BOOK
I loved this book because I write with the same purpose in mind that Rick Riordan wrote this one – to show kids that they are empowered. Percy is the odd kid out. Picked on in school even after he goes to the demi-god camp he is an outcast. Yet Percy never gives up. He wines about his plight as any kid does, but he consistently keeps fighting for his true goal – to save his mother and to find the lightening bolt. This is where the movie and book differ. In the book Percy’s obvious desire is to find the lightening bolt, but his secret desire is to save his mother. He also desires the love of his father and his father makes a public display of claiming him as his son while Percy battles in the ‘capture the flag’ game.
Also, in the book there were many more challenges that Percy and his friends had to conquer. They were constantly being mislead by other gods and minions who had different reasons for kicking them off their path to find the lightening bolt.
The book in my personal opinion was much, much more exciting than the movie.
So after you check out the movie – definitely pick up the book. You won’t be disappointed.
LM Preston is the author of young adult science fiction books Explorer X- Alpha and the upcoming The Pack. To learn more about Preston and her book, go to lmpreston.blogspot.com, lmpreston.com, or click here. For a preview of The Pack, click here.
