By guest poster LM Preston from lmpreston.blogspot.com and lmpreston.com

Repo Men

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.

Shutter Island

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).

The Wolfman

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.

Clash of the Titans is about to come to theaters April 2 (and the 1981 version is out for download on iTunes), probably signaling a revived interest in classical Greek characters and stories. Will new-school Titans go down as a classic among the other Greek stories that have graced Hollywood? Here’s a list of some of the more recent films Hollywood has to offer in Greek-themed movies:

Disney’s Hercules

The story of Hercules has been redone and remade plenty of times, the most thought-of version being the television series that acted as a bookend to Xena: Warrior Princess, but never was the story of Hercules given such a colorful twist as when Disney molded the story to fit its “Love Conquers All” mantra. Sure, the mythology was watered down for children (who wants to see Zeus as the affair-ridden husband and Hera as the harpy they actually were? (although Disney made Hercules’ randy satyr trainer Phil fill in for Zeus’ roving eye)), and Hercules actually killed Megara later on the original story, but the Disney version is the one that makes you happy to know a little bit about Greek mythology as well as the fact that Disney can make any story happy and upbeat. And, come on, how can you hate on Disney when they made Hercules into a cute, naïve farm boy? I dare you to hate!

300

300 is based on the historical Battle of Thermopylae about the battle waged between 300 Spartans and a sea of Persians over control of the land. The graphic novel was groundbreaking, and the movie even more so, if only for the effects used to create a visual reiteration of the graphic novel’s inking and coloring style. Since its big-screen debut, the film has become one of the quotable movies of the 21^st century. Who doesn’t love screaming, “THIS…IS…SPARTA!” or “Tonight, we dine in Hell!”?

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

A newcomer to the trilogy movie set, Percy Jackson, based on the book series of the same name, is about a boy who finds out that he’s related to Greek gods. The movie is poised to take over the spot Harry Potter will leave behind once the last of the movies are rolled out, and it seems like it’s fitting into its upcoming role very nicely already.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Not initially thought of as a riff on Greek literature, Brother is based on the epic The Odyssey, where hero Odysseus travels to mythical places and encounters magical women and goddesses in his quest to get home. In the film, three escaped prisoners embark on a journey to recover $1.2 million one of the prisoners stole from an armored car. The film is now a modern classic, and the soundtrack earned the film an Oscar win.

Troy

While not an esteemed movie by any stretch of the imagination, this film is probably only popular with those who like to see Brad Pitt without a shirt and pants (ditto for Gerard Butler in 300). The film is based on the Trojan War, taking material from the Homer’s Iliad and the Virgil’s Aeneid. Even if the film flopped stateside, it did receive a lot of love from the international circuit.

My Fair Lady, Weird Science, Mannequin

All of these movies vary in how classic they are in the scope of film literature, but they’ve all got the same origins in Greek literature. These stories of men falling in love with women they’ve changed/created is based on the story of Pygmalion from Ovid’s Metamorphoses X, who falls in love with a statue he carved. This story has been riffed on more than just in these three movies; this story is probably the most popular story conceit as well as the easiest to reproduce in different, modern ways.

What other movies can you think of that have been influenced by ancient Greece? While you’re leaving your comments below, don’t forget to see Clash of the Titans April 2, and download the original Clash of the Titans (including a sneak peek of the upcoming remake) from iTunes.

Information from Wikipedia:

Films list

Troy

Pygmalion

Battle of Thermopylae