Now that 2013 is almost over, I have been thinking about all the movies I have seen in theaters this year. I think it is likely that I won't see any more until January, so this seems like a good time to do this update. If I do see any more, I'll try to update this post.
I have kept the tickets from every movie I saw this year. Here are all the ones I saw, and what I thought (or what I remember thinking). Of course, I've seen a lot more movies than this at home, but these are all the ones I bought tickets to see.
January 5: Lincoln. I remember liking this, though I think it was probably not one of my favorites, just because I don't find the topic as interesting as I do with some of these others.
May 12: The Great Gatsby. I wasn't sure what I was going to think of this, but I really liked it. In fact, I think I actually liked it better than the book. Plus, there was some great music. I saw this on my birthday.:)
May 30: Star Trek: Into Darkness. I enjoyed it. I'm not a huge Star Trek fan, but it was fun. There were some gimmicky moments, but I still did like it.
June 27: I saw Star Trek: Into Darkness again with different people. I felt the same way about it. :)
November 24: Catching Fire. I liked this movie a lot, a lot better than the first one. It stuck to the book well.
December 1: Ender's Game. Read my review here.
December 12: The Book Thief. Again, read my review here.
If I end up seeing any more movies this month, I will definitely add them to this list.
What movies have you seen this year? Which were the best? I didn't see any movies I didn't like, though some were better than others. Also, you can see that we're really getting into movie season. I've seen three movies in the last three weeks, and none for the six months before that.
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Thursday, December 12, 2013
The Book Thief {Movie Review}
It's after three in the afternoon, and I haven't written anything today, so I think I'll write about the movie I just saw, The Book Thief. Now, I literally saw this movie less than an hour ago (it got our at 2:30), so it is very fresh in my mind. Normally with a post like this, I'd spend most of the time comparing it to the book, but since I haven't actually read the book (I know, I know, please don't be too mad), I won't do that.
Instead, I think this is going to be more just observations about the movie in general. Be warned, there will be spoilers.
First of all, I liked the German/English mix up thing they did. The accents all sounded pretty good (though what do I know? They could have been terrible), and I liked the way they did occasionally switch to German (Nien! Nein!). It felt German without being hard to understand.
I spent a lot of the movie trying to remember where I recognized Hans (Geoffry Rush) from. It wasn't until just now (after I googled it) that I realized it was from Pirates of the Caribbean. He looked (and acted!) quite differently here. The accent didn't help either.
Spoilers coming, so consider yourself warned.
The movie was very dark visually, which definitely set the tone well. While I expected the movie to be sad, and I knew people would die, I wasn't really expected so many people to die at once. This is I'm sure where the fact that I didn't read the book is becoming really obvious. I would have known that if I had.
Particularly sad was Rudy's death, mid sentence. Everybody in the theater (all seven of us, literally) sighed at the same time. At an earlier point in the movie, when it seemed like Rudy was about to kiss Liesel, but didn't, the older ladies behind us all went "Oh, come on! Kiss her!" It was pretty funny.
I'm not sure exactly how long this movie has been in theaters, but, including me and the friend I was with, there were seven of us in the theater, and we were the youngest by probably forty years. Of course, it was a day time movie on a week day, but it still seemed really empty to me. We sat almost in the exact middle of the theater, and there was no one in front of us, which was great.
I had a hard time telling how old Liesel was supposed to be, particularly considering how they jumped forward several times. I was guessing she was supposed to be about eleven or twelve at the beginning, thought she looked younger. I just looked up the actress (Sophie Nelisse) and I was surprised to see that she is only thirteen! I think she was really good, especially for being that young.
Okay, that's the end of my randomness for the day. I do intend to read the book as soon as possible, and when I do, I'll review it here right away!
Instead, I think this is going to be more just observations about the movie in general. Be warned, there will be spoilers.
First of all, I liked the German/English mix up thing they did. The accents all sounded pretty good (though what do I know? They could have been terrible), and I liked the way they did occasionally switch to German (Nien! Nein!). It felt German without being hard to understand.
I spent a lot of the movie trying to remember where I recognized Hans (Geoffry Rush) from. It wasn't until just now (after I googled it) that I realized it was from Pirates of the Caribbean. He looked (and acted!) quite differently here. The accent didn't help either.
Spoilers coming, so consider yourself warned.
The movie was very dark visually, which definitely set the tone well. While I expected the movie to be sad, and I knew people would die, I wasn't really expected so many people to die at once. This is I'm sure where the fact that I didn't read the book is becoming really obvious. I would have known that if I had.
Particularly sad was Rudy's death, mid sentence. Everybody in the theater (all seven of us, literally) sighed at the same time. At an earlier point in the movie, when it seemed like Rudy was about to kiss Liesel, but didn't, the older ladies behind us all went "Oh, come on! Kiss her!" It was pretty funny.
I'm not sure exactly how long this movie has been in theaters, but, including me and the friend I was with, there were seven of us in the theater, and we were the youngest by probably forty years. Of course, it was a day time movie on a week day, but it still seemed really empty to me. We sat almost in the exact middle of the theater, and there was no one in front of us, which was great.
I had a hard time telling how old Liesel was supposed to be, particularly considering how they jumped forward several times. I was guessing she was supposed to be about eleven or twelve at the beginning, thought she looked younger. I just looked up the actress (Sophie Nelisse) and I was surprised to see that she is only thirteen! I think she was really good, especially for being that young.
Okay, that's the end of my randomness for the day. I do intend to read the book as soon as possible, and when I do, I'll review it here right away!
Monday, December 2, 2013
Ender's Game {Movie Review}
I'm sorry the blog has been so silent lately! I am working on a life update post which should be up later today, or tomorrow morning.
First of all, this will have spoilers. I am going to make no effort to avoid spoilers. If you've read the book, there should be nothing to worry about, but if you haven't, this will definitely give away some things. If you haven't seen the movie, this post will mainly be focusing on the differences between the two, so continue at your own discretion.
Second, this isn't really going to be much of a review, but really more of a list of things I did and didn't like. I went and saw the movie last night with a bunch of friends, and some of these items were things that really came from them in the post movie discussion time in which we all stood in the lobby and blocked the walkway and got strange looks from the theater workers.
Things I DID Like
1. I felt like over all, it was a pretty good adaptation. They made changes that they needed to make in order to make it into a two hour movie, and for the most part, didn't cut any important things (see the exceptions below).
2. The actors/actresses. I thought that they chose really good people to play most of the characters. I especially liked how young many of the kids actually looked. They didn't have a bunch of older actors playing kids. Asa Butterfield (Ender) is actually 16 years old, though he looked a lot younger. Hailee Steinfeld (Petra) is 17, and she looked a little more her age, but still young. Also, Harrison Ford was fantastic.
3. The battle simulations. They looked really cool.
Things I Did NOT Like
1. The thing I disliked the most was how fast it all seemed to be. It felt like a week passed from the time that Ender was taken to battle school and the time that he was fighting his final battle. It would have been really nice if they would have at least had someone mention in passing some thing like "Wow, I can't believe we've already been here for two months," or something like that. Or, as a friend suggested, they could have done some training/battle montages.
2. At the very end, Ender walks out of the HQ, walks about fifty feet, and finds... the egg of the bugger queen. Fifty feet from command central. There is NO way that they would not have known that was there. It doesn't seem like it would have been to hard to make it more like the book (where he finds it on another planet).
3. There were very few characters (other than Ender) who were developed at all. Even Bean was introduced and then essentially forgotten. Petra got a little more screen time, but still very little character development. You know nothing about any of those characters.
4. Another thing that I disliked was the omission of the Valentine/Peter storyline back on Earth. I understand that they couldn't include a lot because of time constraints, but it would have been nice if they had least made some references to it.
Overall, I think it was pretty good, considering the time they had to work with. I think it could have been better, but I was pretty pleased. If you are a fan of the book, and are considering seeing it, I recommend it.
First of all, this will have spoilers. I am going to make no effort to avoid spoilers. If you've read the book, there should be nothing to worry about, but if you haven't, this will definitely give away some things. If you haven't seen the movie, this post will mainly be focusing on the differences between the two, so continue at your own discretion.
Second, this isn't really going to be much of a review, but really more of a list of things I did and didn't like. I went and saw the movie last night with a bunch of friends, and some of these items were things that really came from them in the post movie discussion time in which we all stood in the lobby and blocked the walkway and got strange looks from the theater workers.
Things I DID Like
1. I felt like over all, it was a pretty good adaptation. They made changes that they needed to make in order to make it into a two hour movie, and for the most part, didn't cut any important things (see the exceptions below).
2. The actors/actresses. I thought that they chose really good people to play most of the characters. I especially liked how young many of the kids actually looked. They didn't have a bunch of older actors playing kids. Asa Butterfield (Ender) is actually 16 years old, though he looked a lot younger. Hailee Steinfeld (Petra) is 17, and she looked a little more her age, but still young. Also, Harrison Ford was fantastic.
3. The battle simulations. They looked really cool.
Things I Did NOT Like
1. The thing I disliked the most was how fast it all seemed to be. It felt like a week passed from the time that Ender was taken to battle school and the time that he was fighting his final battle. It would have been really nice if they would have at least had someone mention in passing some thing like "Wow, I can't believe we've already been here for two months," or something like that. Or, as a friend suggested, they could have done some training/battle montages.
2. At the very end, Ender walks out of the HQ, walks about fifty feet, and finds... the egg of the bugger queen. Fifty feet from command central. There is NO way that they would not have known that was there. It doesn't seem like it would have been to hard to make it more like the book (where he finds it on another planet).
3. There were very few characters (other than Ender) who were developed at all. Even Bean was introduced and then essentially forgotten. Petra got a little more screen time, but still very little character development. You know nothing about any of those characters.
4. Another thing that I disliked was the omission of the Valentine/Peter storyline back on Earth. I understand that they couldn't include a lot because of time constraints, but it would have been nice if they had least made some references to it.
Overall, I think it was pretty good, considering the time they had to work with. I think it could have been better, but I was pretty pleased. If you are a fan of the book, and are considering seeing it, I recommend it.
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