At the Movies: X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class was on my Most Awaited Movies of 2011 list, and I was so happy when I got to see it so quickly after it opened here. 

First Class is a bit of a prequel to the X-Men 1, 2, 3 and Wolverine, but it's also very much it's own movie and I think it can be seen on it's own since it's the very beginning of the story.

As it opens, we meet Erik and Charles, two boys with very different backgrounds but with very unusual gifts: they are mutants. While Erik is trapped in the hell of World War II and in the clutches of a mad scientist; Charles lives a comfortable if a bit isolated life in the US, but even the isolation lessens when he finds another young mutant in his kitchen, Raven, and he takes her in as if she were his sister. 

Years later, Charles is man-about-town finishing his doctorate thesis in Oxford; while Erik is hunting down Sebastian Shaw, the man who killed his mother and then used him as a lab rat for years.  Their paths converge when Charles -and Raven - are recruited by the government to stop Shaw, who is currently plotting a massive nuclear war. 

That is just the very beginning of this movie and let me tell you that I loved it, it so remind me of why I loved the X-men growing up and I loved seeing the start of it all. James McAvoy was a great Charles Xavier - a bit arrogant, a bit full of himself, with big plans, but with his heart in the right place - and Michael Fassbender was one hell of a HOT Erik (I want me some of that!) and, well, seeing the genesis of his persona as Magneto was amazing, he's always straddling the line between good and bad, in fact, I will say he's a bad guy doing a good thing for most of the movie, and that was incredibly sexy, plus it was awesome to see. 

Also, you get to see the beginning of many iconic characters like Beast and Mystique. 

Awesome movie, I completely loved it. I'll give it an A - yeah, I loved it that much!

Story of My Life #6 - On Long winded Sob Stories.

Okay, so a few weeks ago I was on the mood for a Tearjerker - sometimes it happens, I just feel like having a good cry about something not related to my real life. So a friend told me about Tapestry by Karen Ranney. Now, I've read the works of Ms Ranney before and I generally enjoy them - some of them I've even love. 

So I went forth, located a copy of Tapestry - since it's an older book a friend had it and loaned it to me - and went forth to read. 

It was a tearjerker, and it was for the most part okay, but it lost me because it was one of those epic sagas where the hero and heroine have to go through hell and back, then visit the moon, maybe mars and have an tea with the Yeti before they get to be happy. 

I loathe such books. It's not that I don't think tragic stories shouldn't be told or that I don't know that real life can be right down cruel. But when I'm looking at a story for comfort, I can't help thinking was ALL that really necessary? 

Let me tell you what happens in Tapestry in the barest of terms: Heroine loves hero from afar for years. Hero goes to war, gets blown up and loses - literally - half his face. Hero comes back and is - understandably, I think - a bad tempered bear. Heroine disguises herself as a maid, goes to the Hero's house and slowly but surely gets him to come out of his shell with the power of her love (So far so good and if it would have ended there I would have LOVED this book, but oh no!!).

Hero is thinking of sending Heroine away because she deserves better than him but the heroine disappears on him due to the fact that she has to get back to her rich heiress life. Hero eventually decides to marry for the sake of getting an heir, and marries the Heroine. Hero discovers Heroine is the maid he was in love with. Instead of being happy about this, Hero reverts back into Bear Temperament. Eventually, Hero forgives Heroine and they are happy.... for a while (Again, if this would have been the ending I would have been okay, but we are only midway through the book).

Heroine discovers she's preggo! YAY!! but then Hero is told BY HIS FORMER SUPERIOR IN THE ARMY WHO JUST QUIT THE JOB BUT WANTS THE HERO TO DO AS HE SAYS ANYWAY that he has to go back to war. Hero knows Heroine is pregnant, but goes anyway BECAUSE HE'S A DUMB ASS THAT PUTS DUTY TO HIS NO LONGER BOSS OVER HIS FAMILY. Heroine is sad, but hopes he'll come back for the birth of the baby. 

Hero gets blown up again, and thought dead. Heroine hears the news and losses the baby. Heroine becomes Pod-robot with no will to live. Years go by. Hero is still thought as dead. Heroine joins charity causes, fosters tons of children unconsciously trying to make up for the one she lost. Hero is not dead after all and comes back. Heroine doesn't want to see him. Hero pulls a BIG GESTURE TO MAKE UP FOR THE FACT THAT HE WAS GONE FOR YEARS and Heroine forgives him and they live happy with their adoptive children, only occasionally feeling sad about not having their own babies.

See it took me FOUR paragraphs to sum up what happens in this story. And I ask again, was all that really necessary? For me, whenever I read stuff like that, I feel like author didn't make any choices, she just wanted her characters to suffer, and suffer, and then suffer so much because that's supposed to be the makings of a Great Love Story?

Honestly?

I enjoy long, complex stories, I do. When it makes sense. Harry Potter I love. I live for Star Wars - and that's one heck of a long-winded, complex story, more so if you count the Expanded Universe. I loved the LotR movies. There is nothing I love more than a good trilogy or series. I like it. Do I need it crammed into a single book? Nope. Do I need my hero and heroine to have every single possibly bad thing happen to them to believe they love each other? No way!

So... yeah, that's why I stay away from books like this - I think it's also to blame fore my fear of super long books - I've never seen the appeal.

Now, I ask you? Do you like 'saga's? What's the kick? the payoff?

Let me know,

Alex

Stupid Fast Giveaway Winner

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the Stupid Fast Giveaway.

Random.org did the honors and the winner* is:

Congrats Diana@The Lovely Getaway, I will be emailing you shortly!

Love,
Alex.

* As usual, Winner has 48 hrs to contact me back, or another winner will be selected.

Book Review: Secrets, Monsters and Magic Mirrors by Donald Lemke (editor)

Cover is from Rapunzel

The Deal: Okay, first let me explain how the book works: it's a graphic novel with re-tellings of five classic fairy tales in the form of a comic/graphic novel, each one has a different author in charge of the text and a different artist in charge of the artwork  - as a result, you get five very different styles.

The tales in question are Rapunzel, Thumbelina, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and The Pea. The tales are very different esthetically and narrative more close to the original 'uncut' versions than to Disney or more kid-friendly versions.

My Thoughts: As I said, Secrets, Monsters and Magic Mirrors is a compilation and it sort of gets into a lot of trouble because of it. The stylistically, each story is very different from the previous one. The artwork for Rapunzel is dark but kind of awesome, Thumbellina's is a bit on the childish side; Snow White is more of classic comic approach (I found this one the creepiest of them all); Beauty and The Beast was a bit cutesy but basic, and Princess and the Pea a bit more square, but also cute. 

(I hope I'm making sense with the descriptions)

Now, here is where the trouble starts, the styles are so different and it's kind of jarring to jump from one to the next, and I think the book has a bit of a personality crisis. Some of the drawings are so elemental and cute, like they are aimed for kids, but I wouldn't feel comfortable giving this book to a young child because it can get kind of dark. And at the same time I don't think it's sophisticated enough for an older crowd - the retellings are very short, and the characterization remains a little cartoonish. 

One thing I did like about it, was that, at the end of each story, there was a little background about the particularly story.

 

Book Review: The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade

At First Sight: Queen Bee Alona Dare's life gets cut short when, a few weeks before graduation, she gets run over by a school bus but, for some reason, she didn't go to the great beyond right away, and instead keeps waking up in the middle of the street where she died.

In the days that follow her death, Alona gets to see how everyone is moving on without her, like she was never there, like she was never important. And that gets her plenty mad, too bad there is nothing she can do because no one can see or hear her. No one, that is, except for Will Killian.

Social reject Will Kill who was so far out of Alona's sphere that she barely noticed him in life, just knowing that he was the resident weirdo of their high school... and she might have just discovered why he's always acting so weird.

All his life, Will has been able to see the dead - just like his Dad did before him - and suffered for it. He has an over protective mother, a psychiatrist hell vent on sending him to a "facility" and he's on the high school principal's black list. Still, he figures that if he can stick it out until he's 18 he'll be able to get out of town and stay out of trouble.

Until he lets his guard slip and Alona realizes that he can see the dead, suddenly, ghosts are clamoring for his help and landing him in trouble left and right; and the only one willing to help him is Queen of Mean Alona.

Second Glance: I'm going to come clean and say that I sort of dismissed  The Ghost and the Goth when I first saw it last year. I was having a paranormal overload and I don't know, I just thought the cover was cute but not much else. However, then I read Small Review's thoughts on The Ghost and the Goth and then on Queen of the Dead, and it got me thinking that maybe I have been too quick to dismiss Alona and Will.

So I reconsidered.

And I'm SO GLAD I DID!

There is a lot more to G&G than what meets the eye first. I loved Alona, she's definitely a bit of a mean girl, but she's fabulously mean and there is a lot more to her than just that. There are layers to her personality, and a real story behind the image she projected. Plus, she was really smart.

Will was a loner, sure, but with surprisingly few issues other than the "I See Dead People" thing and all it implied, I got the sense that he was a good friend and a good son, and I totally liked him for it.

The book has a dual narration and I liked getting into both their heads, each with a distinct voice but both equally fun. Plus the book was a great pace, that kept me going even though it was the middle of the night and I really should have been asleep.

Bottom Line: I loved Alona and Will, and The Ghost and the Goth is definitely one of my favorite reads of this year. I can't wait to read Queen of the Dead and see what's in store for this odd-but-very-functional couple.

Favorite Quote: There were so many, but I don't trust myself not to spoil much, so I'm picking one from the beginning.
“Trust me, I’d find someone else if I could. You’re just mad because I never talked to you when I was alive.”
“Yeah, the waves of regret are washing over me.” -- Alona & Will

2/3