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Reviews of books and movies

The Once and Future King by T.H. White

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Loved The Sword in the Stone. No plot, but supremely entertaining. They kinda went downhill after that. Especially once Merlin left. A lot of the humor and absurdity that made the first part so good disappeared. And that fit the story, but it was a hard loss still. As it went it seemed to become more and more of an essay on Arthurian legend and less a story. He spent a lot of time explaining the way things were, why characters acted the way they did. At times he even told us outright to pay attention and know what this meant. At one point he pressed on us to know that what just happened was the cause of what would happen later and that this was extremely important. I was not expecting that going in, so it was a bit of a let down.

What I loved, especially early on, was the humor. I just kept finding passages that I wanted to record because I cracked up at them. Again, as the story went on and got darker, that went away. I also liked how it felt like he was just sitting there telling a story. He made references to modern day things and told us how it was similar and differebt than modern day life. It had a real informal feel to it, which I rather enjoyed. Until it became an essay. Again, maybe I just wasn’t ready for it and wasn’t in the right mindset for it, but it started to lose its appeal then. The tone shift fit the story, but still…

The last book did redeem it some. It got off to a rough, very dense, start and ended with the musings of an old man, but in between it got quite personal and emotional. It made me like and care about characters I hadn’t yet liked or didn’t like anymore.

I hadn’t read much Arthurian legend before and my exposure to it is mostly in film and TV (Monty Python, King Arthur, Merlin) so it was cool to read this and see the difference. I always read with my phone by me and I regularly looked up other versions of the story to see how he changed it. I also needed the phone for its use as a dictionary. Whole lotta new words in there and unknown references (still feel like I didn’t understand a large chunk). But it was cool seeing who these characters I’d heard the names of were.

Overall, I give it a 3.5/5. The Sword in the Stone was a solid 4.5 at least and The Candle in the Wind was up to a 4, but I can’t bring myself to rank the rest so high.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

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2/5 stars. Will not be continuing with the series. I listened to it pretty fast, faster than other books I like more, but my motivation for that was really just to be done with it. “Only this long left” was my thinking on it. I wanted to finish to start another.

For most of the book I didn’t care about a single character. I didn’t like Darrow much. He seemed to always have the answer and could be exactly what the situation called for. I also found the idea of the story intriguing, but did not get invested in it at all. And I think both are symptoms of the writing style.

He told us everything. I think the most common writing advice out there is “show don’t tell.” He did the exact opposite. (You could argue the same about LotR and The Once and Future King, but those feel like a guy sitting around a fire telling you a story he knows, this feels like watching a story through a character’s eyes and he’s telling you how you should interpret everything and feel about it.) Another common piece of advice is “no info dumps, especially in your first chapter.” The first several chapters were one huge info dump. He felt the need to tell us every single thing about the world and characters and their relationships before the story even started. I got so bored in those early chapters. And it didn’t get much better, because, while the story started moving, it still felt kinda like an info-dump because he simply told us everything. Even in the rare time that he did show something, he then immediately stated it. He never left anything implied. Way too many ‘am’s and “beacause’s and ‘is’s. “I feel this” “I am this” “he feels this” “I think this” “I am right”. He force-feeds us everything. He tells you how to feel about the characters, which just makes me feel nothing at all. And he used a lot of similes and statements I think were intended to be literary and smart but just sounded ridiculous to me.

Some specific (non-spoilery) examples:

There was a character at one point that he apparently formed a connection with and she gave him something and he like asked her master to be nice or something in what I think was supposed to be a touching scene. I don’t even remember her name, but I just thought “wait… Have we even heard this girl talk before? But we’re supposed to care about her and their relationship?”

“They are afraid of us.”
“I am angry.”
“I want to punch him.”
All super easy to show through actions and descriptions. And every other sentence was like that.

I didn’t write down the similes I cringed at, but there were a lot.

In one listening session (the last one) I heard the following:
“She smells like smoke and hunger.”
“She tastes like she smells, like smoke and hunger.”
“It smells like earth and siege.”
“He reeks of power like pinks reek of perfume.”
“His pride reeks.” (The same guy who, a few sentences before, reeked of power)
Who can tell me what hunger, siege, power and pride smell like and why he was so obsessed with smells?

Overall, an interesting story, but most (not all) of the characters were bland. And the writing style hurt to listen to. And that made both the characters and story that much more bland. Maybe I’m just too old or something. I won’t tell you not to read it, but I have a long list of books I would recommend first.

Detective Pikachu

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Spoiler free review this time.

Great movie? Not really. But was it entertaining? Yes. Best part: Ryan Reynolds. 100%. As expected. Absolutely hilarious. Some seriously funny cracks out of the little yellow furball. His delivery of them is perfect. But aside from Reynolds, the movie was entertaining. As one of the many people who grew up with Pokemon, it was pretty great to see these monsters come to life on the screen. I loved picking out all of the Pokemon in the background and everything. I especially loved the little Bulbasaurs hopping around. And the cgi was pretty dang good for how much it was in most of the shots.

But apart from that, I can’t honestly tell you it was a great movie. The writing wasn’t great. Besides what felt like the most obvious plot twist in history (that I was 90% sure about from the trailers and just got more sure of throughout the movie) the story was also just weak. I have to remind myself that it is a kid’s movie (despite some of the things out of Pikachu’s mouth, which is great) so I can’t be too hard on it. But it was not great. The story felt way too easy. Like they got several answers so easy. And at the end they fixed things in a moment, which fits the kid’s movie thing I guess, but I wasn’t a fan. There was some pretty rough dialogue in places too. And a few instances (less to do with writing maybe) where it was like “how did they get there that fast?” All around I just can’t say the movie was great from an objective writing standpoint. But it was hilarious and real fun to watch as someone who loved Pokemon. So, if you like Ryan Reynolds and/or (especially) like/d Pokemon, I would recommend. Otherwise, you probably shouldn’t waste your money.

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

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I enjoyed reading this one. I doubt I will read the rest of the series however. Most (but not all) of what follows is negative nitpicking, but if you want to hear everything wrong I found in a pretty good book, keep reading.

The story was interesting and was definitely an interesting take on the world of Oz. I mean, my experience with Oz is watching the movie a few times over the years, the last time probably 5+ years ago, and seeing the Wicked musical a couple of times, so I have very little to compare to, but I found it interesting nonetheless. I can’t really fault the story itself much, but honestly, I just didn’t get that into it, I can’t really put my finger on why. I think I just felt sorta swept along, like Amy wasn’t really that engaged in the whole thing, it felt sorta detached. And in some places it moved slow, in others it was really fast, in a way that pulled me out of it a bit. A way I described it when I was about a fifth of the way through the book (before I got to some of the stuff that went really fast, like her training) was “the writing seems to take a sudden turn sometimes, where I feel jarred. I feel it has moved really fast while also moving quite slow. Not a ton has happened of import I feel like, but so much has happened.” And I stand by that. The first part of the story felt like it was jamming so much in, trying to rush us through the world to show us as much of it as she could before actually getting to the story. None of it felt info-dump-y as it was all done through narrative, but the narrative did very little for the plot. I mean, we met a character that seemed like they would be important, then the character was unceremoniously killed off pretty quick, with barely a mention the rest of the book. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for killing characters (and the darkness and gore and violence in this book was surprising and awesome) but it really, again, just felt like it had no point. And the author just kinda herded us from one this to the next without time to absorb any of the things that felt like they had no real point to them. She painted a very intriguing picture. That we saw nothing of the rest of the book.

I also didn’t really like the romance. The book being a YA, the whole thing was a given, but I think she could have handled it better. It feels like it was just thrown in almost as an afterthought. It had little effect on the story and happened quick and predictably. I don’t know how it progresses through the series, but so far it feels forced and inconsequential.

There were some instances, too, where I felt pulled out of the world ((hang with me, I’ll get to some of the good things)) because of something that happened or was said. One that stuck out was “Oz History 101” was used as a joke I believe. And that felt out of place. This fantasy world exists alongside ours and has people from our world in it, yes, but the use of how we name classes (correct me if I’m wrong on the origin of that cliché joke) still felt out of place.

I do like the grayness of the story. The question about what is Wicked, what is Good. The main character doing some “bad” things. The bad guys seem totally evil, but the good guys aren’t your classic heroes. And you can’t be sure of anyone’s motivations, or, sometimes, even what side they’re on. Add onto that how brutal and violent it is and you’ve got exactly the kind of thing I like. And the magic was really interesting. How it worked, what it was. I enjoyed reading about it.

I’m going to get into some specifics now. Spoilers (and nitpicking) ahead.

One thing that had me really confused was the plan. It seemed to me that they sent Amy to the city to figure out how to get close to Dorothy and kill her, but then Nox said they had a plan already. They definitely should have told her a bit more, given her a clearer vision of what her role was. Because I had no clue. I imagine this is answered, at least in part, later, but I don’t know why they needed her at all. If Jellia was there, with close access to Dorothy, and they were able to sneak into the ball and eliminate magic, why not just do that and have Jellia slit her throat?

There were issues with the writing itself too. For the most part it was fine, but I kept record of many of the issues. This is where the nitpicking comes into play. Read if you want. Otherwise, just know that I enjoyed reading it, but the other books in the series will not move to the top of my reading list.

A couple of times the writing contradicts itself from one sentence to the next, like the author was trying to make a contrast, but to me it just came off as a mistake
Star ran off but she knew it would be back. The next time the rat is mentioned, it was somewhere on her person again and squealing.
“…and he shut right up. She cut him off…” she isn’t cutting him off anymore if he already shut up. pg. 88
She describes the Scarecrow pretty much how I envisioned him and in a way that is perfectly clear who he is. Then she says he is twisted and warped into something she hardly recognizes. Which is it? This description that is obviously him or “something I hardly recognized?”
She fell asleep, woke up, tried to find the door, fell asleep again, woke up and then “after all the hours locked away in here, al alone, it really did help just to have him sitting next to me.” Felt way too quick. If we were supposed to feel like she was trapped for so long it was good to have another person, it should have been drawn out longer. I got no sense that she was in there for a super long time. Pg. 101
She goes on this big heart-felt thing about how she never liked the rat, but now it had been her companion and she wanted to protect it. I feel it was a little undeserved. I never got much emotion from her on the rat, good or bad. Pg.107
She could feel the cold of the knife in her hand. Last we heard about the knife it had come clattering out of her hand. Pg.117
“What had I gotten myself into” used twice in 3 paragraphs. To me, twice feels redundant. 3 or more feels like intentional repetitiveness. but twice on the some page, then no again, comes off as poor writing. Pg117
She is specifically identifying stone as opal, she is saying she hit him in the solar plexus. This feel forced. I doubt very many high school girls would both see a rock and go “I think that’s opal” and hit a guy and say it was his solar plexus. We have no reason to think she would know about either of those things. She hasn’t identified any rocks before Pg 144 & 149
I call BS on her kicking him in the stomach and making him stumble and surprising him. A kick, especially one hard enough to make a guy stumble that wasn’t even affected by her hardest punch, would not surprise the trained fighter. Kicks take time and hard kicks have obvious warning signs. He should have seen it coming a mile off Pg. 149
Glamora explaining she and Glinda were connected, now they don’t seem to be. Then says there’s a chance killing her would kill Glinda too. Which brings up 2 questions: 1) if you aren’t connected anymore, then it wouldn’t, right? I think it is poor order of dialogue. 2) If that would kill Glinda and you are happy to make that sacrifice, why not commit suicide? Maybe she’s not sure. Pg 174
“I couldn’t help Nox, and Nox couldn’t help me” then half a page later he helps her and they have a short conversation without any indication that the fighting had let up Pg 233
“And then we were surrounded” then, farther down on the same page “we were surrounded” Pg 233
She’s using her knife, then later on the page it says she pulls it out. Theoretically I can make an explanation for that (she dropped it and it vanished, then she retrieved it again), but it doesn’t say it in the page and we aren’t told anywhere if it disappears when dropped so… Pg 233
How did Astrid’s absence go unnoticed?
Dorothy looked at Amy with a Permasmile, then, a couple of paragraphs later, frowns. I was under the impression one couldn’t frown with Permasmile. Pg 315
The whole thing with her getting into the Scarecrow’s lab felt real easy and convenient. She found it no problem. Started the fire no problem. That worked. She got to the greenhouse no problem. The crows did nothing until it was too late. All too easy.
She describes Pete in a way that clearly shows he looks better than usual. Then says “he looked better than normal” explicitly. Feel redundant Pg 385
Wait… so, she is just wearing a different face? How did people not recognize that her voice was different? Pg 402
Pretty sure up to this point just the movie had been mentioned, but suddenly she’d read about this her whole life? Pg 430

Avengers: Endgame *Spoilers*

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Some spoilers ahead. You have been warned

——————————–

Holy cow. Up there among my favorites without a doubt. I’ve never seen anything with this much buildup, this much going into it, something that had to be handled so well because it was the payoff for so much. And they did it as well as you could ever hope.

I went into it having mostly successfully avoided seeing anything about it. I had seen some images, but avoided watching any footage. So, while I had some guesses I was pretty sure about (like time travel), I had no idea what the story as a whole was going to be. I was worried they were just going to undo the whole last movie or more. I was very pleasantly surprised with how it went. These last two Avengers movies really felt like wonderful pieces of writing to me. They go against the typical superhero and Disney stories to be dark and have real consequences and real conflict within each side. Some serious twists I truly didn’t expect. And all with a healthy dose of humor. And callbacks. It felt like half the script was references and callbacks, but done in a way that felt natural while giving us the memories.

I really liked seeing how each character handled what had happened. Each one was different and felt very true and real. I really did not expect the time jump, so seeing how they settled into their new reality was a truly pleasant surprise for me.

Seeing the characters past and present, was wonderful and a great way of wrapping up their stories. Seeing how they had changed (and how they hadn’t) emphasized their arcs and made us really feel for them and the time we had with them. And at the end I feel like each one got what they needed, all (or at least the vast majority) of their arcs came to a natural and fulfilling conclusion, or new jumping off point for the characters that will keep going.

And I just have to say how much I loved Cap getting to use Mjolnir. Everyone is saying it, but for real, that was just awesome. And he and Thor’s interactions after that were fantastic.

I’ve heard complaints about some of the characters not getting enough screen time and Cap and Tony getting too much. But I disagree. While this movie was an ending for the original Avengers as a whole, it was really for those two. They were the bedrock of the Avengers. Cap was “The First Avenger” and their leader. Tony was the first we saw on screen and the other driving force for so long. They deserved the biggest sendoff. They deserved to have the last movie be about their arcs. That’s my two cents on the subject.

I was extremely worried that Captain Marvel would be a deus ex machina and ruin the whole movie. But they handled it well. When she got decked by Thanos I almost cheered, just because that was a moment of relief for me; I knew then that it would be a struggle even with her and that the victory could go to one of our orginal beloved characters. When she joined the MCU I was very worried she would ruin it with the Superman-effect. But they managed to avoid it, which I am very grateful for.

I had a couple of minor complaints, but nothing big. One was I couldn’t figure out Ronin’s bow. Like, it seemed to come out of nowhere, then he threw it aside, next thing I knew he had it again. Maybe I missed something, but I was a little confused.
Another was that moment where the women all came together to help Captain Marvel get to the van. I appreciate the moment, but the way it was set up felt forced. My first thought when they said she’s not alone was “yeah, but does she really need you? She could just flame on and plow through the enemy or fly over.” It was a cool moment that, from a story perspective, had zero effect, because she ended up doing exactly what I said she could have. But I understand why they did it and that I’m not who it was for anyway. I just feel they maybe could have made it more impactful to the story and more organic.

Overall, I think it was a truly great way to wrap up the original Avengers’ story. I loved almost every minute of it. It didn’t feel nearly as long as it was. I am sad it is over, but don’t feel robbed or unfulfilled at all.

How many different synonyms for “great” did I use in this review?
And I didn’t even get into the visuals and acting. This review barely touched this awesome, long movie. So just go see it. Not that I think anyone is unsure about whether they will watch it or not or that I would sway them if they were.

Captain Marvel

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Hey, I’m reviewing something again! Would you look at that?

I am trying a more in-depth review this time, so [MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD]

Honestly? Better than I expected. I admit, I went into it not expecting much and was pleasantly surprised. It isn’t the strongest entry in the MCU, but it is leagues above the DCEU (sorry, not sorry).
Overall, it had a fairly strong, if mostly predictable story. Some of it was a little clunky. It had a problem with exposition in the beginning, but the later info dumps actually felt reasonably natural and a part of the story.
There were a couple of places where it felt like there was no payoff to a seed that was planted. Specifically, I am thinking about during the escape, Talos told his wife to cover their kid’s eyes before shooting someone, but the kid sees. Then absolutely nothing came of it. Had they left it with him saying to cover the eyes, then it would have been a good moment of seeing his protectiveness of his child. But they showed us the kid seeing the bodies. Which should have meant it would affect the kid in some way. And it didn’t seem to, so it was superfluous.
There were a couple of other scenes that didn’t really make sense. Like in the montage of seeing her stand after falling all those times, one of the scenes we saw in its entirety before, and I don’t recall her doing any such standing that time, which leaves me confused about whether she is remembering or imagining these scenes.
The climax suffered from Superman syndrome, in that, especially one her full power was released, she was never in any danger. I never feared for her life. Never even feared she would fail. Even when the danger wasn’t to her directly, I wasn’t afraid, because I knew she would show up and save the day. Part of that is because they didn’t ramp up the tension at all. When the big danger showed up, I never wondered if she would succeed. Then it was over. The big danger was defeated so fast after it showed up and without any problems that it felt like a waste. No surprise there, as I knew going in that she was going to be way overpowered.
They did, however, subvert my expectations a couple of times, in a good way, namely with Fury’s eye. I expected it to be this big plot point. Then they went a completely unexpected route with it. I especially appreciate that because I think too many prequel-like stories try too hard to explain things that don’t really need explaining. In most cases I wish they woukd let mysteries be mysteries, but I think this one was superbly under-played, liie they were laughing at those other prequel-like stories. It also wasn’t as in-your-face pro-woman, anti-man as I honestly expected it to be. It didnt sacrifice story for moral, which I really appreciate. Nothing should take precedence over story in a story, in my opinion.
Characters. I liked Talos, I like Fury obviously. And Coulson. Maria and Monica were great, and the other supporting characters were nothing to complain about, but I personally did not really like Carol Danvers. Being unlikable doesn’t make a bad character, so I don’t dock any points for that (and I’m sure plenty of people really like her), but she did have a few problems with delivery of some lines that were not very well written and several of her lines felt forced. Her actions also sometimes came across a little flat to me. I don’t know how much of that was Brie Larson, how much was the writing, how much was the direction. It just didn’t work real well for me. When the main and title character is the worst part of the movie, I feel like that’s a problem.
The rest of the acting was good, however. I always love Samuel L. Jackson. I am a fan of Ben Mendelsohn as well. Clark Gregg doesn’t disappoint. Jude Law also deserves props. All around, I had no problems with any characters or acting besides Danvers/Larson.
In terms of being an addition to the MCU, I think it fits pretty well. There were a couple of continuity errors that I caught, and I’m sure more superfans will find. But that is to be expected in any addition to a large universe, particularly with a prequel-like story.
I would say this movie deserves a good 7/10. I would recommend it.

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

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I must say, I was skeptical going into this one. It isn’t my typical read and I was somewhat opposed to the whole thing. It started out rough. Between my reservations going in and the older writing, it was hard going at first. It wasn’t until about halfway through that I began to appreciate the read. All throughout I still had some difficulty with the writing and often had to reread pieces, but I got into the story and wanted to keep reading. Much of it is now antiquated, but it still felt very real, especially the characters (and as someone who mostly sticks to sci-fi and fantasy, who am I to complain when the world of the story doesn’t match the world I live in?). I could really understand the characters and what they were experiencing, but at the same time be kept guessing. Austen does a great job of having us see the world and other characters through the same lens as Elizabeth, with our opinions changing as hers do. That leads to revelations that are often easy to see coming in other works, but I didn’t actually expect. Sometimes I like to feel smart by predicting what happens, but in a book where little in terms of action takes place, it is the mystery of what will be revealed next that kept me reading. I was surprised at how fast I got through it (once I reached the point where I was interested). I can’t say this genre will become my primary reading, but I was pleasantly surprised by this book and I am a bit more open to different genres than I was before. If you’re a guy that’s skeptical about reading these kinds of books, I suggest you give it a shot.

Those of you that have read Pride & Prejudice, did you like it? Did that surprise you?

Avengers Infinity War

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Yep. That was good. Worth it. And having avoided pretty much any of the trailers and videos, I managed to go in with very little idea of what was going to happen.

It is very hard to write this without spoilers, but #ThanosDemandsYourSilence so what can I do? While on the subject of Thanos, let’s start with him. One of the best Marvel villains without a doubt. They finally took the basic writing advice of making the villain the hero of his own story. He is sympathetic. Definitely the bad guy, but a sympathetic one. His logic makes sense in a twisted kind of way. And his story in the movie goes well beyond just going through killing people like most Marvel villains do.

The story, too, was very well done. I wasn’t sure how they woukd be able to pull off having so many characters, but they did it quite well. Lots of different storylines that wove together in a way that was not distracting and all felt right (not like The Last Jedi). Each character that we care about got their time to shine in the action and with their jokes and the mix of the two was good, less cringey than some movies. The movie was also finally a superhero movie was a bit different. It wasn’t as much good vs evil. It didn’t have the same ending, which felt more realistic. Granted, this is essentially part one of a two movie arc and the story will go back to the Disney/Superhero norm before the end I’m sure, but this was a nice temporary relief.

In terms of production value, itbwas really good. The long list of visual effects people earned their spots in the credits. A couple of places I felt it was off, but most of it was really good and with how much there was, thats pretty good. The sound mixing was good too. Especially with the introduction of the Guardians. You knew they were coming before you saw them.

There were a couple of small things that bugged me. Like a certain scene involving tactics, or the lack there of. Maybe they thought it through and have a reason I didn’t think of, but to me it seemed totally unrealistic, it just got it to look cooler. I was also bummed about Iron Man’s new suit, not because of the suit itself but because it is very similar to something I came up with like 10 years ago and have introduced to my writing, but haven’t really gotten out into the world yet and now it might look derivative.

Overall, definitely one to see if you have been watching the MCU. If you haven’t, I would ask you what rock you have been living under, why you are reading this review, and recommend that you go start with Iron Man, watch all of them, then definitely watch this one.

A Quiet Place

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Man… That was good. Extremely well made. The use of sound was incredible. It had to be given the premise, but I wasn’t sure how well they would pull it off. They pulked it off very well. They made you fear the noise just as the characters did. And, incredibly, without the use if much dialogue, even less actually vocalized, they were able to establish relationships between characters, make us care for them and drive the plot forward meaningfully. They used the lack of sound as powerfully as the sound itself. And I am impressed with the actors for giving such powerful performances without their voices.

It was a good one from just a watching standpoint too. It kept you on the esgr of your seat. The way it opened really grabbed you and set the tone for the whole movie. The plot moved well, nothing out of place that I noticed. Every gun on the shelf in the first act was used to shoot someone in the third as they say. Something about the end was less suspenseful to me, though I can’t explain why. It may have been as simple as I was getting antsy and was ready to leave, not something with the movie itself. But overall, I think it was a well-paced, well-crafted story. Definitely worth the watch.

The Greatest Showman

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Wow. Right from the get-go this movie is amazing. Seriously, from the first shot. One of the best opening scenes to a movie I’ve seen. And from then on it was truly awesome. Visually it was beautiful. From the sets to the costumes to the choreography, it was all around just wonderful to watch. There are several scenes I can pick out that were just entrancing because of the choreography. I am very impressed with both the performers and the choreographers. The music too. Every song was great. The singers all did a great job and the writers are certainly skilled.

It was a fun movie that made you feel good, but had the moments of downfall and struggle in procedural format you would expect. Not full of twists or surprises, but that isn’t the point of it. It did a great job of being a fun and heartwarming tale full of great music and dancing and remarkable cinematography. It ranks up there in my list of favorite musicals and even movies in general. One that I will certainly be seeing again.