It's October 31st

Happy Halloween! Or Happy Reformation Day, if that's what you celebrate. Personally, I'm celebrating a unique holiday that's a blend between "Halloween" and "The Very Last Day Before NaNoWriMo Starts". It is a holiday dedicated to candy, plotting, and apprehensively looking forward to a 1600+ daily word count goal.

(I've done my math. If I want to write 50,000 words in thirty days, I have to write at least 1,666 words per day. I look forward to this with anticipation and dread.)

One thousand six hundred and sixty-six words is a lot--or, well, it's a lot for me--so I'm probably going to take a blogging sabbatical for the month of November. Midway through the month, say November 15th, if I'm in a good place I'll try to post an excerpt and maybe give a general update as to  the status of my novel. If I'm not in a good place, I'll struggle on with the novel and post an update in early December.

To sum up: I might get out another post during November, but don't count on anything. Additionally, if you'd like to read/critique any of my non-NaNo writing, leave your email address in the comments and I will send it to you.

Adiós, and if you're doing NaNoWriMo, good luck.
EDIT: In case anyone is interested, my NaNo account is Pint17. Feel free to add me as a writing buddy or something.

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Coming Soon: I review the Back to the Future trilogy, and also possibly talk about Life of Pi.

The Divergent Series: Insurgent

*Warning: This post contains unmarked spoilers for the Divergent series. If you haven't yet read the books or watched the movies, I would strongly suggest that you skip this blog post. Seriously.
Or you can spoil it for yourself. I won't tell  you what to do.*

Good evening, internet! I recently had the chance to watch Insurgent, second movie in the Divergent series. And it was... interesting. There were a lot of good elements and a lot of elements that could've been better, and I have to say: rarely do I see a movie and have a list of pros and cons all lined up in my head half an hour later.

And so, I give you: my review of Insurgent. 

***

Good/Favorite Parts:

• The plot was very solid. There was plenty of action and a well-defined storyline, plus a very solid emotional arc for Tris. Her guilt and, I think, PTSD over killing Will translated well from the book to the movie, and the culmination of her arc--in which she finally confronts and forgives herself--followed naturally from her progression throughout the movie. (Of course, the movie deviated from the book's plot in several areas: I'll talk about that in the Negative section.)
• I just have to say, the scenery and cinematography in this movie were breathtaking. From the burnt-out shells of Chicago buildings to the Amity farmlands to the factionless headquarters, all of the sets were beautifully constructed and really moved the story along. There were also several helicopter shots, particularly at the beginning of the movie, that were great to see. 
• The acting was good. Shailene Woodley is very good as Tris and she did an amazing job of portraying everything Tris goes through in this movie. (My personal favorite scenes were the truth serum trial and the final Amity simulation.) In my opinion, Shailene Woodley was the best of the cast, although they all did well.
• I simultaneously hated Peter and loved watching him. He does some despicable things and is completely unafraid to put himself before everyone else, but he also has some of the best lines in the film.

Bad/Negative Parts:

• While Insurgent was a good movie with a solid plot, as an adaptation it... left something to be desired. The writers simultaneously left out a lot of the book and added several new plot points. The result is a movie that has a lot of the book's minor points, but less of its overall plot. 
• The conflict between Tobias/Four and his father was completely excised from the book except for one scene, which was never followed up on. While I can see why it was left out, this would have been an interesting thing from the books to explore. 
• It's been a while since I read the book this movie is based on, but I do remember that there was no search for a mysterious box left by the founders. That particular addition by the scriptwriters worked, and served as a good framing device for several scenes from the book, but it felt... odd to have such a large change in plot from book to movie. 
• Several smaller details were also left out in the adaptation process, and while these aren't as important, they would have made the movie a bit more coherent. Mentioning Edith Prior's name during her message might have been a good move, and I feel like the level of conflict between Jeanine's forces and the factionless-Candor alliance wasn't emphasized the way it was the book. I'm not sure what the movie version of Allegiant is going to be like, but I can see it also being quite different from its book incarnation, at this rate. 
• This movie also seemed to have the sequel-movie-adaptation syndrome of, "This character was pretty minor in the first book so we didn't include them in the movie, but oops now they're important in the sequel so we're gonna shove them in and pretend they were there all along." Uriah definitely got this treatment, and Lynne and Marlene were also pretty hastily introduced. (Marlene's name was only mentioned after her death, and Lynne was never properly introduced at all.) Edward wasn't included at all that I could see, which leads me to my next point. 
• By my count, two disabled characters from the book were edited out in this movie. In the books, Johanna, Amity's spokeswoman, was blind in one eye; the character as played by Octavia Spencer had a visible scar on her face, but clearly had two functioning eyes. Edward was nowhere to be seen. (Which makes sense, seeing as he wasn't in the first movie at all, but it still rubs me the wrong way to see a familiar disabled character replaced by a random white kid we've never seen before.)
• I... didn't really like Naomi Watts as Evelyn Eaton. I have nothing against Naomi Watts, but she does not look the way I pictured Evelyn, and she played her as way more manipulative than I ever saw Evelyn as. Maybe it's just me, but I would have preferred a different actress in that role. 

***

Conclusion:

There are a lot more negative points here than positive, but I really did like this movie. I liked the atmosphere of it, and the acting was good, and as far as book adaptations go it really could've been worse. So I'll give it three and a half stars out of five. 

***

To be honest, I have no idea when my next post is coming, or what it'll be about. At this point, your guess is as good as mine. (And, come to think of it, if there's anything you'd like me to blog on, the comments section is always open!)

Until next time; adiós!

Pacific Rim

*Warning: Unmarked spoilers may follow. Viewer discretion is advised.*

So I just finished watching Pacific Rim, for the third time. Having had time to both take in the story and analyze some of the finer details, I felt it was high time I did a review.

For anyone who hasn't seen Pacific Rim, the basic premise is this: A portal to an alien world (the Breach) opens at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and huge monsters called Kaiju begin coming through and attacking populated areas bordering the Pacific. To avoid extinction, the countries of the world--or at least the countries bordering the Pacific--band together and build enormous, super-strong robots called Jaegers to fight the Kaiju. This strategy works, until it doesn't, as bigger and bigger Kaiju start coming through the Breach, picking off the Jaegers one by one, until only a few are left. Then the Jaeger program loses its funding, and it's up to the few remaining pilot teams to close the Breach before the Kaiju kill everything.

(Here's the trailer if you're interested.)

I know, I know. It sounds dumb. To be honest, it is a little bit dumb, not to mention really unrealistic. But despite that, I really liked it, and today I'm gonna tell you why.

Strap in, guys, 'cause this might take a while.

***

Good/Favorite Parts:

• HOLY HECK, PEOPLE OF COLOR AS ACTION MOVIE HEROES. 
• No, seriously, when was the last time you saw a Japanese woman as the main character of a big-budget action flick like this?
• And the no-nonsense military leader who holds the heroes together? Is played by Idris Elba. Yes. 
• At first, the movie's hero appears to be Raleigh Becket, the (ostensibly) American white guy, who loses his brother/partner in the movie's prologue. (I say he's ostensibly American because the actor, Charlie Hunnam, isn't, and his native accent pokes through in his dialogue a couple of times. Anyway.) Raleigh is the viewpoint character, but I don't think he's the hero, because his story arc in the movie, if he has one, is pretty undefined, in comparison to Mako Mori's. So I personally like to think that Raleigh is the POV character, but Mako is the hero. It's a split that I think makes a lot of sense, considering that it mirrors the importance of drift compatibility to the storyline. But enough of my rambling. On we go!
• All of the characters with any reasonable amount of screentime manage to be complex and layered. The one that impresses me most is Chuck Hansen, of the Striker Eureka Jaeger team. He starts out as your stereotypical bully character who's out to antagonize to main character--and he is, as Marshall Stacker Pentecost puts it, "An egotistical jerk with daddy issues." But he's nevertheless one of the good guys, and as time goes on, he and Raleigh earn each other's respect. And in the end, he sacrifices his life so that Raleigh and Mako can save the world. Like I said. Depth. 
• Did I mention the father-daughter story between Mako Mori and Stacker Pentecost? Because there's that, too. 
• And there's a father-son story between the Hansens, which doesn't get a lot of screentime, but the scene it does get is really emotionally charged. 
• And the animation in this movie! It's amazing! The CGI looks extremely realistic and everything is beautifully rendered. To say nothing of the designs for the various Kaiju and Jaegers. 
• Speaking of Jaegers, the attention to detail in this movie is also impressive. Every Jaeger has a distinct fighting style, which matches up with their various designs. 
• And I really appreciate how in this movie, the monsters really do target pretty much every country bordering the Pacfic, not just California and Japan. In addition to those two places, we hear about attacks on Alaska, the Philippines, Russia, Australia, and Hong Kong (much of the movie actually takes place in Hong Kong). 
• The acting is great, too, even if a couple of the actors seem to be having a bit of trouble with their accents. 
• And the music! I almost forgot about the music. But it's... thrilling. There's a perfect combination of well-written melodies and interesting instrumental combinations. 
• To sum up: the fight scenes are fun to watch and beautifully animated, and the acting and story are great. There's a ton to like here. 

Bad/Least Favorite Parts:

• Um... well... uh... hm. Let me think. I'm sure I'll come up with something I disliked eventually...
• Right! Unrealisticness! Did I mention how unrealistic this movie is? Like, even on the off chance that a portal did open at the bottom of the Pacfic, and on the even smaller chance that that portal spewed forth a bunch of monsters... why not just bomb the monsters from the sky as soon as they came through? It's the bottom of the Pacific, it's not like you're going to have a lot of casualties. Or, for maximum efficiancy, set up some motion sensors down there, hook them up to a rapid-fire detonation clock, and just set off the bombs as soon as anything comes through the portal.
  So, yeah. No realism here.
• As much as I LOVED the cast and characters? More diversity is ALWAYS appreciated. There are a bunch of countries in Central and South America that border the Pacific, and none of those were mentioned (we certainly didn't see any Jaegers or pilot teams from that area). The Phillippines were given a passing mention, but no more. So yeah--Pacific Rim was amazing as far as having a diverse cast goes, but it could've been better. It usually can. 
• It sure would've been nice if the movie had mentioned, at some point, what happened to Hawaii. I'm just saying. 

Conclusion:

Long story short, Pacific Rim is a really good movie, and I really recommend it. Do you like amazingly cool action scenes? Then you'll love Pacific Rim! Do you like emotional character-driven stories? Then you'll probably like Pacfic Rim! (...And you can probably skip one or two of the action scenes. Though I don't recommend it.)

In short, I'm giving this one 4.75 stars out of five:

***

And that wraps up my official review of Pacific Rim! Although, as a fair warning, this probably won't be the last time I talk about it. I really liked this movie. 

Next time: Something vaguely Halloween themed, maybe? See you then!