Book One, Films One and Two
Jan. 4th, 2010 02:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spooky_missI've decided I'm going to start writing small reviews in here, of books I read, films I see, and anything else which I think people might find interesting! I'm going to start with two films that I actually saw last year, but it was only last week so I think thats ok!
Film - Sherlock Holmes
I love films set in this period, and from the advert it looked like it was going to be quite a funny film, and I wasn't disappointed :) I loved the costumes, the buildings, the furniture, the way Holmes kept experiementing on himself, haha.
Robert Downey Jr was great at Sherlock Holmes, and Jude Law was good as Watson, the interaction between them worked really well. The story was good and I liked the black magic aspect - Lord Blackwood really looked like he was supposed to look like Bela Lugosi's version of Dracula, that was great.
I admit some bits of it were a bit too actiony for me, I would have liked to have seen more of the interaction between Holmes and Watson, but I liked the way it was set out for a sequel, so I'm looking forward to that! :)
Overall, 7/10 :)
Film - Avatar (2D)
Firstly, this film is *beautiful*. It just looks so wonderful, especially when they go into parts of the forest which are all lit up. I didnt see it in 3D, but I really don't think you need to, as it still looks lovely.
its about some humans on a planet called Pandora which is inhabited by a species called the Na'vi. The humans have found a way to combine human and Na'vi DNA, so some of the humans can become them and find out how they live - oh and to try and make them move from their home, which is over a large deposit of "unobtanium" (stupid name!) which is what the humans have been mining while they have been on the planet.
The story is very predictable (boy meets girl, they fall in love, he gets accepted by her culture, her culture find out he's against them and has bought some kind of evil to their culture, he has to gain culture's respect again, it all ends ok), but there are little quirks which make it interesting - when he is learning to live like the Na'vi, how to ride their horse type creatures etc. One bit I really liked was when Jake (the main character) first becomes a Na'vi - as a human he is in a wheelchair but as Na'vi he can walk, so he just runs around everywhere.
Overall, I think it is a good film, and probably worth all the praise which has been heaped upon it. The only thing which lets it down is its predictable story, and at the end there was just too much action for me - so, 7/10 :)
Book - The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
I really liked the style of this book, which seems to be quite a popular style at the moment, with one chapter being in one time, the next either further back or futher forward in time, and as you read the book you discover things which most recent characters are still struggling to find out. It makes me wish that they were reading what I was reading! in this case the chapters were 1900 - 1913 (various years), 1975, and 2005.
It is about a woman (Nell) who was bought up by an adoptive family after being put on a ship to Australia and abandoned there. Nell returns to England in 1975 to try and find out what happened to her birth family, whom she knows nothing about, apart from having a book of illustrated Fairy Tales. In 2005, just after her death, her grandaughter (Cassandra) goes back to England to find out more, as her grandmother has just left her a cottage in Cornwall and she doesn't know why. The 1900 - 1913 story is what happened to Nell and her family and how she came to be on the boat.
It is great how the story unfolds, and how everyone begins to find out why they are where they are. There are quite a few similarities to The Secret Garden, and Kate Morton acknowledges it's influence on her book by having a section in which Frances Hodgeson Burnett is at a party at the house, and becomes interested in the garden of the books title, with the implication that this then influenced her to write her book.
I loved the style of this book and where it was set, and I literally couldn't put it down - 8.5/10 :)
Well they ended up a bit longer than I expected, but there you go! Hopefully the reviews will get more eloquent and interesting as I go on!
I am currently reading "World Without End" by Ken Follet, which I am really looking forward to, as I loved Pillars Of the Earth, the first book in the series. Also I'm hoping to go see "The Road" at the cinema this week, so look out for a review of that soon! :)
Film - Sherlock Holmes
I love films set in this period, and from the advert it looked like it was going to be quite a funny film, and I wasn't disappointed :) I loved the costumes, the buildings, the furniture, the way Holmes kept experiementing on himself, haha.
Robert Downey Jr was great at Sherlock Holmes, and Jude Law was good as Watson, the interaction between them worked really well. The story was good and I liked the black magic aspect - Lord Blackwood really looked like he was supposed to look like Bela Lugosi's version of Dracula, that was great.
I admit some bits of it were a bit too actiony for me, I would have liked to have seen more of the interaction between Holmes and Watson, but I liked the way it was set out for a sequel, so I'm looking forward to that! :)
Overall, 7/10 :)
Film - Avatar (2D)
Firstly, this film is *beautiful*. It just looks so wonderful, especially when they go into parts of the forest which are all lit up. I didnt see it in 3D, but I really don't think you need to, as it still looks lovely.
its about some humans on a planet called Pandora which is inhabited by a species called the Na'vi. The humans have found a way to combine human and Na'vi DNA, so some of the humans can become them and find out how they live - oh and to try and make them move from their home, which is over a large deposit of "unobtanium" (stupid name!) which is what the humans have been mining while they have been on the planet.
The story is very predictable (boy meets girl, they fall in love, he gets accepted by her culture, her culture find out he's against them and has bought some kind of evil to their culture, he has to gain culture's respect again, it all ends ok), but there are little quirks which make it interesting - when he is learning to live like the Na'vi, how to ride their horse type creatures etc. One bit I really liked was when Jake (the main character) first becomes a Na'vi - as a human he is in a wheelchair but as Na'vi he can walk, so he just runs around everywhere.
Overall, I think it is a good film, and probably worth all the praise which has been heaped upon it. The only thing which lets it down is its predictable story, and at the end there was just too much action for me - so, 7/10 :)
Book - The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
I really liked the style of this book, which seems to be quite a popular style at the moment, with one chapter being in one time, the next either further back or futher forward in time, and as you read the book you discover things which most recent characters are still struggling to find out. It makes me wish that they were reading what I was reading! in this case the chapters were 1900 - 1913 (various years), 1975, and 2005.
It is about a woman (Nell) who was bought up by an adoptive family after being put on a ship to Australia and abandoned there. Nell returns to England in 1975 to try and find out what happened to her birth family, whom she knows nothing about, apart from having a book of illustrated Fairy Tales. In 2005, just after her death, her grandaughter (Cassandra) goes back to England to find out more, as her grandmother has just left her a cottage in Cornwall and she doesn't know why. The 1900 - 1913 story is what happened to Nell and her family and how she came to be on the boat.
It is great how the story unfolds, and how everyone begins to find out why they are where they are. There are quite a few similarities to The Secret Garden, and Kate Morton acknowledges it's influence on her book by having a section in which Frances Hodgeson Burnett is at a party at the house, and becomes interested in the garden of the books title, with the implication that this then influenced her to write her book.
I loved the style of this book and where it was set, and I literally couldn't put it down - 8.5/10 :)
Well they ended up a bit longer than I expected, but there you go! Hopefully the reviews will get more eloquent and interesting as I go on!
I am currently reading "World Without End" by Ken Follet, which I am really looking forward to, as I loved Pillars Of the Earth, the first book in the series. Also I'm hoping to go see "The Road" at the cinema this week, so look out for a review of that soon! :)
