Monthly Archives: August 2012

Film Review: The Dark Knight Rises

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I love a good end to a trilogy, be it in book form or on the big screen. And The Dark Knight Rises, the conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, did not disappoint.

First, I know that Nolan enjoys using the same actors again and again (Christian Bale in the Dark Knight trilogy and The Prestige, Ken Watanabe in Inception and Batman Begins), but can we just take a moment to appreciate how The Dark Knight Rises was basically a giant Inception cast reunion?

Okay, now that I’ve got that out of my system (and totally want to re-watch Inception), let’s get on to the movie, shall we?

Once again, Christopher Nolan gives us a darker, grittier look at one of America’s darker, grittier superheroes. Batman by his very nature is dark, considering he goes vigilante mostly because he is coping very badly with the deaths of his parents when he was a child. He has no superpowers (unless being a bazillionaire is a superpower), and takes on bad guys using angst and fists and contraptions. But even so, previous Batman adaptations (even the Michael Keaton versions, which I L-O-V-E) still were a tad on the fantastic and comic-y side. Which made sense, since Batman is a comic book character.

However, Nolan’s Batman has always been different from previous incarnations. He’s angrier, moodier, growlier, and just all-around scarier. As is Gotham. As are the villains. And Dark Knight Rises took all that and bumped it up a notch.

Let’s hit some highlights.

The villain in Dark Knight Rises was Bane, played by an unrecognizable Tom Hardy, who was almost a complete 180 from Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. While they were both terrifying and calculating, The Joker was the ultimate in crazy madmen, while Bane was a sinister and philosophical terrorist. Personally, I think this was a smart move, first of all because Heath Ledger’s performance was so amazing that any similar villain (ie: The Riddler) would probably have come across as sub-par, and also because I am a big fan of the variety of villains that Batman has to choose from, and I liked that this movie used one that hadn’t been done before (we’re just going to pretend Batman and Robin never happened).

Everything about Hardy’s performance was spot-on, which is saying something when you consider that the only part of his face he could use to emote were his eyes. The voice, the movement, and yes, the eyes, were all creepy and fantastic.

Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman (who is never actually referred to as Catwoman in the movie) was one of the things I was a little concerned about going in. I mean, I’m a big fan of Anne Hathaway, but how can anyone measure up to Michelle Pfeifer?

Fortunately, she didn’t really try. She put her own spin on the duplicitous Selena Kyle, and I found that although I entered the theater fully prepared to compare performances, I didn’t have to. I love both actresses’ take on the iconic character. In The Dark Knight Rises, I enjoyed that it very clearly came across that she wasn’t really a hero or a villain — she was simply looking out for her own interests. Hers wasn’t a redemption story, but I have always enjoyed comic characters whose alliances are tenuous, because it keeps you guessing. Guessing is good.

I also REALLY enjoyed that she used her heels as weapons. Realistic that she could do all her action scenes in them? Probably not, but if you’re going to wear 5-inch metal stilettos as part of your supergarb, may as well make them useful.

Probably one of the highlights of the movie, for me anyway, was Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the passionate young cop Blake. Honestly, JGL is just one of those actors that’s just kind of an automatic movie-improver for me. And when the movie’s already good, he just makes it that much better.

I really enjoyed having a regular cop with no mystical ninja training still doing his best to bring down the Big Bad, that sometimes he was outsmarted and outgunned and outmaneuvered, and yet he still kept trying.

Actually, speaking of that, I really liked the cops in this movie, in general, even outside of Blake and Commissioner Gordon. They weren’t the inept and bumbling force we so often see in superhero movies. For the most part, they were admirable and heroic, and I like that they were actually helpful in this movie.

The only thing about Blake I did not like was the execution of where his character went by the end of the movie. Not the actual plot device, or JGL’s portrayal. Just how it was done. But that’s a minor nitpick.

As has been the case with all the Nolan Batman movies, the weakest link for me was actually Batman himself. I always find myself liking the supporting characters more, and this one was no exception.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Christian Bale. Have ever since I saw him singing and dancing in Newsies and Swing Kids. And his portrayal of Batman/Bruce Wayne is good, second only to Michael Keaton, who will always be my favorite. But his Batman doesn’t really make me feel things the way the secondary characters do, and that’s curious.

The only part of Bale’s performance I could have done without was the insistence on growling all his lines whenever he was in his masked persona. While his secret identity is still secret, I can understand and appreciate that he wants to disguise his voice. But by the midpoint of The Dark Knight Rises, nearly everyone he comes in contact with knows who he really is, and yet he continues to growl. I don’t get it. It can’t be good for his throat.

Getting to the plot itself, it’s what you expect from the conclusion to a superhero trilogy. The stakes and the body count are higher. The damage to our hero is greater. The odds seem nearly insurmountable. And the price to pay is dearer.

Yes, there are some holes in the logic. My years of chiropractic care tell me that one scene in particular is absolutely not based anywhere in the vicinity of reality. The bag guys’ evil plot doesn’t really make a ton of sense when you think about it. And the way Batman ultimately prevails (which is not a spoiler, because at the end of a superhero trilogy, does anyone honestly think the hero will not prevail?) is a bit of a head-scratcher.

But I didn’t care. I loved the action, the world, the characters, the acting. I really enjoyed the references to the prior two movies in the trilogy, including cameo appearances by Liam Neeson as Ra’s Al Ghul, a flashback to Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face, and my favorite, Cillian Murphy as Jonathan Crane.

The Dark Knight Rises did what the end of a trilogy is supposed to do: It wrapped up loose ends in an explosive finale, and left me satisfied while still wanting more. Of the three Nolan Batman movies, this one was my favorite.

Grade: A

The Dark Knight Rises is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language.

Feature & Follow (August 3) – Reading Habits

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Welcome to the Feature & Follow Hop, hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison Can Read!

If you’re here for the first time, I’d love if you could follow via email, RSS, LinkyFollowers or Networked Blogs. Just let me know your follow method of choice in the comments, and I’ll be happy to return the favor.

And if you’re not new, welcome back! Repeat visitors are better than the cool side of the pillow on a hot night.

This week’s question:

Do your reading habits change based on your mood? Do you read a certain genre if you are feeling depressed or happy?

Totally. Of course, my default setting some form of fantastic speculative fiction. Those are my manufacturer settings, and they cannot be altered.

However, sometimes my brain malfunctions and I know I can’t handle complex world-building or intricate mythology. I just need something straightforward and simple. Then it’s contemporary or chick lit time.

Other times, when my emotions get strangely violent (oh come on, you know you have those moods too), I pick up an epic fantasy with lots of swordplay and rousing speeches. Or maybe a crazy sci-fi with explosions galore. The main point is that sometimes I just need carnage.

If I’m feeling sad and abnormally weepy, I can go one of two ways. Either I need to read something super upbeat and cheerful to snap me out of it, or, more often, I read something super-sad to push me over the edge, like The Book Thief or The Fault in Our Stars. Sometimes it takes being pushed over the edge for me to finally snap out of my doldrums. It’s amazing what a good ugly-cry can do.

Then there’s times I just need to mellow out, and I go to my “comfort books,” like Harry Potter, Ender’s Game, and the Farseer series. These are books that aren’t actually comforting — each one is complex and action packed — but books that I know I love so much, and am so deeply familiar with, that the act of reading them is soothing, in spite of the craziness in the pages.

So basically what I’m saying here is it’s a good thing that there’s lots of different types of books in the world.

Throwback Thursday (August 2) – Circle of Friends

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Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books!

It’s the nature of book blogging to focus mainly on new releases, but there are thousands of great books out there that haven’t seen the “New Releases” shelf in years. We hope to be able to bring attention to some older titles that may not be at the top of the current bestseller list, but still deserve a spot in your To-Be-Read pile.

You don’t have to be a book blogger to participate! You can put up a Throwback Thursday post on your non-bookish blog; or if you don’t have a blog at all, just use the comments to tell us about a book you remember fondly.

Here’s how it works:
1. Pick any book released more than 5 years ago. Adult, YA, Children’s; doesn’t matter. Any great book will do.
2. Write up a short summary of the book (include the title, author, and cover art) and an explanation of why you love it. Make sure to link back to The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books in your post.
3. Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
4. Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list!

Feel free to grab the Throwback Thursday button code from the sidebar to use in your posts.

Thanks for participating, and we look forward to seeing which books you choose to remember!

On a side note, Mandi will be rejoining us next week, fresh off her blogging hiatus! Yay! This solo hosting gig is daunting. I’m glad I won’t have to do it anymore. So here’s a preemptive WELCOME BACK, Mandi!

My Throwback this week is…

 

Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy.

You may have heard that Irish author Maeve Binchy died this week at the age of 72. She wrote chick lit love stories set in Ireland, which I devoured as a high schooler. And this story, about childhood friends Eve and Benny that grow up to attend college with the beautiful Nan and dashing Jack, was the first book of hers I ever read.

High school was a time when I was reading books after seeing movies, and this one was no exception. However, if you’ve seen the movie, while it is…okay…it really is not a faithful adaptation of the book. Especially the end. Grr. This one is definitely a case of “the book is better.”

I love her nontraditional protagonist in Benny, who is neither slim nor beautiful, and her fierce friendship with Eve. I love the beginning stages of her sweet romance with Jack. And yes, while I kind of hate the turn the story takes, at the same time I appreciate that it’s not neat and tidy and Hollywood.

And, kind of the same as in real life, some characters experience a huge amount of growth and some…don’t. I got frustrated with the ones who just stayed the same, of course, but it still felt genuine. They were simply the kinds of people who tend to not learn or grow up. Ever. But they were overshadowed by the characters who do develop and learn and grow and mature, and I enjoyed all of it. It was the kind of book I just liked to relax and melt into.

And the fact that it’s all set in Ireland didn’t hurt.

This is a blog hop! Link up your Throwback Thursday post below!



Review: Thirteenth Child by Patricia Wrede

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I was pretty excited for this book. I mean, it’s a frontier wild west story, but with magic. Cowboys + magic = good, right? It’s certainly original. Plus, I’d heard nothing but good things about Patricia Wrede’s writing, so when I picked this one up from the library, I was anxious to get started.

The Plot (Goodreads synopsis)

Eff was born a thirteenth child. Her twin brother, Lan, is the seventh son of a seventh son. This means he’s supposed to possess amazing talent — and she’s supposed to bring only bad things to her family and her town. Undeterred, her family moves to the frontier, where her father will be a professor of magic at a school perilously close to the magical divide that separates settlers from the beasts of the wild.

My Thoughts

“Wow, that’s an awfully short synopsis,” you’re probably thinking.

Yes, yes it is. And you know why?

…Well, I’ll tell you in a minute. I have such mixed feelings about this book, I’m going to have to break it up into pieces.

World Building:

Absolutely stellar world building. As far as the setting goes, this book is Oregon Trail meets Harry Potter. The magic was well thought out and intricate, the frontier setting was vivid, and the spells and magical creatures (steam dragons and mammoths guys!) were seamlessly woven into the story.

Also, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were magicians. YES. That happened.

After I finished the book, it was brought to my attention that Patricia Wrede made the decision to write Native Americans out of her narrative, because she didn’t like any of the stereotypical ways to portray Native Americans in westerns. And a lot of people are bothered by this, and I can see why.

BUT, I think it says something for the world building that I honestly didn’t notice that glaring omission until it was pointed out to me. Even though I am well aware that there were Native Americans present in the wild west, and now that I realize they were missing from the book, it seems like it should have been obvious. But her world actually made so much sense that I didn’t realize it didn’t make sense until the book was over.

Characters:

There were a lot of characters in this book. A. Lot. I mean, from the title and synopsis, right away you know that there’s at least 13 kids in Eff’s family running around. And then of course there’s her parents, and teachers, and friends, and her parents’ friends, and her friends’ friends, and also some assorted townspeople.

Ahem. There are many characters.

Some of them — including most of Eff’s siblings — flicker in and out of the book so fast, I forgot they ever existed or what their purpose was. Others stick around for a while, and I still was not sure what their purpose was. (Like William. What purpose did William serve, exactly?) Really, the only characters that get developed are Eff, Lan, their parents, and a couple of their teachers.

But even then, I’m not sure if they actually get developed, or if I just thought they did through prolonged exposure, because I read about them so often.I think the characters I came closest to really liking were Eff’s parents, but still, I couldn’t tell you much about them as people.

Now would be the time to point out that this book is told in the first person, from Eff’s perspective, and spans about 14 years of her life. It starts when she is 4 or 5 and ends when she is 18. I do not actually have a problem with books that span a long time frame — several of my favorite books and series do this — but in this book, it didn’t work for me. Partially because of the lack of plot, which I’ll get into in a minute. But as far as characters go, it didn’t work because no matter how old Eff was, she talked like she was 11. Which worked for the one chapter where she was 11, and not so much for…all the other ones.

It’s sad, because Eff really is an interesting character. Or she has the potential to be interesting, at any rate. She is born into a magical family. She’s a twin. Her brother is viewed by everyone as super-special, while she is viewed as unlucky. She undergoes some pretty appalling psychological abuse at the hands of her uncle when she is young. These are the makings of a fascinating character. But she just kind of stays the same. Pity.

Plot:

Okay, as I mentioned above about the short synopsis, the reason for that is: This book had no plot.

Say what? It’s a magical western with no plot? Well, pretty much. I mean, it had characters, and they were faced with kinda sorta a conflict that they more or less solved…so I guess in that sense it had a plot. It just wasn’t what I expected.

But honestly, if a book spans over a decade in time, and is a western, with magic and dragons and mammoths, you’d think a plot wouldn’t be too hard to come by, right? But you would be wrong, at least in the case of this book. It’s like Patricia Wrede got so caught up in her fantastic world building that she forgot to introduce conflict to the story (even Eff’s “thirteenth child” stigma is pretty quickly solved by moving to a place where no one knows how many siblings she has. Easy peasy).

Until the last few chapters, where all of a sudden there is a conflict, and that conflict is lame. There’s not any real sense of urgency or investment, and then it is solved, and the book is done. And I’m all like, “Huh. Nothing really happened in that book.”

So. Would I recommend this book? Um, maybe. If you just want to read about a really interesting world that’s described incredibly well, then you definitely want to pick this one up. If you like westerns and stories that follow a family over many years, then you may also want to check this one out. If you want action and magical shenanigans and tension and conflict, you’re going to want to look elsewhere.