Beautiful Creatures the movie

I saw the movie this last weekend, and kind of regret my choice. Read my review of the movie, here.

--Me

Book-2-Movie Night: Abe Lincoln: Vamp Hunter

If you read my book review on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, you'd know I enjoyed it. Thought it was a pretty good fictionalized biography of a great man. So, I was eager to see the movie adaptation.

Yes, I know movies are never fully like the books they represent, and yes, I know they had to take 400 page book about a man's entire life and condense it down to a little under two hours. But, really? This is what Tim Burton came up with?

Where do I start? Oh, yeah, with advice. Save $10 and two hours and read the book.

I thought the movie would be like the book in that it would follow Lincoln's life and put in the vampire aspect for the motivation behind certain actions and wars. Not so, my friends, not so. There were very few lines of truth that the movie followed in its adaptation.

Where it strayed from the book:

• Nothing is mentioned of Abe's sister, his step mother or his step siblings. In fact, it's mentioned that his father dies fairly early in Abe's life
  
• When Abe gets married, only one son (Will) is ever mentioned or shown
  
• Abe's father comes across as a strong man, fighting for what's right, where as in the book (and in history, I believe), it's common knowledge that Abe's father did as little as possible, beyond making sure his family survived
  
• In turn, Abe is portrayed as a very weak man begging for the tutelage of Henry to know more about vampires and how to kill them (this is perhaps what irked me the most about the film. Abraham Lincoln—in my opinion—was one of the strongest and bravest men in America, so to see him begging when he didn't is a little distasteful. But I get the whole concept of showing his struggle with his hate, yada-yada-yada)
  
• Abe kinda really hates Henry, where as in the book, their relationship is one of mutual respect and a weird sort of admiration)
  
• In the movie, Abe doesn't know that Henry is a vamp until well into their relationship
  
• Henry is upset that Abe is running for political office. This point (and the one coming up about the Civil War) I think is the most crucial. In the book, the "good" band of vampires set Abe up to run for office as well as win and lose according to their grand plan of expelling the "bad" vampires. In the movie, Abe is running because he believes in what he's fighting for, and now that he's married, he wants nothing more to do with hunting vampires
  
• The Civil War. The whole power source for the "bad" vampires is the slave trade in the south. This lucrative business has been providing a no-questions-asked source of food. The "good" vampires believe that if they end slavery, the "good" vampires will be forced to leave America. Thus, the Civil War must be fought. It was their plan from the beginning and Abe was the key to getting it done
  
• In the book, Mary, Abe's wife, never knew that Abe used to hunt vamps. In the movie, she confesses to reading his journal and wants to help, diving in head first. Go Mary!
  
• The horse fight scene. Oh. My. Lanta. That was the most comical thing I have ever been a witness to. It took whatever integrity the film still had at that point and flushed it down the toilet.
  

There were some good things about the film. The cinematography was great and the special effects were pretty cool, too. It had more of a comic book feel to it (think 300) which was interesting given the movie, and there definitely wasn't as much gore as I thought there would be.

At the end of the movie, I told Michelle, "We have to come up with some rules or guidelines or something for future Book-2-Movie nights. Going to every single one could prove disastrous."

What about you guys? What'd you think about the movie? How'd you think it compared to the book?

Juggling Act

I haven't been here in a while. Sorry 'bout that. I missed (I think) the last two Freebee Fridays! and I feel horrible. Since Book Addicts is so new, it's requiring a lot of time. Plus everything else that's going on in Life right now.

One of the main Time Suckers is the new blog for Book Addicts. It's over at WordPress, and I have to say, that blog platform is pretty dang sweet. Check it out. We're using that one instead of Blogger because it's supposed to be "compatible" with our newspaper's website (at some point).

Anyway, wonder wander (sheesh, it's been a long day) over there and check it out. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and hopefully I won't be spending ALL my time over there. To tide you over, how about a poll? Book-to-Movie to be precise. :)




--Me

Freebee Friday! Special Edition – the Hunger Games

Normally, I steer clear of books made into movies (especially the ones I like) because I don't want to see Hollywood butcher something so great. But, I figured with the fan base of HG being so large the director couldn't risk disappointing them and the fact that they brought in Suzanne Collins to write the screenplay and help pick the cast, I figured the movie was in safe hands. And I was right.


Hunger Games was freaking awesome. I'm not even kidding.


The entire two-and-a-half hours were packed with wicked cinematography, emotion, action, violence (though not really direct gore), and really good acting. The combination of all this made me not regret going to the midnight premier.

I'm on the left, my friend
is on the right

The only other midnight premier I've ever gone to was back in college for one of the Harry Potters. Last night (or this morning) I pulled out my nerd card and went to see the premier. One of the local, smaller theaters has twelve screens, and I figured since they were all showing HG at midnight and they were all sold out, I should probably get there early to get a good spot in line. I've never done this before and didn't know what to expect (other than what happens in other, bigger cities I see on TV), so I packed a camping chair, a blanket (it's still a little chilly out at night), and my Nook to help pass the time.


I showed up at 9-ish and was a little disappointed there wasn't a line. None. Not even a hint of one. I have to admit I felt a cheated by the lack of experience. Anyway, all twelve theaters were named after the districts. My friend and I were in District 3 while my boss was in District 12. Let me tell you, we got the short end of the stick. District 12 was where it was at. Not only was it a bigger theatre, but they were having a party down front (as evident from a picture my boss texted to my friend) along with paper airplane flying contests. District 3 was lame. Wanna know what we had? Lame, uneducated 7^th grade girls who felt the need to kick the back of my seat every three minutes or so. Example:


Example 1 (While playing a game of Monopoly on an iPad)


Lame, Seat-Kicker Girl: What's this say? Forfate….forfite…..
More Intelligent Girl: Forfeit?
LSKG: Laughs. I can't spell very good.
MIG: You mean read well?

Huzzah!

Example 2, playing madlibs


Girl 1: Okay, I need an adverb.
LSKG: BURNT!
Me: Scrunching my forehead in pain while saying in my head, burnt? Really?

Now, it was probably the fact that it was late and I felt I was sitting through earthquake intense turbulence, but my patience for the girls behind me was pretty thin. Which, tipped my feelings about them to the humorous side.


The theater staff came in and did some fun trivia for us, the winners getting posters, and I was surprised to find out that the majority of the people who answered the questions were male. I think that's why this book/movie works so well and crosses gender lines without a second thought. Even though the protagonist is female, she's tough and kickass, which appeals to both male and female. And even though there's a "romance", it's forced. Katniss does what she needs to do to live. That's what is so appealing about HG; it's a book about survival and strength, everything else is secondary. (But, when Katniss and Peeta did kiss, every young girl in the theater started cheering.)


I was completely satisfied with this movie. More than satisfied, ecstatic. (Which is why I'm going to see it a second time with Hubby). It's kind of hit and miss with YA movies; so easily is successful strictly for the obsessed entertainment value (i.e. Twilight). But HG will be successful because they have the obsessed fan base, but even more so because the movie is GOOD. It stuck to the book so well and, like I said earlier, the cinematography was fantabulous and the acting was phenomenal. I must admit, I was a little uncertain about Josh playing the role of Peeta, but now I'm convinced. He was the best choice.


What about you? Did you go to the midnight showing? If you have, what did you like most? What was your experience like? And if you haven't seen it yet, (why the heck not?!?!) and are you planning to go see it?

Happy Friday my friends, and happy Hunger Games. May the odds be ever in your favor.