Posts Tagged ‘This is what I think’

Several people have suggested to me that I read the ‘Blue Bloods’ series, one of those people even said it was better then the ‘Twilight Saga’.  While, since I’m always looking for new books to read, I figured I’d try them out.  Well, they are good; however I found that I actually had to reference my Bible several times while reading the 3 books in the series (further explanation will come).

The ‘Blue Bloods’ series is by author Melissa De La Cruz.  The stories mainly take place in Manhattan on the Upper East and West sides.  The main character is Schuyler Van Alen, who attends a preppy Upper East Side school.  She is the outcast of the school along with her BFF Oliver Hazard-Perry.  Soon, Schuyler discovers she is what is called a “Blue Blood” or a vampire and that in fact most of the students at her school are as well, along with her crush “Jack Force” and his sister/enemy “Mimi Force”.

Here is where the Bible reference’s start to come into play.  In Ms. De La Cruz’s world, the vampires are the angel’s that have fallen from grace, banished to Earth and must survive by ‘feeding’ off Human blood.  In fact, in the story, Schuyler’s Mother is actually the Archangel Gabrielle (or Gabriel).  The “Blue Bloods” are trying to earn their way back into Heaven.

The books continue with Schuyler adjusting to her new Vamp life, and at the same time trying to figure out who is killing the “Blue Bloods”.  Turns out there are “Silver Bloods”, this people(?) are Blue Bloods that are no longer trying to get back into Heaven and have re-joined with Lucifer(yep, that one) to get rid of all the “Blue Bloods”.  Confused yet, yeah that is how I felt.  It was at that point when I got up and found my Bible and actually started looking up names and such, then turned to Wikipedia for more clear answers. There is also a part about Vampire twins that I’m still a little fuzzy on.

Once you get passed the confusing Biblical parts, the stories are pretty good.  I would have liked to see of the romantic/love storylines.  So far there are 3 books in the series “Blue Bloods”, “Masquerade” and “Revelations” (yep, just like the last book of the Bible).  The 4^th novel “The Van Alen Legacy” is scheduled to come out in Oct 2009.

The Last book “Revelations” contains a lot of references to Satin (Lucifer), so if you not comfortable reading books that contain that subject, I would highly recommend you NOT read these books.

As for these books being better then “The Twilight Saga”, they are not even close.  For one, Twilight did not confuse me to the point where I had to start looking up facts/names on the internet to get things straight.  Twilight focuses more on the love story with the danger/action on the sidelines, where as in “Blue Bloods” it’s reversed.

I’ll most likely read the 4^th just to see if it answers any of the questions that I was left with.

You can get the entire “Blue Bloods” series at Amazon.com

WARNING SPOLIER ALERT.  THIS REVIEW CONTIANS SEVERAL SPOLIER ALERTS!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

In the 6 days ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ has been in theaters, I’ve seen it twice, and both times I still loved it!!!.

The movie as a whole was well done, a much needed improvement over Order of the Phoenix. I was also happy that Steve Knowles returned as the screenwriter for this movie, I definitely missed his touch from OtP (for those of you who don’t know Steve Knowles has been the only screenwriter for the HP films till OtP).

I was very excited to see how everything would play out on screen for this adaptation; HBP is my 2nd favorite of all the books.  There is so much in that book between setting up the love stories for the next book, bringing Draco Malfoy from annoying bully on the sidelines to full on supposed villain, and to the finale 10 minutes (last 200 or so pages in the book).  Plus all the little things in between all that made this movie so good.

First the love stories:

I was pleasantly happy with the Ron/Hermione love story setup, Emma & Rupert played it very well.  You just wanted to slap Ron and be like “Wake Up, she’s in love with you”, the seen in 3 Broomsticks where Hermione is staring longley at Ron, you kind of felt your heart tug for her!!!

The Harry/Ginny Storyline on the other hand was downplayed a little too much.  All the great Harry/Ginny scenes from the book with the exception of one were missing from movie.  Yes, there were little moments like the tying of Harry’s shoes, feeding him a pie, or following after Harry while he’s chasing down Bellatrix (I’ll get to that scene later), but the part I was looking forward to was Harry & Ginny kissing in front of Ron in the common room wasn’t there, all we got as a little peck type kiss in the Room of Requirement.

Tom Felton’s performance as Draco Malfoy:

Yes, Tom Felton has been playing Draco since 2001, but till this moment he has pretty much just been a spoiled brat bully content on making Harry’s life hell.  In this film, he has been chosen for something much bigger, and something that in fact he is just not capable of doing.  Draco is not “evil” in the way Voldemort or even Bellatrix (his aunt) are, he is just corrupted by the opinions of his parents.  His own mother knows that Draco has no chance of following through on what was asked of him.  “He is only a Boy” is what she tells Snape in his house.  In fact, in the book she makes the statement that Draco was chosen for this task as punishment for her Husband failing.

Felton’s performance of this Draco was exceptional, he play Draco as more drawn back, trying not to bring attention to himself.  The scene in the bathroom where he breaks down after seeing Katie Bell back in school, that was a great scene, seeing Draco so lonely and scared about failing his task.

Dumbledore’s Death:

Between the setup and execution of this in the book, it took about 200 pages.  In the movie it was about 10-15mins.  I was expecting maybe a little more setup from the movie, but at the end of the day, I thought that scene was done very well.  The slow of Dumbledore falling to the courtyard to when all the school holds up wands with lighted tips to drive away the Dark Mark, all done well.  In fact, it was when all the students banded together that the tears really came to my eyes.  Yes, I cried (both times), it was sad, and I’ll cry at the end of Deathly Hallows Part II as well.

I was a little disappointed that the big fight between the students and the Death Eaters wasn’t included, one can then only guess that since Bill Weasley wasn’t even in the film to get attached by the werewolf, his face will be fine in the next two movies!!!

Now the part I was most confused about was the burning down of the Burrow.  That was not in the book, and I have trouble understanding what the point of that was.  Was it just so we can see Harry still trying to avenge his Godfather’s death, or so we can see just how much Ginny is in love with Harry, after she does chasing after him with Death Eaters on their trail?  Like I said, that part just doesn’t make sense to me.

I think one of the best performances comes from Dan Radcliffe during which Harry is under the influence of the Felix Felicis (or liquid luck).  His facial expressions, the way he spoke, and the lines delivered were brilliance.

I also have to give it up to the 2 young Tom Riddle’s Hero Fiennes-Tiffin (TR age 11) and Frank Dillane (TR age 16) both delivered fantastic creepy performances. Also, yes Hero Fiennes-Tiffin is related to Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort), Hero is his nephew.

Overall, I would give this movie a solid A-, the good greatly out weighed the bad.  I’m sure I’ll see this several more times in the theaters!!!

To see all we have on Harry Potter, click HERE

The Wall Street Journal has an article up questioning the age old question among readers (adult and tweens alike)…Harry Potter or Twilight.

While I say, you don’t have to choose, I’m a big fan of both, in fact ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ still holds my own personal record for most movie seen in the theaters (15 times), granted ‘Twilight’ missed a tie by 1 (14 times).

The article does bring up some good points, HP fans are growing up, maybe looking for something a little more grown-up, but also a little bit relateable.  I think even though its a vampire/human romance, that idea of finding your true love even if your different from one another is easier to relate to then a wizzard world.

Then there is the movies, with Harry Potter 6 coming out this Wednesday and New Moon out this November, its hard to say who’s going to win.

On one hand, Harry Potter has earned $4.5 billion dollars over the last 5 movies, while Twilight earned attention for grossing $383 million worldwide on a $37 million dollar budget.  Even New Moon’s reported $50 million dollar budget is almost pocket change compared to the budget of Harry Potter and other blockbuster movies (usally in the $250 + million range).

Rob Friedman, chief executive and co-chairman of Summit Entertainment says

“It’s the only franchise that we ever pay attention to,”  “We are very cognizant of where they are, and we’ve always been wary of being in too close proximity to ‘Harry Potter’ because we know our fans cross over so much, and we definitely don’t want to compete with ‘Harry’ for attention.”

For there part, Warner Bro’s isn’t too worried about Twilight stealing any of their thunder or dollars

“With all due respect to “Twilight,” the longevity and world-wide success of the Harry Potter franchise speaks for itself,”

Twilight does have Harry Potter to thank for at least one reason…Robert Pattinson.  RPatz got is big break by co-starring in GOF and OTP as Cedric Digory, who met his fate at the hands of Lord Voldemort.  I have a feeling if it wasn’t for that role, who knows who would have been cast has our beloved Edward Cullen!!!.

One this for sure, there is enough love here for both series!!!

You can see everything we have on Harry Potter HERE

You can  see everything we got on Twilight & New Moon HERE & HERE

I just got done watching the new Lifetime original show ‘Drop Dead Diva’, and so far I am liking this show.  Not only does it give me something else to watch on Sunday night’s other than ‘True Blood’, but the show itself is actually pretty good.

The basis of the show is about a model who seems to be pretty shallow who dies, once at ‘The Gate’, she learns that she didn’t do a single good or bad thing in her life making her a 0/0.  She ends up being sent back to earth but lands in the body of a plus-size workaholic lawyer.

Based of the pilot episode, the show seems to have a good comedy beat with just enough heart.  I also like the fact that it is empowering to the plus-size world.  Hopefully proving that you don’t need to be a size 2 to liked, loved or good at your job.

You can check out ‘Drop Dead Diva’ on Lifetime on Sundays.  Visit MyLifetime.com for showtimes.

So for months I have been bringing ya’ll all the Transformers goodness I could find and have counting down to opening day June 24th, so what did I think of ‘Transfomers: Revenge of the Fallen’? Keep reading to find out.

As I waited in a line that went down 42nd st to 8th ave, and wraping around 41st, I thought wow, what if in the end, this movie sucks?  Most reviews I’ve read have given the movie A’s or B’s, and people I’ve talked who had already seen it, they agreed with most critics.

In a nutshell, the flight scenes where F**King awesome, the new robots were cool (loved the twins and SoundWave), but the storyline…not so much my cup of tea.

Without giving too much away, I really could have done without Sam’s College roomate Leo, I’m aware that in the cartoon there were 3 kids, but the dude was annoying.  I also was not a huge fan of bringing back Agt. Simmons either or how they talked up Isabel Lucas’s ‘Alice’, I found her kinda creepy.

What I was happy with…The story surronding ‘The Fallen’, and how it wove together with Optimus Prime.

I’m excited to see the IMAX version to see what extended scenes were shot just for IMAX.

So overall, I liked it, Michael Bay knows how to really blow shit up, did I like it as much as the first, no, but I can say that about a lot of movies.