Update!

Well, hey guys there's a new update for your booknerd needs and what-nots.

This year is going to be perfect with all the filming and books being released. I'm going to warn you now, the blog post will be long featuring TMI, Divergent, PJO, THG, and a special something.

The Mortal Instruments

I) City of Heavenly Fire 

by Cassandra Clare
May, 27th, 2014

Summary: Darkness has descended on the Shadowhunter world. Chaos and destruction overwhelm the Nephilim as Clary, Jace, Simon, and their friends band together to fight the greatest evil they have ever faced: Clary's own brother. Nothing in this world can defeat Sebastian—but if they journey to the realm of demons, they just might have a chance... Lives will be lost, love sacrificed, and the whole world will change. Who will survive the explosive sixth and final installment of the Mortal Instruments series?

Not the TMI fandom that's for sure.

Seriously who expects us to read through the deaths of six characters that we know by name? It's the last book too. I'm not happy. I am not okay, not one single drop of happiness has reached me.

Sebastian, you evil little... I'm glaring at him. No really.

The sad thing is, I still haven't finished the end of Allegiant, apparently that's even worse.

Anyways, get more info on the book at Cassandra Clare's website here.

II) CoA Movie Postponement

This has been news for a while, but The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes will be likely to be "shelved" since the first movie hadn't been a success.

To make matters worse, the cast might even be replaced in the time that the movie's script is being changed up. I really hope they do stick to the book. 

 I had just got my friend into the TMI fandom and she asked me when the movie was coming out (I know most of this stuff) and I was like "Never, with Sony being a b****"

She still didn't understand what I was saying so I told her the ticket sales for the first movie was not great. We both got seriously depressed because that it what Cassie and the whole fandom does to people. Not kidding.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

I)Percy Jackson's Greek Gods

by Rick Riordan
August 19, 2014
Who's not excited for a book that comes out a day after Percy Jackson's birthday?!?!

I sure am. It's because of some publishing issues that they had to make it a day late, but still pretty significant, isn't it?

What do you think for the art on the cover? I think that everyone but Zeus and Poseidon look okay. I mean really, the film even portrayed them better than this. They are not two fat guys that are shirtless staring down at Percy Jackson.

It's sad that Annabeth isn't on the cover though. (I'm pouting, but you really can't see my face.)

Read more about it here.

II) Blood of Olympus

by Rick Riodan
October 7, 2014

I checked some of the PJO websites on Facebook earlier in the morning and I'm happy to know the book is coming out a day earlier than it was last year. I also don't want to breeze through it because sadly, it's going to be the end of Percy Jackson's adventures that we read of in books -and not if there's a probability short stories.- These series has been there for me all throughout my middle school years so it seems fitting to end when I start high school next school year.

Unfortunately, I still cannot get the front cover of the book although I believe there is a summary. And there is.

 Though the Greek and Roman crew-members of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them, and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake. The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it might be able to stop a war between the two camps. The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.


So a little FYI- Rick Riordan has never even watched Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief that was directed by Chris Columbus saying that it would change his perspective in how he saw the characters. (Rick's twitter is @camphalfblood)

It is also a running joke from Uncle Rick's twitter that there is going to be a new movie coming out. One  that the PJO fandom has never heard before. It is named Percy Jackson and the Curse of Titanium.

A fun fact to add to your day. Probably the weirdest ship name ever is Person. Take a guess.... No, not Percabeth, Percico, Perlia... How about Thalia's brother, perhaps, Jason? Percy x Jason. Person. Nice ship name, I prefer Percabeth and Jeyna and then there's Jason/brick fanfictions.

Catching Fire – Movie Review

Let's talk a little about movie adaptations. Movie adaptations are hard to make. They're also very easy to mess up. It's nearly impossible to appease fans of the source material and people who have no emotional connection to the book whatsoever.

(Warning: The following rant contains excessive name-dropping of below-par movie adaptations.)

Sometimes the movie may actually be not bad, but the fact that it strayed from the book so much could anger hardcore fans. Take Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. To an outsider, it's not such a bad movie. It had a solid plot and likeable, if one-dimensional, characters. But to a hardcore fan, it was terrible. Major plot points that came back in the rest of the series were just ignored, leaving nothing to build on. Leading to why Sea of Monsters was almost as bad.

You can also have the exact opposite. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones basically copied the first half of the movie exactly from the book, dialogue and everything. This pleased many fans, including myself. But the movie critics weren't fooled. They hated the movie, and we the fans were puzzled. After thinking it over, the critics have a point. The moviemakers were so concerned with reproducing exact plot points to appease the fans that they didn't make a good movie overall. It didn't capture the dark, humorous tone of the books, and suffered because of that.

Now The Hunger Games was a rare adaptation that did not directly fall into one of these two traps. The screenplay was written by Suzanne Collins, who began her career in television writing. That helped a lot. However, it's my opinion that authors should not write the adaptations of their own books. They're always tempted to make exact copies of their books (See The Perks of Being a Wallflower). But listen: I don't want an exact copy of the book. I could just read the book and imagine a movie. I want the director to sit back, look at the book and think, "How can I make it better?" And unlike The Hunger Games's Gary Ross, Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence did that. And it worked beautifully.

Catching Fire was AMAZING. Truly a fantastic movie. It was just mind-blowingly good. "Mind-blowingly." Wasn't a word before. It is now.

Let us now have a moment of silence for the shaky-cam filming and bad CGI. You will always be remembered as what ruined the first movie. Thank you for your service…

All jokes aside, they were both gone! A ton more money was put into this movie, and you can tell. All the special effects are much better. The arena is fantastically done. It's all very well done.

The cast is also phenomenal. Jennifer Lawrence's performance as Katniss was one of the best that I've ever seen. The supporting cast is as solid as they were in the original. The major new additions were Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch, Sam Claflin as Finnick, and Jena Malone as Johanna. There was a lot of skepticism around Claflin's casting from the fans. I have no clue why (Maybe he wasn't hot enough for the fangirls? I don't know.). He was perfectly fine as Finnick, no worries there. Hoffman was solid as Plutarch as well. The real surprise here was Jena Malone. The writers increased Johanna's role a little in the movie, and Malone took it in stride. She captured Johanna's crazy, I-don't-care-what-anyone-thinks-about-me attitude perfectly.

The plot was changed very little. You know, I might not even have any spoilers in this review… LOL, jk. Spoilers will come later. Here are the un-spoilery plot changes:

1. President Snow's granddaughter. If you've read the third book, you would know that President Snow's granddaughter is mentioned once or twice. Her appearance in Catching Fire indicates that she may have a bigger role in Mockingjay. I can't wait!!

2. Mind games. The one disadvantage of the book is that the reader only saw Katniss's perspective. The movie was able to show more of President Snow & Plutarch playing with Katniss. The mind games they play are featured much more prominently, and it ties the movie together in such a way that is amazing.

Now for those spoilers I promised…

Seriously, there are only two spoiler things I want to discuss. There were two things that they left out of the movie that I was hoping for. First, in the book, Plutarch shows Katniss his expensive watch, which is supposed to give her an idea of the fact that the arena is a clock. Of course, at that point he thought she was going to be mentoring tributes in those games, but still. It was a nice bit of foreshadowing that was left out. The second was my favorite quote from the book. You know the part where Cinna tells Katniss and Peeta to look straight ahead while they're in the chariots? Well, I was really looking forward to Katniss saying, "Finally, something I'll be good at." and IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. Ugh.

Anyway, there were only two minor things I would've included. And that's a crazily small number, considering how nitpicky I am.

Spoilers over.

I think that Francis Lawrence and crew did a fantastic job with Catching Fire. It was truly amazing, I would even say it was better than the book. And the book is one of my top 10 books ever. That's how good this movie was.

Final score: 9.8 out of 10

Mockingjay Part 1 comes out on November 21, 2014!!!!!!!

- Nick 

Coldplay: "Atlas"

Just today, Coldplay released their song for Catching Fire the book following The Hunger Games. Look at the picture of what we saw before the world premiere of the song.



I'll have the video for "Atlas" right here. Tell me what you think!

If the video didn't work for you, copy the link below and paste it onto the search bar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lh3TokLzzmw

The lyric video had a theme with Greek mythology and words followed popped up as a string pulled you though the video.

If you didn't notice it, the mockingjay appeared at around 2:12 of the video. It was easy to miss if you don't remember what it looked like. It was the same one as that of the pin -that Madge gave in the book or Greasy Sae in the movie- just with it's neck elongated like an arrow.

I don't think there was much of an obvious chorus in this song and I kinda missed that, but who said everything had to be a pop song!

You might need to strain your ears a little bit, but you'll hear the singing from Coldplay.

I personally didn't like it, but just tell me what you thought about it, by commenting.

Signed,
Ivy

P.S. Catching Fire  will be released in the theatres on November 22nd. I think it is a worldwide release, but if it isn't that's the US date.

'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones'- Movie Review

Hi to all Shadowhunters and Mundies!

This is a movie review to *cue the dramatic music* the City of Bones! There's one thing that I don't understand, why is everyone calling the movie "The Mortal Instruments" when that's the series' name. But, whatever, I'm getting off-track.

This is NOT a spoiler-free review. Sorry.

The official movie poster!



The order from right to left is, Clary; Jace; Alec; Isabelle (Izzy), and Simon.

That's the Shadowhunters' symbol aka the Angelic Rune. How do you think it looks?















Here's the trailer. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4axPibsp4Ao

I think you've finished watching the trailer. It's a great experience.

Did you see Clary's mom, Jocelyn? Yes, very climactic, but I swear to all you Mundies that have never read the book, there is something that is even more shocking.

When I watched the movie there were so many things racing through my mind. The movie had great props, seriously; there is no need to deny it.

I personally think that Lily Collins made a perfect Clary. She acted so well to convey all the strong emotions in the movie. It was great.

To keep the tension away for a bit in the movie, you have Jace's jokes which are always the best.

The movie was terrific. All the stories are real, I'm just quoting Hodge.

The first shots of the movie was a view of New York and it goes to Clary's apartment. There's a lady that looks out of the apartment, she was very important, Dorothea the witch. (I'm pretty sure Dorothea needed the help of the witch, but that was when she was casted away by a tornado.)

Clary starts drawing the Angelic rune everywhere and that's a major part of the beginning. They make a big deal about it. It's all over the place, her coffee, drawings, literally all over her room.

(I'm borrowing a laptop at the party). So the movie goes onto say with Jocelyn that Simon doesn't feel the same way of being siblings with Clary. Meaning, Clary doesn't see a relationship with her best friend. This is so cliche! XD

As Clary goes out for her birthday, she and Simon go to a poetry reading about things that are I think supposed to be deadly? It has quite the opposite effect, making the people watching the movie laugh.

After getting their coffee, and once again seeing the Angelic rune, the friends go to Pandemonium a teen club in Manhattan (Clary lives in Brooklyn).  That is where Clary first sees the trio of Shadowhunters.

The next day, Clary sees Jace and she asks him why can she see things that others can't see. This also means others can't see Jace. Mundanes see Clary holding up a picture of the rune and she's screaming at a somewhat "invisible" Jace. I found this quite funny.

Later on in the movie, they visit the City of Bones, the literal one, not the movie that you can go see. Clary finds herself writing "BANE" onto the ground when the Silent Brothers try to release the block that was placed on her mind. At this point, she had fell down and Jace, being super-caring about Clary, rushes over to her.

The Shadowhunters then realize that they have to go to the High Warlock of Brooklyn, Magnus Bane's party. Izzy dresses Clary up. All the while, Izzy asks Clary how it was obvious it was that Alec liked Jace. When they make it to the party, Jace puts Clary's hair down and we have a very uncomfortable Simon. He stares at the two and then looks away and then looks away again.

When Magnus enters the party, he isn't wearing any pants. (Damn, that felt so weird typing it out...) He strides up to the Shadowhunters and sees Alec and Clary. He says that he's letting them stay because of the hot one (Alec). This was which Clary, Jace, and Izzy say "thank you" to because you know Jace always thinks he's the hot one.

Simon is taken away. This time he isn't a mouse...  It was funnier in the book, no seriously, some vampire thought that it was one of the vampires and brought them back to the lair.

After they rescue him, there's an EPIC showdown between Shadowhunters and vampires. I thought all vampires were supposed to be perfect looking and very skinny, in the movie's case, they are ugly and make thuds as they hit the floor.

There are many Clace moments that satisfy the fans. During the greenhouse scene, you think they kiss for only a few seconds, turns out to be a short make-out session. Very awkward to look at the big screen.

Then after something, I forgot what, but Jace is playing the piano and as he sees Clary walk into the room, he starts slamming the keys.

You also have to remember that the Shadowhunters get the mortal cup from Dorothy. They do not have a portal in the place, but she turns into a monster as Jace plays a tune on the piano. Alec saves Jace as he rushes down from Clary's apartment and gets stabbed trying to get the mortal cup from not-really-Dorothy's hands.

Izzy blames Clary and Jace. There's Valentine who pops up in the Institute. Yada, yada. I'm too tired to write anymore.

I'll let Nick cover the rest.


Signed,
Ivy

P.S. Who do YOU ship with Clary? Simon or Jace?

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones – Movie Review

Ivy, our friend, and I saw The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones today!! Here's what I thought:

The first half of the movie was exactly true to the book, which is always good. The second half varied a little from the book, but nothing huge that I have to rant about.

Lily Collins was very good as Clary. There wasn't any other standouts in the rest of the cast, but no one was absolutely horrible either.

The movie tried the best it could, but it couldn't fix the usual problems of converting books to movies: moving too fast due to limited time, inability to see inside the characters' heads, etc.

All in all, it was a pretty good movie.

Final score: 9.1 out of 10

Now, it's been confirmed that City of Ashes, the sequel, will be adapted into a movie. Production will start on September 23, and the movie will premiere somewhere in 2014. However, there may be a possiblity that the franchise will stop there. Why, you ask? Because City of Bones did awful in theaters. Awful.

It's common sense that hit movies get sequels. From what I know about the movie business (not a lot, but enough), you become a "hit" if you end up making double your budget in ticket sales. City of Bones's budget was $60 million. After a week in movie theaters, it's made just below $28 million worldwide. That's not good. It needs three more weeks exactly like that to be at hit status, and that's definitely not going to happen. Movies get nowhere near as much money in the weeks after the first week. So CoB probably will earn enough ticket sales to cover its budget, it most likely won't be a hit by movie terms. Basically, City of Ashes needs to do better than CoB for the future of the franchise to be safe.

A few random thoughts:

• The only thing we know about the City of Ashes movie is that Sigourney Weaver was cast in it. I don't know what role, and I don't care to know because it's taking forever for my library to get the book!!!!! Google it if you're interested.

• Did you know that critics hated the movie?? They thought it was awful! It's so weird; they didn't hate Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters as much and I thought this was better!!

• There's an app that has a game based on the movie. It's called "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" and I'm going to download it right now!

• Can you believe that when Cassandra Clare was first going to movie studios looking for someone to sell the rights to, she was told that no one wanted to see a young adult movie with a girl lead? I mean, seriously???

– Nick

DIVERGENT TRAILER!!!!!!!

ASDFGHJKL It's the divergent trailer!!! Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's talk about it.

Wait - first you need to watch it again. :)

The first eight seconds show Jeanine Matthews addressing all the sixteen year-olds in all five factions in a giant auditorium. "The future," she says slooooooowly, "belongs to those who know where they belong." They show all five factions sitting together. You see the Abnegation in grey, the Amity in yellow, the Erudite in blue, the Candor in black & white, and the Dauntless in black. That's good; you can see they're following the book in that, at least. However, you also see the following shot of Beatrice staring dumbly:

I mean, seriously? What even is that expression? Whatever.

Then four seconds of Caleb & Beatrice chatting as they walk to school before the aptitude test. We get a one second shot of the Priors before they go to the ceremony. Then fourteen seconds of Tori--the only person in this trailer more overdramatic than Jeanine--explaining to Beatrice that she is Divergent. That ends what we see of Beatrice; now we enter Tris in Dauntless.

Now some Jeanine--she's in at the Dauntless training area for some reason and not in her own faction. She tells Tris that "the system removes the threst of anyone excersizing their independent will." She pauses for two seconds while we see a couple of shots of people hoilding guns, and then continues, "Divergents threaten that system. It won't be safe until they're removed." Meanwhile we see the scene where she jumps off the roof!! That looks cool.

Then we have a bunch of stuff that we already saw in the teaser, and it starts to get interesting at about 00:53. Tori tells Tris to "trust herself" and then we see her awesomely beat Peter up. We see a few shots from various scenes (jumping off the train, the ferris wheel, and Four showing Tris his tatoos) while Jeanine tells Tris that she's a "poor blend of impulses and impurities." Tris snaps back, "Don't try and define me," we cut to a shot of Tris and Four kissing (which i'm sure you guys will love--I personally never liked them together but that's a different story). And then the music starts to wind down and we get a full couple seconds of the knife-throwing scene, and the end.

So, really good trailer!! It is definitely better than what we saw in the teaser.

We still need more, though!!!!! I can't wait until March 21, and I'm sure you can't either!

 - Nick

The official Divergent trailer is coming!

The first official trailer for the Divergent movie (the one released a few days ago was just a teaser) will be released tonight!! It will be sixty seconds and will first air just before the MTV Video Music Awards. That's on the MTV channel at 8:00 p.m. Eastern/7:00 p.m. Central.

I'm just hoping we're going to get a glimpse of Beatrice's life in Abnegation, because that was left out of the teaser, and that's a big part of her life. Her life in Abnegation had a big effect on her, something I'm worried the movie will downplay in favor of action scenes in Dauntless. Okay, I'll stop ranting now.

What do you want to see in the trailer? Stay tuned to this blog today, where we'll post the video directly from YouTube and we'll discuss it!

 - Nick

Divergent: Movie Stills and Gifs

Like Nick posted yesterday, the movie teaser was a short mere 12 seconds. (Now that I think about it, how much speaking happened within 12 seconds?)

Anyways, in case you don't wanna go to the last post,  I'll put it here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV5zpjpd5Og

I spent quite an amount of time just looking at movie stills and videos for the movie to be released in theaters March 20th of 2014.

Most  I found were from Entertainment Weekly. The cover of the magazine for June 28 is the one on the side.

Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) and Four (Theo James) are on the front page.

You can see that Tris wearing a red shirt. I think that's up for discussion as well as her pants that are holding knives. Red is for Amity as the main colors go. As for Tris' pants, if I remember correctly, she wasn't doing so well with target training and even Four (let's not reveal his real name for the people that

 haven't read Divergent  yet) doesn't do that.

Now Four looks like a normal Dauntless.

Is Divergent the next Hunger Games? I wouldn't think so. I have read both of the books and loved them both. However, I can't say I like them equally. When I read The Hunger Games, it was totally amazing (as I expected it to) but the fallout began with the beginning of Mockingjay. There is the same adventure but I think without that much bloodiness. It focuses more on the things that Tris goes through. Enough for now.

Look at a parody of the cover I found:

So I found this off of Cinema Blend. (Thanks guys for getting the slowed down version of the trailer.) Like it's mentioned at Cinema Blend and because I kinda noticed this in the trailer, this is the actual proof. The ring of people around Four just fall as he punches one of the people around him. I don't what the point of this is because obviously, it's just a small punch not a round house.

Anywho, I also wanted to look at another fan analyzation from the peeps at www.cityofbonesmovie.com

We can all see what the message is here. Why did Neil Burger cast these three to be Tris, Four, and Jeanine Matthews, respectively?  It says that here Tris is supposed to be 16 but Shailene is already 21. Four, originally 18, is played by Theo, who is 28, acting 4 years below his own age (because the movie is making Four 24 years old—that's weird to read). Jeanine Matthews, I don't know what there is to say. I guess Kate's age should be around right since Tris' dad went to the same school as her, but we still never know Jeanine's age. Thus, making the question mark funny to question and look at.

Hi, this is Nick popping in to say that we can still guess how old Jeanine is. We know that Beatrice's father is the same age as Jeanine. At the beginning of the series, Mr. Prior's oldest child, Caleb, is almost seventeen. We can also gather that since Beatrice's parents are in Abnegation, they did not have their children before they became adults, and probably not before they were about 22/23. We can probably assume that they were not more than 28, as the Abnegation are very efficient people. This puts their probable age when they had Caleb at 23-25. Combine that with Caleb's almost 17 years of age and you have a Jeanine Matthews of 40-42.

Onto the Stills! (Remember, you can click on pictures to enlarge them.)

Everyone going crazy for the Ferris wheel and I've got to say, I was definitely ASDFGHJKL ing the whole time. I wonder how this scene is going to be in the movie.

You can clearly see the tattoos, three ravens, each one representing the family members that Tris left behind. I think that sounded more like a quote. 

This should be the scene where the initiates are training before their one-on-one matches. 

Take a moment to look at the punching bag. Quite the unusual shape, don't you think? Sorry for my immaturity; I just had to do that. 

The way that Four analyzes the punching bag is kinda strange isn't it. But that's minor. He's training the initiates so he's gotta be like that.

Tris' ponytail makes me feel relieved that it's not only my hair that get out of it's hair tie by the end of the day creating some pieces of hair that frame my face. I look at some people and their hair looks as if they fixed it up every single moment that they have! Oh, the horror. 

We didn't get to see much of Eric in the previews that we got either from following people (at least I hope they are people) on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. 

Here's a clear shot of what he looks like! Don't mind the guy on the left, he's just the director. It's totally because he's not important to the film. Of course he's important, he decides how well the movie is going to be and if we're gonna go crazy for it.

This was the first picture to be revealed and it shows where Tris replaced Al as a target for Four to throw knives at. Because you know, Four thinks the perfect way to make a girl fall for you is to throw knives at her and tell her that you'll only go to her funeral if there's cake.

This picture makes people's hearts pound. But there's not really anything to be afraid of as Shailene says at Comic Con, view it here. There was a glass to prevent her from any harm while this was being shot. Whatever didn't hit the target, made it to the glass. I would still say that's a freaky experience.

 "First jumper" Tris. Welcome to Dauntless. So this is where Beatrice Prior from Abnegation makes her jump into Tris Prior of Dauntless. 

All those expecting Dauntless people. Stop bullying! It's not nice! 

If you look closely at the picture, there's Eric (or Max from the book) on the side with one hand over the other.

Be brave. Everything changes from here.

 At this still, you see Tris given her aptitude test by Tori, who supposedly is to have a black blazer on.

Looking from this, I'm thinking that Beatrice's results will be put into a machine through that thing around her head. In the book, students have to drink a serum and have electrodes placed around their head. I guess it's too Sci-Fi  for them to do.

This is probably the part where Tris, Christina, and Al are going to play paintball (?) I see that in the pictures above when Tris and Four go to get the Ferris wheel, Tris' clothes are different. What are we supposed to think of this?

I think that it is safe to say that the Choosing Ceremony is what is pictured right now. I would have thought that maybe it was the aptitude test, but that's kinda ruled out with a) the lady in the picture b) it's an auditorium.

The gray everywhere shows that this is the Abnegation all put together as where other factions stay with their own during the Ceremony.

This still is obviously focused on Caleb and Tris, (I don't think I need to say left to right, now, do I?)

This is Jeanine Matthews, the genius but not the mastermind behind everything as later revealed in the next book.

This crazy lady that we hated is very professional and I would say fit's her role as Jeanine. In this picture Kate is doing well with a black blazer and a blue shirt under. There's that nice touch of Erudite so she's not just wearing Dauntless black.


Here is target practice again, without the knives and with a gun. Dauntless initiation for you. It's very much unlike Abnegation where everyone just does a couple hours of community service and whatnot.

Dauntless is also the faction which creates the most Factionless members. Back to the picture.

As always, Four is trying to look cunning at practice. In the last picture with the punching bags, same expression. Scroll up and look at it if you would like. I personally think that Four had an easier attitude than Theo here.

Tris has both of her eyes open as she aims to shoot the gun in her hand. I think I would have already closed one of my eyes. That's why I'd be dead before I ever made it into Dauntless and got accepted.

I have no freaking idea why Four's wearing a jacket in this. Everyone around him is a tank tops or short sleeves. Is her really that cold? Sorry, bad pun.

You can see two people fighting in the background and another just standing like a douche ready to be hit.

I wonder what the discussion is about. They both seem quite serious. Hey look, it's the signature scowl again!

Yes, leave the climax to the end, Iz. Of course you have to do that.

If anyone remembers that is Al on the right. Two ninja like people are holding Tris back as she's thrashing. What's happening in this still? I really want to see the movie because of this. (Okay, I know. I'm lying. I know what's going on and what will happen. It's still true that I want to see the movie though!)

Is it a betrayal? I think so. What do you people who haven't read the book think?

Signed,
Iz

P.S. This took so  long to write. No kidding. I spent like 4 hours doing the research and then posting all  the stills and links that especially funny gif you saw.

The Book Thief

I've heard a lot about the book The Book Thief. It's written by Marcus Zusak, and it's about a girl who lives in Europe during World War II. A lot of people have raved about it, so when I saw this trailer, I checked it out. You can check it out too!

http://youtu.be/92EBSmxinus

I really want to see this movie now!! What about you?

 – Nick

Divergent teaser trailer!

A teaser trailer for the Divergent movie was just released!!!!! You can see it here!!

Update (again): Here it is!!!

It's only twelve seconds, but a lot goes on in those twelve seconds!! Let's discuss.

The first four seconds have Tori telling Tris she is Divergent. She also says, "They can't control you." That's a little odd, as at that point in the book, there wasn't any mention of anyone controlling anyone. Also, the screen cuts to a shot of Jeanine walking (like a bad ass) during the "they", which is definitely an implication that Jeanine is the "they". Readers of the book know that Jeanine is not a big factor until the latter half of the book, well after Tris meets Tori. I guess we'll have to wait and see whether this was a huge plot change or just sloppy editing.

Then, for three seconds, we cut to an extremely confusing cut of a bunch of dark-clad people running towards Tris. (???) Tobias comes out of nowhere and says, "If you want to survive, come with me." Does anyone else remember a scene like that in the book?

We then have a two-second cut of a bunch of great-looking training scenes, but they flash by and we don't see enough.

The final three seconds are given to a cut of Beatrice and Christina jumping off a train; it's the same scene as this picture (although from a different angle). That scene definitely looks cool.

All in all, the teaser looks great, but it's really way too short to judge the movie by. What did you guys think?


- Nick

The Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones

I am uber excited for The Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones  to come out tomorrow. I bet you all of the Shadowhunter fandom out there is too. Take a moment to appreciate the thought of buying a ticket for the movie beforehand and not waiting on the line.

The movie is surprisingly, and I say surprisingly because, the movie is exactly 2 hours long. Strange, right?

Cassandra Clare did a stunning job with the book. Hence, the huge numbers of readers. I have a good feeling about the movie. From the video clip I saw this morning and the movie trailer that I was crazed about before summer vacation, I think the actors and actresses did great. What's even better is that Lily Collins (Clary Fray) was very excited over the role of Clary because she read the book. Fangirls being casted, that doesn't happen a lot.  Books that go by the movie are good. What do you think of Jamie Campbell (Jace -last name unidentified- XD)'s accent?

To all those fellow Shadowhunters out there, the rune contest that was being held, is now over. The same goes for many of the once opened giveaways. Unfortunately, I did not notice these things on Google beforehand, so I didn't get a chance to enter. Side note: Remember to type in "_____ giveaways" on Google before the contests are all closed. Anyways, there were really cool prizes. 

However, giveaways weren't the main thing I wanted to talk about. It was the inspired jewelry, make up, posters and all the other fun stuff (I'm not being sarcastic). So, I was on Amazon a few seconds ago and I searched up The Mortal Instruments accessories. There are many things.

The necklaces and bracelets and what-nots are almost perfect. Guess what isn't? Yes, you got it! The price. But otherwise, the fashionistas have their own great things. From girly-girls that read with their makeup set, to the stylish dresses from the movie and replica steles and runes.

T-shirts are utterly, freaking amazing. Some of them look really comfortable. That isn't the best part; they let you express yourself. This is America, no?

Also as a girl in America, I love posters. I have four adorning my room at the moment (I like to switch them), I need a few more. The movie posters of books are one of the best because no matter how bad the movie was, the book will always be my support. Paper hanging on my wall remind me of the books. I have never tried pasting a poster to the ceiling. I need to try that once in my life, at least.

Pins for my book bag please! Yes, those are great too. I already have a few that It m deciding to use on a new book bag. 

I can't wait for the movie premiere tomorrow. I need to decide when I'll be able to go though. :( My cousin's gonna be coming over and all so, plans for this Sunday, goodbye. If there is any chance, I'll need to thank God.

Signed,

Iz

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters – Movie Review

Ivy, a bunch of our friends, and I saw Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters this Saturday. She's already told you about it; here's my take.

Movie spoilers! Duh! Go to Ivy's post if you want a non-spoilery version. I need to rant, people. (If you just want to skip to my opinion, I'll write "Final opinion" and you can read the stuff below that without spoilers)

After 25 minutes of waiting around because Ivy was late, we went to have pizza. She's already told you that it took forever to cook, but she wasn't the one who went up and paid for it. It was far too expensive, and it wasn't that good pizza either. But it was fun to watch all the different ways everyone tried to choke down a slice of pizza in 2 minutes xD.

Getting to the movie… wait no I have to complain about how I got Slow Popcorn Lady and I didn't get into the movie theater in time to see the coming attractions. I was hoping to see a The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones trailer. Oh, well. 

Anyways, movie starts. I remember it starts with a monologue from Percy about Thalia. That's different from the first movie, when it started with a great scene with Zeus & Poseidon, and you didn't see Percy until later. I'm not sure which one I like better.

Percy is apparently staying year-round at camp, something that is actually pretty important in the book. It kinda changes a bunch of things (namely, Tyson's entrance) but it's not that bad.

In the first big scene, there's this really cool thing that the campers are using for their competition. I don't know how to explain it, but it wasn't in the books and is actually pretty creative. What's not cool is that they immediately go for a cliché. Percy and Clarisse (who is much more awesome in the movie then the books, btw) are both looking like they're going to win, when some dumb camper gets himself into a stupid situation where he's hanging off the structure. Hence the cliché where Percy goes and helps the poor guy up and Clarisse (smirk and all) climbs to the top and wins. Cue sad music and tedious scenes of Percy feeling sorry for himself. Thankfully, Tyson chooses that exact time to come into camp and Percy gets a half-brother, startling him out of his self-pity.

The next day, well, I'll let Clarisse tell you: "Barrier action!!" (You have to picture Clarisse with a huge excited smile :P ) All the campers rush towards the barrier, but the barrier action isn't barrier action anymore as the Colchis (probably spelled that wrong) bulls bust through the barrier and attack the camp. So, the campers—wait for it, wait for it—the campers scream at the top of their lungs and run away. These people are TRAINED WARRIORS, but they're running like little children. Seriously? How did these guys cope before Thalia's Pine came along?

So fight scene with a fire-breathing bull. You probably think it would be awesome, right? WRONG. imo, worst scene in the movie. Completely ridiculous fighting. Clarisse and Annabeth, the camp's two best fighters, can't do anything to the bulls. Tyson gets BBQ'd while Clarisse looks on dumbly. Percy gets cornered by a bull. He then throws Riptide into the bull's mouth and (in slow motion!) it expands into a sword and hits just the right spot to make the bull explode. Um. Cheesy much? Cue appearance by Luke, who's only real purpose is to inform Percy there's a prophecy about him.

Percy talks to (a recast) Chiron who tells him to go to the Oracle. There's a nice touch where Chiron says the line from the books about how they'll talk if he's still sane when he comes back. The Oracle provides a chance for the movie to insert some mythology, which is pretty fun, but then it starts spewing a nonsensical mash-up of the Great Prophecy and the prophecy for Clarisse's quest, which is just confusing and not helping with the "sticking to the story" idea.

Meanwhile, Annabeth is apparently searching WikiMagicalObjects on her iPad to find something to help Thalia, and she comes up with the Golden Fleece. There are a few fun scenes where Dionysus dismisses the idea and then presents the whole camp with the idea, telling them that he thought of it.

For a while, the story goes along kind of close to the book. It manages to switch the order of a the scenes but still pulls off showing all of them. The hydra was already used in the first movie, but there's still a coffee shop (not called Monster Donuts, unfortunately) with those multi-handed creatures. Also, Grover is kidnapped by Luke's cronies in the middle of the movie instead of being lost in the beginning. There's a scene with the Gray Sisters which is really fun, Nathan Fillion has an AWESOME cameo as Hermes (there's even a reference to one of his old shows, Firefly) and Luke has a great one-liner on the Princess Andromeda. (Clip: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7RMwl0-YVlM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D7RMwl0-YVlM )

Differently from the book, they get swallowed up by the mouth in the water (I forgot what the name was). The mouth's stomach is surprisingly well-done when I was expecting horrible special effects. They meet Clarisse's boat of zombies, and in a scene that gave me extreme deja vú of a scene from The Chronices of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader they awesomely bust out of the stomach. 

Circe's spa isn't in the movie; it's replaced with an abandoned amusement park where Polyphemus hangs out, called Circeland. Grover is there, dressed as a female Cyclops, which looks as hilarious as you thought it would look like when you were picturing it as you were reading the book. The trio, Tyson, & Clarisse fight Polyphemus in a really really good scene.

Of course, Luke & his cronies are right outside of the cave. They steal the Golden Fleece, push Tyson off a cliff (?) and capture the trio and Clarisse. This is where it starts to be different from the book. In the book, Blackjack is on the Princess Andromeda and the questers use him to escape. In the movie, Kronos's remains are right there and the Golden Fleece manages to bring him back. Okay, it's not that far from the book, as Luke planned to use the Fleece on Kronos anyway. But the stupid thing is that the Lord of the freakin' Titans is ridiculously easy to beat. Percy uses Riptide (which is apparently the "cursed blade" from the prophecy) to whack Kronos to pieces.

After Kronos recedes to his coffin, Annabeth rushes forward in happiness. She then acheives her sole purpose for being in this movie at all—getting stabbed in the back by a giant scorpion. Percy is busy hugging Tyson who's magically come back from the dead. After he finishes with that, he goes to her side, says a bunch of corny, cheesy stuff, and then puts the Golden Fleece on her to heal her. So, the daughter of Athena (the goddes of battle) almost gets killed because she forgot that there was a giant scorpion next to her... Can someone explain this logic to me??

Anyway, happy ending. Clarisse puts the Fleece on the roots of Thalia's Pine, and the barrier goes back to full strength.

The final scene is in the morning, not the middle of the night, so Percy is eating —asdfghjkl— CEREAL!!!! (That's an inside joke :P ) Anyway, Percy is eating his CEREAL when Grover yells and brings him to the pine, and Thalia appears, and she says "My name is Thalia. I'm the daughter of Zeus.", and fade to black.

Some thoughts:

• No "Seaweed Brain", huh? :(

• A lot of critics said that Logan Lerman did a good job acting but I kind of disagree. None of the main trio is that great of an actor. Chris Colombus said that he didn't want to cast twelve year-olds because it would be too hard to find good ones. Um, you couldn't even find good 25 year-olds!!! Actually, I thought the standout actor/ess (other than Nathan Fillion =P ) was Levin Rambin as Clarisse (who, in case you didn't notice, was also Glimmer in The Hunger Games).

• Luke had all the good one-liners in this movie.

• Annabeth, did like nothing. That was a disappointment.

Final opinion:

The movie was definitely better than The Lightning Thief. It was a lot better if you count that it had to make up for the mess  that the first movie created. It stayed truer to the book, and the only hu-uge mistake was messing up the prophecy, but that's kinda better than having no prophecy!

Final score: 8.7 out of 10

Sorry, this was kinda longer than I expected. I'm going to do this again with books that I read, but I probably won't be as in depth as I just was. This was a special occasion.

– Nick

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters (Movie)

This is like my first time doing a movie review, but good enough right? Fine, just don't mind me.

Well just yesterday, a Saturday of my perfect summer (not!), I went with my friends to the cinemas. We had pizza beforehand. If I go into those details I'll be mad. The pizza came  out of the oven thirty minutes too late with no time left as the showing started. Burning hot tomato sauce is bad for your tongue (not that you don't already know).Though, let me tell you meeting up with friends you haven't seen for a while makes up for that. =)

Let's look at at a few of the movie posters

I couldn't find a poster that was in English so this is Spanish. I wanna just discuss a few things about this poster. It's also the cover for the movie cover of the book. 

     

Look at Grover's smirk and moustache. Oh and the obvious horns that he didn't have in the first movie.

 Percy's (Logan Lerman)  hair is  cut short. That's different from the book. We all picture Percy with shaggy hair or at least not that short.

(For example this one here.)

Those are some of the mythical creatures that you'll see. I'll tell you which monster was what. Starting from the top right hand corner, that's Rainbow the hippocampus. You really can't see the rainbow can you? Moving on, the bottom left, that's a manticore, I think because the features weren't really that clear. It's tail was like a scorpion's. I know this specific monster was supposed to be in the next movie. (Dr. Thorne- ironic right? Tail?) On the bottom right, is one of Hephaestus' haywire creations, the Colchis bull that decided to attack Camp Half-Blood.
Believe it or not, the first one on the top is actually Kronos. He doesn't take over Luke's body. He does something even weirder. And for all those that watched the movie, you know what I'm talking about. ;)

This was my favorite poster. IN DEMIGODS WE TRUST. Who remembers American currency. In God we trust. I believe that this poster is more accurate. The Greek Gods never actually did things themselves. The famous demigods always saved the world. 

Annabeth's smartness might need to be raised a bit. I mean seriously, Tyson kinda knows more than her. And how we thought Tyson was supposed to be a bit dumb, he can speak in full sentences. Grover and Tyson also get along really well with each other.

I also kinda noticed something before I saw the movie, but the cast of SoM. Douglas Smith,  actor for Tyson does look a lot like Harry Styles from 1D. To prove that, just look at this photo below.

Douglas Smith (Tyson)

Harry Styles (One Direction)

Clarisse isn't as mean as everything in the book suggests.

A letdown to the Percabeth fans was something minor. Oh who am I kidding? They don't call each other "Wise Girl" and "Seaweed Brain". Very sad. It's breaking my fangirl heart at the moment.

There is no Percabeth kiss (ON THE CHEEK) after the chariot ride that was cut out.

Thalia is amazing. I love her. Though the only line that older Thalia says is "I'm Thalia, daughter of Zeus." Wanna see a picture of younger Thalia and older Thalia? I wish I could say I had a picture of them in action from the movie, but Google isn't finding me a picture.

                    

Fortunately, I did find a picture of Annabeth, Luke, and Grover reaching the camp.
 They don't really look like the actors that play the older them, but good enough right? I know that Luke was supposed to be older than Annabeth. Grover's furry legs! I wonder how those pants felt. =P

The movie was different in a good way. Great job, Thor Freudenthal. Look at some of the comic strips on the this webpage. It's pretty hilarious!
http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/08/07/percy-jackson-director-thor-freudenthal-comic-strips/

Signed,
Iz