Ellen's Life

Hello everyone! Yes, it is time for another review. This time, I review something I saw in December, (Avatar) and compare it to something I saw in April. (How to Train Your Dragon.)

So without further ado… Here is Avatar.

Avatar.

This is a movie I was looking forwards to seeing for a few months before it came out. In the previews, it looked gorgeous, and action packed, which for someone like me, is good.

Then, it finally came out.

So we go to see it. If you haven’t yet, you probably can’t see it in theaters, but if you’re gonna rent it on Pay Per View or something, choose a night when you have nothing else to do, because the movie is three hours and fifteen minutes long. In all honesty, it may be a bit longer, but jeez, it was December since I saw this thing.

This is the story of Jake Sully, marine, who’s needed to go to the world Pandora to fill in for his brother, who got (Randomly) murdered. His brother was part of a project in which DNA is taken from you, and from the natives in the world of Pandora and grown into little crosses between you and the giant blue fairy people that live here. Since Jake was his twin, he was the only other one that could match up to the “avatar” created for his brother.

Anyways, the graphics are absolutely spectacular. I read somewhere that this was the most expensive film to make in history. Well, it looked good, but you’d think for all that money they might be able to hire better writers. It wasn’t a BAD movie… Just rather unoriginal. The plot, in a nutshell, was protagonist arrives, protagonist gets assigned a task by his boss, protagonist goes into the land of the natives to complete his task, protagonist gets captured by natives, protagonist has to assimilate into the native culture, protagonist falls in love with someone important among the natives, protagonist has to fight a battle against the people that he worked for previously.

Honestly, I found the culture of the Na’Vi very interesting, so watching Jakesully assimilate into it wasn’t bad. It was the *Spoiler warning* Ending that really ticked me off.

*Again, spoiler warning* At the end, all of the earth people that didn’t help the Na’Vi are bundled up in a space thingy, and sent home to “Their dying world”. Seriously? You couldn’t at least TRY to do to them what you did to the protagonist? Okay, SOME people might go, like that CEO guy, but these people are just doing their job. And now you’re punishing them for that. Yeah, you’re pretty awesome, ten foot tall blue cat elf people.

Well, that angry little rant is finished. And, it brings me to the next subject.

How to Train Your Dragon.

The first time we saw the preview, my dad said that seeing this would be seeing Avatar, and vice versa. Regardless of that, we went to see it a while (A few days) ago.

This is the story of Hiccup, the midget who’s father thinks he’s never gonna amount to anything, who wants to slay the pests of the viking village in which he lives: Dragons. One night, when dragons attack, he manages to use a dola throwing weapon to shoot the scariest dragon of all down from the sky.

And then he can’t kill it.

The visual effects in this movie are not as beautiful as the ones in Avatar, but I do have to give Dreamworks some congratulations. It was a nice movie to see, as well as to watch.

The plot is ALMOST the same as in Avatar, but it changes at several major points. For one thing, Hiccup doesn’t have to fight a battle against any of his viking brothers. He has to fight a *SPOILER WARNING* Huge goliath mother-of-all-dragons cannibal dragon thing. (Which, by the way, looks like an oversized blue gronkle with bat wings and three eyes.)

And also, the ending. I preferred this movie to Avatar chiefly for this reason. *Spoiler warning* At the end, the two cultures are allowed to mingle and live with each other. It’ll take some getting used to by each side (The vikings have to get used to not killing dragons, and the dragons have to get used to not being hunted by vikings.) But in the end, it’s a peaceful and beneficial collaboration for all.

SUMMARY:

Personally, if you’re looking for a movie to rent/go see, I recommend “How to Train Your Dragon”. However, if you’re into more techy stuff and sci-fi, or maybe just learning about a culture unlike any on earth, I recommend “Avatar”.

*Insert witty conclusion here*

Right, so on the 18th, my family’s gonna go see Avatar, and before that we might see Fantastic Mr. Fox through some media, so before I have two reviews to juggle, I’m gonna do this one.

Most football fans will have heard of Michael Oher. He was the 2009 draft pick of the NFL. (A fact I only found out at the end of the movie.) This is his story. Yeah, that was totally cliched, but I have no other way to put it.

This is the story about how this one kid was taken in, how both his, and the family he was taken in by’s lives changed. In a nutshell, it was funny, touching, and told a true story.

I had wanted to see this movie for a while, and was not disappointed when I did. I liked it a lot, and especially liked the definitive character of S.J. XD

If you wan to see it, bear in mind it is Pg-13. I give it 4.9/5 stars.

You know, I was really looking forwards to seeing “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Today.It looked really funny, very entertaining, and overall, just very good.

But… As the narrator of “City of Ember” Would say, fate ran another course. The movie hadn’t been released yet, (Near us, at least) And we ended up going to see “A Christmas Carol” Instead. (Well, I wanted to see “The Blind Side,” But we couldn’t do that.)

Charles Dickens’s classic novel has been once more immortalized in a movie. You’d think from doing it so many times that it might be a bit worn thin, but it is still excellent. Some people play up to five parts- Impressive, no? 

To sum it up..  The storyline was good, even though I was never a fan of overly moral stories. (I absolutely HATED watching “Kenny the Shark”- For those of you that don’t know, it’s a Discovery Kids channel cartoon, and I think it sucks.) The animation was SPECTACULAR! It was a lot like “Nine” In that aspect. In both, you could actually picture yourself in that world. (Though maybe a little less in “Nine.”)

If you wanna go and see it, the movie’s rated Pg. I give it a 4.2/5 stars.

Right, so I didn’t get this done when I said I would, but here it is.

I am reviewing a book which I must’ve read at least ten times, by an author to whom I am quite partial to. The Hunger Games (Written by Suzanne Collins- Gregor the Overlander was FTW also.) is a book that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in a nation known as Panem, where the harsh and cruel Capitol forces its twelve surrounding districts into line by having them send two children, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to fight to the death in a free for all on live Tv.

Pleasant, no? -_-

I really enjoyed the book. As said previously, I must have read it at least ten times. Suzanne Collins wrote this book in a very interesting way. It is first person present tense, as if it was actually being written by the heroine (Katniss Everdeen.) While everything was happening. This is actually probably the only way to write this, as any other way might lead to the story being spoiled. (Unless it was written through the eyes of someone watching these games.)

I’m giving it 5/5 stars. The characters are very distinctive, and this is a book where you can have a hard time forcing yourself to read only one more chapter, as opposed to reading the whole book in one sitting.

Cheers!