Watch Me: Seventh Son, and the awesome queen performance

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I've been intrigued by the story and movie entitled Seventh Son, directed by Sergei Bodrov, back in 2014. Where I first knew about the movie through an interview with Julianne Moore and that it's not her normal role to portray, which was a villain. Something that made me fascinated on how she would do was quite worth it.

HIT ME

Medieval times rang with the stench of high belief in magic and fantasy, where the good and evil had no fine line since they had physical manifestation, especially the evil. Welcome the realm of Seventh Son where being a hunter of evil, a warrior of light, is a real and practically the most dangerous job of all time.

The film focuses on the folklore of "the seventh son of a seventh son", where the seventh son holds a prowess strong enough to be comparable to witches, trolls, and other supernatural monsters of their time. John Gregory, the last Spook, is on a quest to rid the world of the revived witch queen Mother Malkin. His quest brought him to the life of Tom Ward, a teenage herds boy, who has the ability to see visions, the seventh son of the seventh son, and an eager soul to get out of his country life yearning for an adventurous one.

CONE CLUDE

Yep, my purpose to see Julianne Moore to portray the villain, Mother Malkin, was worth every penny (forgive my irony for this statement).

Folklore's and medieval themed fantasy movies are always a good taste for my fiction loving tongue. Complete with dragons, mystical shape shifter's, and the sprinkle of simple olden times life, always stirs a nice soup of imagination for my brain.

The choice for the casting feels like not my cup of tea though, especially the lead roles for Gregory and Tom, although they grow into you as the story goes by. Even the young witch lover for Tom, Alice, was quite a pick. Maybe the re-write of the story, from the original books under author Joseph Delaney, might have to do with the unusual personalities the actors portrayed. Or maybe I'm just looking for a good justification of some of the blandness I find during the course of their dialogues, acting and story.

Either way, it doesn't pull down the good parts of the film, from it's unusual dry humour in between everything and the fierce Julianne Moore witch queen. Yes, this is a blatant fan girl to her portrayal, even the moments that she would show her human side due to the hurt she had experienced (I couldn't guess well if it was the same with the book, since I have a hunch it became that to a certain point for ex-machina reasons in re-writing the story from the book) was superbly fitting to the character she wants to shape the queen into.

The rushed parts and elements of the story was melded well, in comparison to some book to movie ones I've watched, where you could clearly say that there was a missing chunk of progress lacking for the characters growth to come a full circle. The only thing I could say that was forced was the romance for Tom and Alice's part, as they used the density (destiny) excuse for the ultimate reason of their attraction but covered it's traces by a moment where Alice explains it as if it was scientific. Copper metal in friction contact with another but sparks happened due to dust.

Wish that excuse worked in real life. It does but not on the scale where two people has this obvious tension between them.

Last words, this movie was a good roller coaster ride. Maybe reading the books would shed better light with things, and I hope no review somewhere out there from a fan of the book felt completely blasphemed and disappointed for all the missing bits they enjoyed from the book.

P.S. Kit Harrington died early in this film, I didn't know it was him until I realized in his dying moments.

Read Me: Downer's Hatching Magic

Talk about finally finishing a book that you started last year.

Good day to the first post of my 2017 year, I've finally managed to finish a young adults, or probably more accurate as a childrens book, written by Ann Downer entitled Hatching Magic.

HIT ME

Talk about getting yourself cooked up into a good modern day, mixed with some old school stuff from before 15th century (I could just guess exactly when), fantasy adventure about...

A. A Wyvern lost in modern times
B. Some covertly pure but silly magic moments in trying to look for it
C. A young girls summer adventure
D. Did I mention that it's family friendly Wyvern chocolate loving mayhem

Then you've got a classic convert demon, some hidden agenda wizard enemy and a stand alone story of what it's like to properly string a fantasy kids adventure.

CONE CLUDE

I've been in a binge of fluctuating genre picking of my books these days. Ranging from these types of fantasy adventure to a complete biocraphy edition of some political opinion back in Twains era. The fruits arent meant to be made into a salad so I've scrunched up to taste them one by one.

My first sacrifice this year is finishing Hatching Magic. A completely light hearted story about everything stated on the above section.

You've got your typical good wizards, evil / bad ones, plus the always neutral but surprise is actually blood related to elements of the plot specifically to the good wizards. Wink, wink at the end bit of the book.

Everything is an enjoyable chapter, unless you are a cynical kid out to oust every last drop of menage oh things cant be this silly. Which, to my opinion, the flow of events are quite alright, good flow for kids.

The universe though, which could use a bit more flare of characters with pop up personality, is enough to build a good ground. Probably what the book is set out to do. This isnt an advisable read to lay bad hands but enough to lay good hands. You could put up mystical four bright stars in the sky, but its not a highly recommended title.

As stated on the previous paragraph, it seems to be a ground for a good starting universe or series. Much of the side characters, antagonist specifically, has a hinted back story or source story that needs an expanded elaboration.

If you do plan on expanding your range of light hearted books, give this good fruit a try. You might end up like me rooting for that one side character that wanted a good life out of everything that happened in the book, despite its lacking.

This gets a passive aggreasive thumbs up.

Art Thing: fanism towards Leviathan and its art

There was a book series I sort of obsessed, in a degree, over back between the years 2012 and 2013 entitled Leviathan. The series is a sort of historical fiction steampunk book that focuses over a certain "part" of World War I. Which, I think, was pertaining to the Ottoman empire and the likes. Clearly I've little to no clue of the German, Union and Ottoman relationship during that era, excuse me historians. Don't roll on your graves, I'm not worth it.

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There are several highlights for this book that I swear will be biased if I stated them because it's based on my taste of literature or genre alone. However, I do believe the artist for the books illustrations is worth everyones money and time. Here I present one of the "awesome-est" artist for steampunk I've seen, and also admire in the level of putting details through his illustration.

< Keith Thompson >

No image of the person, yet

(thank god, cause I searched and found some random handsome dude...dunno who he was)

You can visit his website here: http://www.keiththompsonart.com/

I've never not given enough praises to any artist who enjoys putting heavy sketchy details into their work, whether if it's just a doodle or for work.

In this case, my admiration goes heavily on the steampunk concepts he made for the book. He's also got a deviantart that I might say is fairly inactive since I think it only features his works from the book. And, since the book series is already done, I guess it's fair enough to assume that it won't be updating anytime.

Below are some of the images I like from the gallery (http://keithwormwood.deviantart.com/).

Leviathan

Peace Treaty

I suggest you browse the gallery more AND his website, or you can buy the Illustrated companion book The Manual of Aeronautics, I think this image is also in the book. I have a copy of the book, given to me by my boyfriend as a christmas gift, I liked it a lot even though I didn't really show it much.

This isn't much of a glorified article putting his works on a pedestal, however I do get inspiration and determination to work just by seeing his art so if I were you I'd start browsing his works and get some good juices there. Or, if not just browse it for fun.

movie list: The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner 2, 2015)

The fad for making movies from books has always been in our culture, humanity in general, since around the first time someone discovered or tried to make a film from a book. So standards aren't much for my taste, yet finally, the first time I had an honest to something opinion of a movie flow or kind of criticism shows up in the second film of the series Maze Runner.

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I've watched the first movie, simply The Maze Runner, repeatedly in a movie cable channel, I've forgotten which one. Personally I liked it, I mean the ending didn't look like an "obvious" open ended one, until of course that one scene that symbolized that its a series in the end credits.

As usual my mother asked me to watch the movies cause she wants to spend some movie time, plus free movies on that day. Lovely perks of the seniors. There were only two movies in the roster, sadly there was no Heneral Luna which is a movie that is locally trending with my friends and majority of the people I know thats got the same taste of entertainment or probably even better than mine. Either a movie about something relationship related "again" and a movie about kids running around trying to survive, or I assume are kids.

Basically watching and getting to know more about the universe of Maze Runners dystopian future made me realize that the second movie, no its not the times I missed those scenes from the beginning that I missed, that I am pretty much confused with some elements that felt "off".

Without knowing anything about the book, basing only from the movie. I was confused about several characters significance, as if their introduction and purpose was "great" yet their time in the movie or even circumstances felt lacking. True, we cannot expect any kind of detail focus as the books can give, but to the extent that I can feel it is not a good sign.

My personal nit-pick are Aris (Jacob Lofland) and Brenda's (Rosa Salazar) significance in the books, obvious by their sudden involvement and roles in the movie.

Dunno how "updated" this picture of him is, still...
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Aris is the character that is the "outcast" in the facility they were brought to prior from the ending of the first movie. He had little time to develop any kind of relationship or kinship to Thomas, the main. But circumstances and a sudden shift of personality from the book tells that Thomas is such a paranoid and curious cat that he was right to trust the information fairly given by Aris as if it was Aris' instinct to tell them. Assuming, he must've done this to all the new comers expecting some kind of rebellious source of energy when ever he shows them around. By instinct maybe, or what ever, Aris shows them. The movie not clearly showing whatever motivation, well besides being paranoid. Whilst compared to the other kids in the facility.

However, I do understand if not much of the kids in the facility would be willing to trade the comfort for something perilous as suspicion of their food and shelter source. Nevertheless, it was something I found lacking in explanation on why. So basically I'm ending Aris' existence as a spur of the moment.

Further information about Aris, researching about the book of course. Aris seems to be a completely important character as he shared a telepathic connection to both Thomas and Teresa, main lead female (?) from the previous movie although we are basing in the books now. Of course another lacking element in the movie.

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Second character nit-pick, Brenda. I shipped Brenda to Thomas the moment she showed her face. Clearly my fan girl side showed, although I did not squeal. Her role in the movie was quite significant, besides being the only other girl Thomas clearly showed interest to. Checking on her, book version, I was correct to ship her to Thomas even though I'm not quite sure how they end up.

Her character, and the actress, portrayed a strong girl. Not just in opinion but in surviving as well. Something that awfully attracted me to her, plus her round eyes. If I compared movie Teresa with movie Brenda in the current movie, they flowed so differently that it even clearly showed that Teresa was finally shifting sides. Although it might be intentional. Meh.

To me it's a matter of taste. The most shocking part for me in the movie was Minho and how...well you'll have to watch the movie for yourself because the only thing I needed to nit-pick were the characters. The flow of the story is the typical dystopian world with an infectious mankind killing virus. What stands out in this story and movie, besides a hand pick of characters some girls would like to fan over, is probably the attempt to reach out to the fan base.

Which by now might be rolling over their beds from sheer disappointment or pride of how the 2 movies has run.