Time Bandits

A fun movie for the whole family. The story of a group of little people who go around trying to steal great things from around time. I remember noting that the 'great creator' as well as the bandits didn't have a sense of time from where they came because of how the movie is structured. The bandits would take holes from around time to travel around and these holes only exist because the world was made in great haste. Although the holes aren't repaired for seemingly thousands of years until now (someone's job that the bandits strongly hinted to). So it seems there is another unit of time from where the bandits come from. This is just my speculation on the science of this comedy. The entire film ended up being a test from the 'great creator' so that he would have his creations the ability of free will. That evil had to be invented for free will to exist. The only thing I did not like is how the movie ended off, with the kids without his parents. I want to know more about that.

The Hobbit

I remember being young and watching the Hobbit cartoon. Nothing that I remember of the hobbit is similar to what I just read. I simply couldn't put it down. JR Tolken has a smooth way of translating words into a coherent narrative that kept me glued to the book. Through the adventures of Bilbo Bagins, a nobody from an average town, he goes through an adventure throughout middle-earth in search of great adventure. Of course I don't think Bilbo knew what he was looking for or going after but the things he found along there I am sure he wouldn't trade for anything. Its kind of interesting knowing the future of Bilbo through the Lord of the Rings and then reflecting on his world in the Hobbit, which of course happened first. For example, your not supposed to know how powerful the ring is, how it came into existence from Gollum or anything until the first book/movie. Although even from the Hobbit you can see the Rings effects and how its almost like a drug, keeping Gollum barely alive to helps its own existence. ei: a drug would vanish from the earth without anyone to use it. In the story of the Hobbit though Bilbo doesn't seem to develop addictive personality traits to the ring yet and it becomes an in-expendable tool among his journey to conquer the dragon.

Audition

Audition follows traditional J-horror in terms of it's style. The movie starts out slow, you learn about the characters, grow attached to them, and while you forgot your in a horror movie, it hits you all at once leaving you wondering what just happened. This is the fun of J-Horrors. Although I must admit I became quiet squeemish during the movie and had to walk away a few times. The character doesnt get the choice to take his own life like traditional Japanese culture. The character is left to the hands of the antagonist which in this case was the 'girlfriend'. I found Audition had a sense of irony to it also as the main character faked an audition to force himself to meet someone for his own advantage. Something about this seems wrong and somewhat justifies the end means.

Interview with a vampire

The interview with a vampire I feel like falls along the lines of the traditional, now modern, vampire scene. Vampires are not Transylvanian and scour the night for blood but rather romanticize the living dead. Movies today, even movies such as Twilight, are vampire romances that really took vampires a different direction than zombies. It seems zombies got scarier while vampires got romancier, and you will never see a zombie to zombie romance. Through the interview itself you are able to see the through the vampire's eyes. Even at the age of five she never really has a chance to live life. I kept thinking back to the hit TV series "Dexter" and how the boy must grow up in a world learning to fake emotion to get by. In a similar tone vampires grow up not knowing how to love. I watched "Thirst" first and thought about how this movie juxtaposed vampires thirst for love and blood being one and how you cant have one without the other trying to dominate. Vampires do not just thirst for blood but for many things such as information, acceptance, love and inner-peace which they cannot have.

Thirst

Thirst was a movie that held me in suspense the whole way through. While watching the movie I took note of the director's style of the movie. He enjoyed leaving the audience in the 'final suspence' cliffhanger that many horror movie genres tend to do. Usually at an end of a horror you are left with the protagonist at great loss or met with eternal insanity and as an audience usually left unsatisfied. Several times when watching thirst I felt this way, that the movie were to end but continues to go on in a different light.

Analyzing the movie I want to say that it is split into three sections: The realization, the husband and the rebirth. Throughout these three sections I am completely appalled and grossed out by the true nature of vampirism. It's not so much the blood that makes this movie unpleasant but the way they go about it. (Twilight cant even compare as a vampire series) Seeing vampires drink blood from a cut wrist wound is just disgusting, as well as the many broken petruding bones as well as neck snaps and squirting blood. Cringing only begins to explain the true nature of real-world vampires.

There were several times I found myself rewinding just to figure out what happened. I don't like how the director mixes hallucinations brought on by guilt with many reality elements. I thought that the movie would take a turn at this point and the two wold dwell on the horrible natures they have committed. This moment did soon past and they no longer saw the husband again. Ironically enough I pushed aside the fact that the mother of the family unit was still in fact alive. I combined the movements she was making with the hallucinations of the husband and assumed they were both dead. As an audience we needed more time to process the paralysis of the mother as well as the death of the husband.

Zombie Island

Zombie Island is a story created on a blog. Throughout the reading I keep speculating on how thrilling it would be to keep up with a weekly blog and wait for each section. The true experience of this book format would be to have a story in your life for the next 8 months or so and you would always have something to look forward to. Although I came in much later and was able to read the majority of the book in a week. Even though I am reading old posts I also now have the opportunity to read people's responses and thoughts on each chapter. You can actually see the author taking advice from its readers as the story progresses. A few holes emerged and questions unanswered so the author decided to add 'Easter eggs' in the replies. Not that they are really hidden gems, but I found out from my fellow classmates that not many others read the posts afterwards.

Not all books do this but I'm glad Zombie Island did; creating two simultaneous stories. The undead Gary zombie and the team seeking the AIDS drugs. It's interesting to have two simultaneous stories at one time, you see the destructed world from the opposite point of views. The stories do eventually merge together and when they did I found myself asking 'did the stories merge?' and I was thrilled. I did have a major issue with the book though and this was not having an explanation of how the zombies spread. Zombies eat humans for food, but they don't eat other zombies? If a zombie eats a human how do people EVER get a chance to be a zombie? I also remember reading that zombie-ness wasn't a spreadable disease meaning that zombies were almost like a psychological disorder. I had to block these things out of my mind while reading this book in order to enjoy it. Not that the book defies normal zombie convention, you can make zombies however you want, but there wasn't a cohesive back story tot he zombies and how they really started. A good story but I wouldn't bookshelf it. The fact it spawned from an internet blog though really does surprise me still.

Let the Right One In

The premise of this movie is quiet interesting. It follows a 12 year old boy coming of age when a kid-killer is on the loose. Of course time goes on and people must combat their everyday struggles that face them; for the kid this is courage to stand up for himself. When he meets Eli he is intrigued by her and she tells him to stand up for himself. Only after brutally mutilating the bullies ear does he feel great for what he has done. Eli is proud. Oscar finds out she is a vampire and must kill for blood. She senses that Eli wants to kill too but for revenge, all the wrong reasons. The story concludes when Oscar is confronted by a friend of the bully, possibly brother or relative, and he threatens to pay for what he has done with Oscars life. While he is practically drowning him Eli comes back and helps him win the unwin-able battle.

I feel that I have seen this movie many times before. It seems to follow a standard story-line of the underdog story of a protagonist who can't seem to get with society. My explanation is vague of course but this seems to be the criteria of a underdog story. As for the vampuric aspects, there are two stories going on, the murders from the vampires and the murders that Oscar is following of the kids his age. It is also ironic that the bully he stands up to is related in some way to the murderer of the kids; making him a direct target. I feel this is almost a required storyline for a movie like this, the protagonist must have confrontation with what he is tracking but the way they connected him with the murderer, defending himself from a bully, was quiet fascinating. You can see just how small of a town this place actually is.

The movie is a recent film, in 2008, and has a completely different take on vampires than I've seen so far. Today's vampires arn't Pennsylvanian nor bat-like, but more of everyday people that live among us. Eli shares this quality of living among average people but she, and her father, live in fear of the curse that they have. That they will hurt the people around them. I think this movie was reflecting on the fear of humans living among cursed or demon-like people, that anyone can live among them that can bring them down into a personal hell. The fear of murderers, on any sense, is large among my age groups so this is understandable why the director chose vampires as the conscious entity to live among society. Otherwise Eli and her father would be not accepted by the audience if they were just murderers that liked to drink blood! Haha