JLA Reading Challenge

I have a confession to make. I've been hiding someone very special from all the readers here. (Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I don't have to call you 'non-existent' now)
And that very special person is........

Jennifer L. Armentrout, the extremely awesome and fantastic author of the Covenant Series and Lux Series. Plus a few other books too!

Those two series I mentioned above are just AWESOME I honestly couldn't pick between the two of them, and I do plan on reviewing them all (another fantastic thing is that both series are still in the making (at the same time, crazy right?) and this means that JLA's books are CURRENT pop-culture. This post is 'in the now' people)
As I said I do plan on reviewing these books and posting those reviews which is why I've joined the

Yes the 'JLA Reading Challenge' Hosted by 'Deity Island' who can be found here: Click Me!

This challenge sets out some handy little time-stamps for posting reviews and you can win prizes! Plus it connects you with all the other JLA fans (depending on your favorite series you may or may not count yourself as part of the 'Half Blood Legion')

Now since I can't have written it better myself here is the challenge outlined by the bloggers over at Deity Island:

I CHALLENGE YOU... to (re)read all of JLA's books and post a NEW review/post about it from August 1st-December 31st, 2012. Each month, a new post will go up explaining which book(s) to read and a Linky List will be provided for you to add your review/post. At the end of each month, we will be giving away one of Jen's books to one lucky person who links up their review/post.


Sound pretty fantastic, because face it, I would have re-read all these books anyway. Speaking of here is a lovely list of all JLA's Books (not just the ones on the challenge) and some of their fabulous covers:


Covenant Series:

=

Daimon (Free Prequel) 
Half Blood 
Pure
Deity (Not Released)
Apollyon (Not Released)
Elixir (Novella, Unreleased)


Lux Series:


Shadows (Prequel Released after Obsidian)
Obsidian 
Onyx (Not Released)
Opal (Not Released)


Other Books:


Don't Look Back
Cursed 
Unchained


Now I understand that this post won't always be around so there is a 'Challenge Button' located just under the Hunger Games Countdown. I'm sorry guys. I just can't bring myself to take it down, its just so pretty and something of a memrobilia piece now.  Seeya Later! 

Pandemonium and Delirium Review

So I'm a bit late with this series I know. But hey! A dual review!
Well kind-of, I've just decided to post both my reviews here as they were some of my rare substantial ones and even though they aren't positive they do contain some very good points.

Delirium: 3.5 Stars

I honestly couldn't read this book at some points, I just got so furious! A society without love? I felt like punching whoever began that crazy notion in the face, pardon my strangely-violent reaction. I just felt sick at some points, especially when it came to the parts about obliterated love between parent and child.
Which is why I was glad that (and thank god really) Lena finally came round, at about the half-way point! I mean talk about dragging it out.

Sorry guys I was just so angry at the government in this book, I mean it hard to believe society and the government would be that stupid. Nothing would work without parental love for their children. And that was only part of it!

I suppose the writing may have been good but I didn't notice, I was too preoccupied with my frustration with the society, I had to put this down a few times because I felt so awful. What can I say? I'm a compassionate person and this was society CLEAN-CUT AND COMPASSIONLESS. I mean come on!? Who could stand reading that without wanting to kick something and simultaneously throw-up?
Now I would give this a higher rating because it invoked such feeling in me, but because I didn't like those feelings I'd give it a 3.5
Okay. I'm out.



 Pandemonium: 2 Stars. 

I didn't like it. It was so far from what the last book was. I missed Hanna and I felt like I'd stepped into a different series. I mean, even some consistency would be nice? I mean yes it was still Lena, and yes there was still the Delirium Laws. But there were different rules to be broken and different consequences, not to mention the whole re-shuffling of co-characters.
I mean that is a risky move, one, that in my head did not pay off. I mean just sticking with the one character: Lena, from the first book, a girl whom, to begin with I didn't particularly like.

Then there is that whole romance with the Julian kid, and I say kid because thats how I feel he was portrayed. It was just silly, I didn't feel the chemistry, the room didn't crackle with intensity as you can tell it does in other books. I was just not feeling it. 

But I feel that in this world I personally would have been more of a 'FIGHT FOR MATERNAL LOVE' or 'KINSHIP LOVE' kind of person, you know? I would have loved to explore relationships like, siblings, sibling love can be very strong, heck even relatives. I would have loved to explore the Grace/Lena relationship or you know, given her a sibling that she doesn't want to split from.
Those sorts of bonds can be very serious from a young age, and they're believable, but that 'true love' stuff, that sort of deliberation 'WE WILL BE TOGETHER FOREVER' at seventeen? Really? I just found it highly unlikely, in any scenario. This world would be a whole lot more moving and dramatic if a closer look was taken at maternal and familial love.

The Life Before Her Eyes Review

Let me begin by saying I adore this film. The way its been put together its all just eurghh! I could gush about the artistry for ages. But I won't. Because I've already done so in another technically-observant film review.

Now I will warn you now that there are NO SPOILERS in this essay. And that was unbelievably hard to do, extremely. Because this is the type of film that incorporates one amazing twist and really shocks people.

Oh Hey, I've also just learnt that this film was based upon a book. However I'm a bit hesitant to read it. Just in case I ruin a great movie. (Thats like the opposite of how I usually think when it comes to books and film adaptions)

Here goes the essay:

Film Criticism: The Life Before Her Eyes, Directed by Vadim Perelman

The Life Before Her Eyes is a film filled with deeper meaning, things that seem ordinary are actually clues to the truth, something the viewer only realizes at the end of the film. The film, set in modern day America, begins with a school shooting. The effect is immediate, pulling the viewer into the action of the film. The protagonist and her best friend are trapped in a bathroom, cornered by the shooting student. The audience never see’s what happens at the end of the confrontation as we cut to a future version of Diana (the protagonist) many years later. It continues to be edited this way throughout the movie, cutting between past and present, including the day of the shooting and the days leading up to it, in the future we Diana struggles to deal with the pain of that day, even though we the viewers still do not know what has happened.

Vadim Perelman has put The Life Before Her Eyes together very artistically, running themes through the film flawlessly using script, mis en scene and acting. At the beginning of the film there is a montage of flowers, opening, closing, flourishing and dying. Throughout the film the director continues to contribute to the mis en scene as well as incorporating the films themes of life and death through the placement of flowers at all stages of life in the film. The second main element of the film is water, this is generally referred to through the use of script, sound and mis en scene, the film frequently has the water contributing to a scene, be it the girls swimming in a pool, running past a sprinkler or in one of the most poignant moments in the film, when a main character lies in a pool of water, dying, re-playing the line ‘The heart is the body’s strongest muscle’ along with the flashback memory of that character musing aloud and theorizing that if the human body is mostly water then when someone dies, wouldn’t most of their body go back into the atmosphere. That statement in the film isn’t there to be an interesting scientific theory, it is there to be poetic and its like the icing on the cake, if you will, of all the water-related mis en scene in this film, those repeated lines really tie that film and that moment together nicely. 

The editing in this film is done extremely well, it doesn’t follow your typical hollywood story’s chronological order, this films editing is done in such a complicated manner, but its the way that it has been edited that makes the story. Yes the editing is not simple to explain, but it is done so stylishly that by the end of the film you can appreciate that Vadim Perelman, Laura Kasischke (Writer of the novel, the movie is based on) and Emil Stern (wrote screenplay) aren’t just telling you a story, they are giving you pieces of a puzzle, making you a part of the journey, a tactic that gets the audience emotionally invested in the film. However Perelman doesn’t leave out information in a way that confuses the viewer, through the editing of past and present, the audience understands the question; what happened in the bathroom, to those two best friends during that school shooting. It is the answer, that piece of the puzzle, the final scene that really blows viewers away. That makes an exciting film, an enjoyable film. One that is not only entertaining, but leaves you with a sense of fulfillment, finally understanding all the things the director has shown you throughout the course of the hour. The film does make allowances for those with poor memories, compiling well-edited footage together at the end, displaying all the most important clues from the film. 

The soundtrack and camera-work compliment the film well, giving hard actions like diving into a pool or getting shot a sort of slow graceful look, dragging out the moment so that viewers can fully appreciate and process them. The Life Before Her Eyes has a strong storyline and standout mis en scene that are the defining aspects of the film. Vadim Perelman makes these aspects stand out more by keeping the soundtrack and camera work professional but subtle. The camera work is stylish but the techniques used aren’t uncommon, this would be too much for one person to take in alongside the other prominent film elements. 

The Life Before Her Eyes is a work of art. At first look it does appear that the film is exploring the themes of life and death, but at the same time the film looks at friendship, the focus on this theme actually outweighs the focus on life and death. The acting of the two main characters; Diana and Maureen is wonderful and this film looks at these two very different girls, the friendship they share and how that evolves in the months leading up to the school shooting. Maureen is rather quiet and comes from a good catholic family, she is the responsible caring one who helps Diana through many tough time. Diana on the other hand is rebellious, loud and though outwardly confident, quite insecure on the inside. Perhaps overshadowed by the other themes is abortion, this issue is dealt with and discussed without the viewer realizing it, often it is only after the credits are rolling that people realize just how tied in and prevalent this issue actually was, it isn’t discussed as an actual issue, merely examined. It is used as more of a plot device, a technical clue, to give it away would be to unravel the entire editing work of the entire film, as would many other aspects of the film. Seemingly ordinary parts of ‘present-day-diana’s life are clues or pieces of the film puzzle, that only take shape at the very end.

To be honest I liked this film because I understood it. And to be fair to those who didn’t I have to admit: I cheated. But not on purpose. I got the final piece of the puzzle first, so I did not have all the confusion that viewers who watched from the beginning of the film did. I walked in on the final scene of the movie, the actual audience, after the credits has come up on screen were sitting around open-mouthed asking ‘what just happened’ I was very proud that I could just stand there and explain what happened. But the disappointing thing is I will never experience what they had, an entire hour of believing you know whats going on, and then your whole understanding of the film flipped upside down because of one gigantic red-herring. The thing The Life Before Her Eyes should be commanded for is the fact that despite having only one mystery, one truth, and a multitude of clues, some that are so blatantly obvious they make you wonder if the DVD skipped a scene, The Life Before Her Eyes still manages to ‘blind-side’ all its viewers. The film is made in such a way that you cannot work it out because in the back of your mind, the actual answer to the films question is impossible. Then again, one could suppose that its the viewers fault for assuming that the film is actually asking them a question ‘what happened in the bathroom?’ when all the film is doing, is telling you the story.

By Isobel 

60's: Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

So for today's ppst I'm going back in time a bit, to the 60's, which incidentally, I've been studying in history for this first semester.
My reason for this spur-of-the-moment-time-travel would be the fact that I took a look at my blog today and thought 'wow'.

I couldn't even tell what it was about! So I've decided to re-vamp it a bit. Have it make some actual sense and stick to my idea of actually reviewing books/films and current pop culture I'm into. Except for today. Today I'm actually posting a 'trying' piece of english literature. That is to say I wrote an essay on Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' for my film class and thought 'why not post it here? It is a film review after all'

So here goes:

Alfred Hitcock was born in England. As a teenager he became more interested in films he began to visit the cinema frequently. The first film he directed was ‘Always Tell Your Wife’ a short comedy he but it was when he created ‘The Pleasure Garden’ a crime and romance film, that his career really began. ‘Rear Window’, ‘Strangers On A Train’ and ‘Rich and Strange’ were some of the many suspenseful action thrillers that Hitchcock created in his career. Alfred Hitchcock became famous for his thrilling films and was hence forth nicknamed ‘The Master of Suspense’ In 1960 Hitchcock created Psycho, one of cinema’s most infamous thrillers, made famous by the now iconic ‘Shower Scene’ 

Psycho is a film that really breaks with the classical film conventions, its created expertly by Hitchcock, utilising sound, mise en scene and camera angles. One of the most famous parts of the film psycho would have to be its soundtrack, its ability to set the atmosphere of a scene and its uniqueness to the film is quite extraordinary. We first expirience the effect of the music and its ability to tell a story and add to the plot in one of the earlier scenes; Marion, the protagonist, is packing her bags. As the camera pans away from a close up of the forty thousand dollars music that can only be described as ‘suspicious’ or ‘sneaky’ is played, this tells the audience, without being blatantly obvious, that Marion is planning to steal the money. The music is played once more as Marion is driving away, the music puts us on edge, the atmosphere is one of urgency and the music is played almost like a metaphor to Marion’s thoughts, scattered and conflicted, worrying but persisting with her plan. The soundtrack is utilized further to emphasize Anthony Perkin’s (Norman Bates) acting. While conversing with Marion, Norman begins to become agitated while talking about his mother, this is highlighted by some heightened and tense music, then immediately after some contrasting, softer, more wary music begins to play as Normans reverts to calmly talking about mad people, it really sets the tone of the scene, as if its not Marion sitting in the parlor, but you and you get the feeling that its not a comfortable place to be. Perhaps the most recognizable music of the film is the strings from the murder scene, its intense almost ear-piercing noise always comes as a shock. Hitchcock creates this suspense by, in the moments before the scene, gradually tuning out all background sound so that when the music does arrive, its big, loud and frightening. Hitchcock uses this technique throughout the film, every time Norman Bates attempts murder. Its as though the audience subconsciously recognizes that tune-out of sound and realizes what is about to unfold, raking up the suspense until the screeching of the violins bursts around the corner and breaks the suspense.

Much more subtle, at least to the occasional movie-goers eye, is the use of mise en scene.  In the Bates Motel Parlor scenes there are a number of stuffed birds. At first the initial purpose of the birds seems to be to show the audience how odd Norman is but they hold a deeper meaning. Each get a close up as Marion and Norman enter, the birds are positioned as predators, making those in the parlor seem like prey. The birds cast imposing shadows across the room, giving a creepy sense, which adds to the atmosphere of Marion and Normans conversation, as well as during the scene when Norman is watching her through the peep-hole. There are many other moments of deeper meaning and significance through-out the film. At the end of the murder scene we see Marion’s blood washing away with the water and down the drain. This could be simply interpreted as how easily the evidence was slipping away. But through Hitchcocks editing the drain is given deeper meaning. The camera fades from a views of the bloody water circling the drain, to an image of Marion’s eye, dead and watching, the gurgling drain now a symbol of Marion’s life, spiraling away and finally disappearing. During the murder scene there was a great use of close ups, often of the shower head and Marion’s face, the camera didn’t linger on these shots long and moved in quick succession between them all, giving a sense of urgency to the scene. Together with the violins, the acting of Janet Leigh and just the entire unexpectedness of the plot made this scene one of the most iconic from films today.

It was the murder of Marion, the main character, that broke from many of the classic ‘hollywood’ film story conventions, of that time and of today. It’s an extremely unusual and risky move to kill off the main character so early on in the film. In common story conventions you as the audience expect the main character to make it through to the end and succeed despite all odds. So this change was shocking and refreshing, it gave the movie an edge that really made it unique. As did the black and white film stock, another break from conventional films of the time. In the 1960’s directors were moving into the new medium of coloured footage. Hitchcock purposely decided to make the film in black and white. This decision ultimately enhanced the film, making the Bates House and Motel seem grimmer, even in broad daylight, which would have assisted with the production of the film greatly. They could film in such a way that everything was visible and the buildings did not seem out of place, as they may have if the film was created in colour.

Psycho is a film that is completely balanced, the appropriate mixing of sound, acting, mise en scene, camera, editing, lighting and pure shocks. Not one of these elements could be effective on their own, but Alfred Hitchcock had a way of making all these elements come together, like a perfectly fitted jigsaw. Giving the world a movie that put a tension in their stomachs, had them on the edge of their seat, fearing what would come next but overwhelmed with curiosity, like a true master of suspense.

So hopefully you enjoyed that insight. I actually got a great mark for it, and yeah, I know this is  a really technical take on the film.