Spring Break Distractions, part three

Hello All,

So...I just saw Amanda Seyfreid's and Gary Oldman's new movie, "Red Riding Hood" and when I tell you that it is WORSE than "Twilight" -trust me, because it is!
And what makes me so mad is that it had SUCH potential. I mean, come on, you're taking from an OLD story, and you have the ability to change it in any way possible, and you choose that?!?
First of all, don't make the adults so obviously despicable. We get it, the teens are the heroes. And why does there have to be a love triangle? Why does this ONE GIRL have to be so irresistible that everyone is obsessed with her? Even a freaking feral dog?!
I will give the writer credit for this, the Wolf was NOT who I expected it to be, so kudos on creativity. But I gotta say -really? REALLY? I mean, those lines were SOO sexual -you just CAN'T do that! It's creepy! About twenty minutes into the film, I thought of another interesting possibility that would make a good Wolf to be obsessed with the main character, Valerie, and the film did suggest that it could be going this way, but then it turned around and turned terrible and just plain sketchy. I won't give away who the Wolf is, but just know that you will NOT be happy about it.
The writing and dialogue was mediocre, at best, and a wider audience could have been reached -and freaked out- with some more graphic detail when considering those killed in the film. The audience could barely see them, and I truly believe that we would have been more scared or more psychologically freaked out if we could have seen these injuries.
There were so many cliches throughout the film that it was laughable, and some of the set pieces were a little too obviously fake. What was with the pointy-branched trees? Every single tree had branches that were all the same length with a big point at the end, no leaves or other branches on them. I was just..."whaaaa?"

After the movie, my best friend and I walked, talking about how terrible we thought it was, and we decided we should rewrite it the way it should be. This probably won't happen, because we are both busy with school, but if you do read this blog, you may be seeing some excerpts from a Red Riding Hood-inspired story up here every once in a while.

Thank you for reading,
Amy Liz

Spring Break Distractions, 2am Edition

Hello again,

So it's pretty late tonight, and I can't really get to sleep, so I'm chattin' with some people online, and listening to music (Avril Lavigne's new cd, Goodbye Lullaby -so far, so good) and reading some random fanfics.

Yes, I just said "fan fiction." I know I've done such a "great" job of hiding it, but I'm a geek. So anyway, I'm tired, and I'm basically rambling right now, so I thought I'd give out credits to my favorite fan fiction story, talk about my recent re-obsession with one of my favorite video games, and maybe talk about the books I plan of reading at some point this year.

First off, there's my favorite story about my favorite anime, Princess Tutu.
For the few people who do read this and don't know what Princess Tutu is, it's a twisted version of Swan Lake, the ballet, with a little duck that transforms into a girl and a "super hero" who's trying to save her crush, a fairytale prince, from an evil Raven that's trying to take over the town and kill the prince. It's amazing and adorable and it's storytelling at it's best. Check it out.
Anyway, the end of the show leaves faithful fans very unsatisfied concerning the relationship between the main character, Duck (Ahiru, if you're more into the Japanese version, despite ADV's fantastic dubbing) and the male lead, Fakir (not the prince). This fan fiction, This Pendent Heart: A Princess Tutu Fan-made Light Novel, by LunaSphere and Mangaka-chan is a continuation of the story from where the show left off, and it's incredibly well written and the characters are very true to their personalities from the show, and you really get the feeling that this could be an actual continuation of the show.
I love it, and I needed to gush about it.

After Kingdom Hearts, one of my favorite video games for the PlayStation 2 is Sly Cooper and it's respective sequels. Over break, I made it my mission to play the second game, Sly 2: Band of Thieves again, and it's a little "all consuming", if I'm just sitting there with nothing else to do all day. It's a huge, interactive world, and you can play as one of three characters, play out different missions and fight bosses and creepy cops and stuff...it's awesome. I like the second game a lot more than the first, but I think that's only because the first one was harder, and the third one was just a really bad story line, so I think Sly 2 is a good balance of easy play and good story.

Finally, I'll leave you with my book list for now until the end of the semester:
Red Riding Hood (based on the movie with Amanda Seyfreid)
Good Omens, by Neil Gaimon
Devil's Kiss, by Sarwat Chadda

Okay, I think that's it for tonight. I'm going to bed.
Thanks for reading,
Amy Liz