Four-a-hundred!

Blogger tells me this is my 401th post but IT IS A LIE because one of those posts has been a draft forever and I haven't ever published it.

So post number 400 is about...
A MOVIE (what else, really? :P)
I watched Despicable Me with my siblings. I wasn't expecting to like it. But it was actually really sweet. c: The minions were cute, the important things were important, etc. It definitely could have done without the crude humor though. I don't understand why people feel the need for this kind of thing. ANYWAY, all in all I liked it.

Another thing I did today was to make up villains with a couple siblings, color pictures with Judah, etc. I saw Bethany briefly as she drove through my neighborhood. I didn't get a whole lot done, though, because I've been staying up too late and sleeping in too much and so I didn't get up until the morning was gone. But hm.

Uneventful 400th post. -shrug-

Five hundred will have to be something awesome. Five and its multiples are my favorite. :D

Les Miserables

I really liked the movie. It was really intense and gritty, and had some not children appropriate content, but the message was overall hopeful and I think really well executed.

Wow, that was shorter than I thought. Oh well.

Afterwards, Mom, Dad, and Josh were all craving STEAK. So we went to a steakhouse. .__.

I managed to find a couple things that the only meat in them was bacon (I am a cheater vegetarian).

However, I found upon eating this that I DON'T ACTUALLY LOVE BACON AS MUCH AS I THOUGHT which is kind of nice because it's not the healthiest thing in the world. (Don't worry, Emma, if you make bacon I will still eat it with you as long as it's the nice crunchy strip kind. :D and I like those fake bacon soy pellets for salads. So.)

But man, that potato soup was gooooood. Both the stuff from the steakhouse and the stuff from Central Market beforehand which I only had a little bit of because it was Mom and Dad's, and Dad and Josh had sushi, and I had a cup of fruit which Mom ate out of, and I had a chai latte that Dad and Josh tried and it was sharing all around.

IT WAS A GOOD DAY.

The Hobbit

POSSIBLY SPOILERS MAYBE

I saw the Hobbit a few days ago. It was nice. The cinematography style seemed to carry from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I liked. Martin Freeman played a good Bilbo. I liked that. One of my favorite lines was Gandalf saying something like "I am seeking the company of the only person here with any sense--myself." I liked how, in the battles, the environment came into play; however, my dad said it was kind of unrealistic with no good guys getting wounded. I hadn't noticed. Whoops.

However, the thing annoying me about the film is:

I wanted to put his head on some famous statue but it is hard to find one decently clothed. Blah.

Okay, I admit, Kili was attractive. BUT NOT IN A DWARFY WAY.
Come on, are they scared that without some man candy, they will lose their girl audience?
I'm sure I can speak for more than just me in saying that I was going to be seeing the movie regardless of the characters' attractive-ness or lack of it.

-S I G H-

At first, upon seeing promotional pictures, I thought it was funny. Now I'm just kind of disappointed in whoever made this happen.

Batman Begins

When Bethany and I went to see Spiderman recently, we chose that over The Dark Knight Rises (even though she wanted to see both) because I knew pretty much nothing about Batman. However, she let me borrow both Spiderman 2 and Batman Begins, which her family owns.

I didn't have anything to say about Spiderman 2, really, which is why there was no blog. I was in the middle of packing for Ohio and sewing my brother a 3DS case.

Batman was pretty good. I wouldn't call it amazing like some people (blimeycow) but in terms of quality, it was pretty good, I guess.

The female lead wasn't helpless. (She was also played by Katie Holmes who I use as a play-by for Erica Windsburg... so I kept imagining Rachel as Whirlwind. XD)
I also liked that there wasn't a perfectly wrapped up romance.

There wasn't just one plain old villain throughout the whole thing, which was nice.

The whole story was a little dark, not exactly creepy, but just kind of serious. Not goofy or full of jokes.

I think the thing that I thought about most after the movie was over was the 'main point line' thing that was said twice.

"It's not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you."

Obviously, this was the main point they wanted to drive home as a 'moral' if any, so I was thinking about how it lines up with Scripture. It reminded me a lot of the spot in James 2 where James is saying that faith without works is dead.
What we do does matter. It matters a lot.
And to people, it may define us. After all, men look at the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). But there's more to that verse. The second part says "But the LORD looks at the heart."
Who you are underneath does matter. Maybe if you think God doesn't exist or isn't important, you won't realize this. But just as faith without works is dead, works without faith don't really matter. You can't do your way into being saved. All the doing on that side of the equation was Jesus.
When we have faith in what Jesus did already, that is when we are saved. And it should naturally lead into us doing good ourselves. (If it doesn't, as James pointed out, there's something wrong.)

So I guess my conclusion is: What you do is what defines you to the people around you. And it can be very significant in a way. But as a Christian, what defines you to God is the fact that Jesus has wiped your slate clean. We are made pure enough to enter His presence and be His sons and daughters. And that doesn't depend on what we have done.

SPOILERS Where I mostly compare the new Spiderman to the old one...

SPOILERS LOL STOP READING IF YOU DON'T LIKE THEM 

I'VE WARNED YOU

REALLY, STOP

IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS DON'T READ

LAST CHANCE

OKAY WELL DON'T BLAME ME C:

The plot had a similar structure to the old movie with some paralells. I can't say how it relates to the comics, as I've never read them.

Peter's character was all over the place. Kind of understandable, with all the stuff he's going through. New powers, losing his uncle, getting a girlfriend, being bullied, feeling cool, feeling attacked, feeling lonely, betrayed, etc. I have to admit I prefer the geeky Peter from the first movie a bit more.

 I also felt like his photography had less to do with it here and was more of a throw-in that wasn't all that necessary to the plot at all. I don't know how it was in the comics.

I felt like Uncle Ben and Aunt May fought too much. I was under the impression that they were a gentle but firm elderly couple. Then again, maybe it's just the old movie talking.

This movie felt less wise than the old one. Uncle Ben talked about the same topics, but they barely came to conclusion or felt resonant because Peter didn't want to hear it. I know he didn't want to hear it in the old one either, but he at least let Uncle Ben speak his piece and didn't counter with a "if it was so important then..."
The lines were written to sound heroic, but they lacked a depth of meaning.

The lead's romantic relationship seemed to come a lot easier than in the other movie, but then again, in the other movie, Peter wasn't already attractive and tall and stuff. :P He was a geek, someone practically invisible to Mary Jane. Gwen was more reachable and Peter wasn't a nobody, I guess.

Speaking of romance, it bothered me that after making this promise to Gwen's father, Peter decided to go ahead and pursue Gwen, rather than honor her father's wishes to keep his daughter safe. "But looooooooooooooooove is more important than anything~!" the romantics protest.
I disagree. A choice to pursue a relationship with someone, knowing that it would put them in danger, isn't real love. It's infatuation. It's feelings. The loving choice would have been to keep a distance, to keep her safe. To me, that would have actually been a more satisfying ending. Everyone doesn't have to be happy in the end. And that line about the best kind of promises being the ones you can't keep was pretty much the dumbest thing in the whole movie, if you ask me.
Edit: One more thing that Bethany pointed out.  Gwen's father died and she seemed more concerned about Peter not hanging out with her anymore. And instead of honoring his last concerns, they'll "listen to their hearts" and who knows what trouble that will cause. D:
I don't know how the comics went, but I preferred the first Spiderman movie's sad ending where Peter made the choice to keep the girl at a distance to keep her safe.

There was a bit more crudeness than I like. A girl loses her shirt,  in a couple instances there was mention of or hits to guys in the sensitive area... Gwen blames PMS for her moodiness (though I have to admit I found that part funny, being a girl. I just don't usually appreciate it being part of something like a movie). There was a bit of language: Peter says mother-something at one point (but the something isn't the word usually used there, thank goodness), and there are several uses of "oh my god." There might be some others, but my brain usually skips over and I forget them. Usually, though, the language wasn't just thrown around. It was at least somewhat understandable for the intense situations.


I know I've been complaining a lot (guess I'm critcal, haha! Can't watch something without picking it apart, eh?). So I should talk about the parts I liked.

I appreciate the fact that Curt Connors initially had the same response as Peter's dad-- no, they would not do human testing so soon. But then, when finding that he'd be kicked out, his desire to have his own arm back took over. It was kind of sad, because I thought he was a cool guy.
When he realized what was going wrong, he immediately went to find the one guy to warn him, which I thought was very good of him, but the lizard took over and his will was compromised, I guess. Despite all that, he was a good guy in the beginning and the end, and I guess that's what counts.

I liked how Peter took off his mask and let the kid he saved wear it to inspire and comfort him. That was really great.
I really, really liked how the kid's dad in turn mobilized all these people who could have been evacuating for their own safety, to help Spiderman when he was in need. He really couldn't have done it on his own, which is interesting, because it seems that usually in superhero movies, the hero pushes through and maybe some other minor characters help, but it's usually not a nameless guy who had one or two previous lines.

Edit: I also really appreciated how that mean kid, Flash, ended up becoming Peter's friend. Despite how they didn't get along, he let Peter knock him around a bit and apologized. He must have lost someone close to him too. I really, really liked that. It wasn't some revolutionary change, but it was a change for the better. It wasn't even because of the influence of the main character.
Wow. XD Just. The bully befriending the main character (and not for an ulterior motive). For some reason, that's just lovely.

Come to think of it, that was in the old Spiderman too. The citizens chipping in. I like that. I like it a lot.

Um, I think that is all the thoughts I had on it. It wasn't my favorite (man, it takes a lot for movies to impress me, I guess), but it sure wasn't terrible.

The fact that I went to see it with one of my best friends, Bethany, an awesomesauce superhero fan, made it a great experience. And we went to H-E-B afterwards and bought miso. c:

She also lent me Batman begins and Spiderman 2, so I'll be watching those soon enough.

Now all that remains is for me and Emma to go see a movie (because Peggy and I went together to see the Hunger Games back in... was it March?).

I'll try to make this quick

I need to sleep. But today was nice. I slept in, sorted drawers, and watched the Fiddler on the Roof. I appreciated it a lot more than I did in my younger days the time I kind-of saw it.
Why are the older or classic musicals always the best?
I don't know, but I love them.
There were many things I appreciated about the film, but one thing that I really like is how we follow the main character's thoughts about everything. The coolest part is that you can hardly tell his thoughts from his prayers. He thinks things through by talking to God about them! I found that really awesome.
I liked how everyone froze while he thought. It was quite dramatic. I liked how everything wasn't picture perfect, and there was no wonderful all-loose-ends-tied happy ending. It felt very real.
I liked how the camera lingered on scenery and pauses. The timing felt off compared to films these days, but it was a pleasant change. Often, we fear losing the attention span of the audience, so everything is crammed with dialogue and stuff.

And of course, the singing and dancing. It looked so fun. They were all really poor, but they didn't seem to mind too much. Sure, the main guy (sorry, I'm terrible with names, especially unfamiliar ones) dreamed about being rich, but they all got by. They all had enough.

It was interesting to see the daughters leave one by one, the first one begging for permission, the next one asking not for permission but for blessing, and finally the third begging for at least acceptance. It was heartbreaking, but I could understand how the father was torn. Here was his daughter, but here was his faith. "There is no other hand," and while in the end he blessed them, he could not agree with her choice. It was a blurry line, more like real life than the black and white right and wrong we like to have in our movies and books.

I just basically liked the whole thing.

Also, I used fabric paint to put TARDISes on a pajama shirt of mine, and managed to do something for the drawing challenge that wasn't just a thirty second scribble. So without further ado~

Day 26. Something you don't like.

And with that, I bid you good night.

My thoughts on The Hunger Games

So yes, I was one of the millions of teenagers seeing the Hunger games last week.

I didn't bother to go to the midnight premiere, instead I went early Saturday morning, when tickets were only six dollars instead of 7.25 or 10 something, and I went with my friend Peggy.

The main thing that turned me off from the books was the fact that they were written in first person. Katniss isn't an extremely interesting person--her thoughts are dry and typical, and the fact that the narration obviously stops if she dies means you already know she's going to [LE POINTLESS SPOILER ALERT] win.

I felt like the idea had potential but was badly executed. So I was looking forward to the movie. It's kind of hard to do a movie in first person, and as I expected, all the narrative problems were cured in the movie.

In the books, I felt like Collins was being too nice to Katniss--everything just happened to go in a good direction for her and it had nothing to do with her own ability. I still kind of felt that in the movie, but not as much. However, I still kind of felt like everyone liked her too much.

I felt like I understood more of the reasoning behind others' actions in the movie (once again, because it's not just Katniss and her thoughts).

Even though I still find Katniss a pretty boring person, seeing her from the outside made me realize why she's the hero of the story--not because she's anything fantastic, but she's the spark to the eventual flame that [LE ACTUAL SPOILER ALERT] burns away the corrupt Capitol government. One girl on fire isn't anything noteworthy, but once other things catch, the blaze can be unstoppable.

In conclusion, the movie is violent and in that way concerning except for the fact that the characters are fictional. It might serve as a warning to what we might become if we continue to consider others' pain as "entertainment." While the movie is okay as far as production and stuff goes (I guess, I'm not an expert or anything), I don't think it's going onto my list of favorites.