Category Archives: Anika Goes to the Movies

Anika Goes to the Movies: The Maze Runner

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I want to make something abundantly clear with this post. I don’t review books. Unless some day in the distant future I stop writing completely and have only an interest in telling people what I think about the books I currently happen to be reading, I will not ever review books. Too much drama. Too many ways to hurt feelings. Too much risk of upsetting people to whom I am connected in the book world. So, no.

But I like movies, remember. And every now and again, a movie whose book source material I haven’t read yet, may come to the big screen, and I will be enticed to see said film despite not having read the book. And then I will review it. But remember, I haven’t read this book (yet. It’s sitting on my bedside table waiting for me to finish reviewing the movie.) Conclusion: Everything in here is opinion on the movie ONLY. I have nothing else to compare it to at this time. Therefore there will be none of the: they left this out, they did this different, that’s not how I pictured so and so. I hope no one finds that disappointing.

So here goes:

Quick rating: 3.75/5 stars- I may still have goosebumps. Holy adrenalin, Batman!!

OK, so spoilers.

Lots of spoilers!!!

THERE ARE SO MANY SPOILERS!!!

Those surprised to find spoilers in the following post should consider purchasing an oceanfront time-share in Kingman, Arizona.

People die! Ok, got that one off my chest early. Seriously, so many people die in this movie and just when you think you can take a deep breath and maybe be done with the whole people dying thing, more people die!!

The movie starts off with a young man vomiting violently as he rises in a larger elevator like cage, while seizure inducing flashes from the lights on the walls outside wiz past. They find ways to make you jump even before the cage stops moving. All the bells and whistles should be going off in the viewers head. They are making you jump now at innocuous things, so they can really get you with bigger tuff later. If you have seen the trailer you understand the basic premise. Kids, all boys, show up in a relatively open space (the Glade), surrounded by huge freaking walls, with no personal memories except their first names (assuming of course that those names weren’t memory implants as well by whatever conglomerate did this to them). Beyond the walls is the maze. Also the Grievers. What are grievers? Horrific biomechanical spider things that sting you with venom that makes you totally crazy. No biggie.

In fact, one of the first deaths we encounter is a young man, one of the “runners” (guys that run through the maze each day trying to find a way out),  who is stung by a griever. He tries to kill the main character, name of Thomas by the way. As a result the rest of the gladers, or the tribe as I came to think of them, in a very Lord of the Flies moment, force the stung crazy dude into the maze as the giant doorways are closing for the night. And no one survives a night in the maze.

Except Thomas, of course. Who the very next day darts out into the maze just as the doors are closing to help the injured leader, Alby, and the captain of the runners, Minho. While out there he manages to kill one of the grievers between a set of closing walls. He and Minho and Alby make it back to camp the next morning to the shock of all. And then things really get crazy!

A girl, the first ever to be sent to join the tribe of boys, arrives soon after with a note in her hand that reads, “She is the last one, ever.” Dun, dun, dah!! Yeah, needless to say that after all this is there is so much running and trying to puzzle out cryptic clues and grievers in all the wrong places and people dying left and right. . . *pant, pant, pant* . . . you just feel a little exhausted.

Confession: I am a crier. Bambie’s mom dies, I’m a wreck. Beautiful love story comes to a dramatic happy ending, blubber monster. Wash gets harpooned through the chest, “No! No, they can’t. It’s not true!” *sob, sob, sob*

Thus, when I tell you that I was so adrenaline charged and frazzled by the end of this movie that I couldn’t cry when Chuck died, that should tell you something. Seriously, little butter-ball kid who becomes Thomas’s friend, really cares about him and believes in him, who manages to survive the break-neck run through the maze to the doorway out, gets the “key,” makes it to the very end, and then takes a bullet to save Thomas, and I couldn’t even tear up a little. I was also a bit miffed that Galley, played by Will Poulter of Voyage of the Dawn Treader fame, got snuffed out as well. I was really please to see Poulter return to the big screen and they killed off his character. Not cool!

I don’t think I stopped gripping the arm rests the whole time I sat there. But then I am a weenie. *shrug*

Maybe that’s why it doesn’t quiet get a 4 star review. There was just so much. So many unknowns, so much intensity, so many characters, and so many of them die!! You don’t feel sad at the end, though. You just feel like you have to figure out what the heck is really going on. The grim scene of those who were running the maze all shot dead, and the supposedly “final” message from the chancellor of WCKD, or the World Crisis Kill-order Directive (or department I can’t remember which) are equally disturbing. More so since the chancellor was not actually dead. Which leaves you wondering, how many of their own people did they actually sacrifice to create that scene of horror for these poor kids to wander into? Seriously, what the heck is going on?!

I’m glad the second movie is underway, and I can’t say if I will read the Scorch Trials book first or not. That will all depend on how reading the Maze Runner goes. But if I had to wait for longer than a year or so to find out what happens next, I could conceivably lose my mind.

In a completely different vein, the effects were awesome!!! The maze and the grievers were so well done. There were times you thought you could touch them, and the way the shifting of the maze was depicted, I kind of bought that someone fast enough could outrun it. Hence needing the fastest kids to be runners.

On the whole, this movie was wicked fun(see what I did there?). Catch it in the theaters if you can and haven’t already. It’s just super intense and I’m not sure it’s one I want to relive in my home on DVD. It is certainly not for audiences under 13 at all, and even 13-16 would have to be a judgement call from parents.

Happy viewing until next time, when Anika Goes to the Movies:The Good Lie.

Anika Goes to the Movies: Belle

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So I want to back up a bit since I didn’t get this website off the ground as soon as I wanted, and there have been some awesome movies this summer: Words and Pictures, Captain America:The Winter Soldier, How to Train Your Dragon 2, America:Imagine a World Without Her, The Hundred Foot Journey. And I think the one that touched me the most was Belle. So despite it already being out on DVD, I’m writing about it.

Quick rating: 4/5 stars, and I preordered the Blu-ray.

Ok, so SPOILERS!!

No, seriously SPOILERS!!!

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS POST!!!!

If you continue reading and are shocked to find spoilers then you need to leave the internet. No really, please leave, you’re upsetting the other guests.

I loved this movie for what it was: a beautiful dramatization of historical figures and events. Also a great love story. I’m not looking to learn history from a movie. Almost ever. But I do like films that do the period they are couched in well, and that make you eager to go seek out the truth about the people and places you have just seen. I won’t go into what’s real v. what’s not here. I don’t really think that’s needful because the movie was just delightful.

The character of Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsey is immediately endearing. Seeing the poverty and uncertainty she comes from makes us long to help. Seeing the kindness of her father in not only acknowledging her, but seeing to it that she is taken care of, makes us like her more. She is more worth the loving, because he has bestowed worth on her. We love her more, because we love him for loving her. It’s a vicious love cycle, and it starts the movie off brilliantly. Moreover, she handles the indignity of having her skin color being a deciding factor of whether she is to stay in the high society her father wished to place her with an endearing grace. She could be rebellious and surly, refuse to stay. She could beg to leave with her father, and who knows, in real life she may have done those things. But in the film she is composed with a calm demeanor beyond her years. And the little actress that plays her, Lauren Julien-Box, is just scrumptious. All in all the beginning makes you happy that you spent inordinate amounts of money to sit in a dark room full of strangers, and you settle in to see what will happen next.

The relationship between Dido and her cousin Elizabeth Murray is a treat to watch as well. Elizabeth is dumb. Really dumb. Ok, mostly sheltered and naive, but still it’s hard not to notice what a dingbat she is compared to Dido. It is, however, easy not to hold it against her because of her sweetness, her genuine affection for her cousin, and her pretty face. Over and over again, like when Elizabeth is to “come out” into society and Dido is not because it is believed that no suitable marriage offer would ever be made to a black girl despite her wealth and status, we see Elizabeth genuinely distressed on behalf of her cousin. She expresses deep sorrow at being privileged in a way that her cousin is not. And yet, there is a very real tension that builds between the two that makes the relationship believable. All sisters know what I am talking about: the little jealousies, the unintended slights, the day to day disagreements that eventually become fighting words. The fight between them is viscerally satisfying because it makes their sisterhood real. Not to mention the “oh snap” worthy comebacks. And like all soul sisters they make up and move on together in time.

The romantic storyline is tangled up with the socio-political storyline of the slave ship Zong, whose legal battle is being overseen by Dido’s guardian Lord Mansfield. We understand early on that should the case not go well it will reflect in the relationship between Dido and aspiring young lawyer John Davinier. The juxtaposed pair of Dido and John is just great. They are wrong for each other on so many levels. Societally she is both his superior and his inferior. They both end up engaged to other people. They are both stubborn and passionate. And of course, they got off on the wrong foot. So it is super satisfying in the end when they, shock, attain Lord Mansfield’s permission to wed in the glowing wake of the legal outcome for which they were both longing.

Though there is much that is simply lovely about the film, it doesn’t spare you the unpleasantness that attends the time and the relationships either. The drama and gruesome reality of the merchant ship Zong and the people murdered for profit at sea, the assaulting/accosting (not really sure how to characterize it) of Dido by her soon-to-be-brother-in-law James Ashford, and Dido’s struggle to live comfortably in her own skin while facing the societal norms of white England make for poignant drama.

If there was a failing, I would liked to have seen the relationship between Dido and Lady Mansfield developed a little more. Of course, it’s possible that as an English lady of the early 1800’s she was rather aloof and full of her own concerns as many were. There may not have been much to build on there. Regardless I love seeing Emily Watson on screen.

As I said, I liked it very much. I bought it with all haste. I may go watch it now.

Regards until next time, when Anika Goes to the Movies: The Maze Runner

Anika Goes to the Movies: An introduction

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I like movies. I particularly like the theater going experience. And despite having been a theater manager for a while, and thus retaining some post-traumatic stress associated with the smell of movie popcorn, I still prefer to see a good movie on the big screen. The emphasis on “good.” Just maybe not the way one might think.

The more I see of what Hollywood is offering up the more I feel like, “meh.” Especially this time of year when the posters on the cinema walls are full of blood and gore and fear. It’s not that I’m a total Puritan. I don’t feel indignation that there would be films with graphic content in the world. Mostly, they just make me roll my eyes, as they tend to be a filler for things like plot and character development. I did my stint of graphic content in late high school and college thinking that I was being rebellious and worldly. It just holds no sway for me anymore. Moreover, having lived a portion of my life where I viewed that kind of stuff, and contrasting it to the content I prefer now, I have no desire to go back. It wasn’t all that fun. The thrills were cheap, when the creepiness or the salaciousness lasted it made the whole world feel like a dark, scary place, and I was never a better person for having seen what I saw. So when I say I like good movies, I don’t just mean well made movies. I mean film that brings goodness into the world. That doesn’t mean it’s all flowers and sunshine around here. Titles like The Book Thief, Amazing Grace, and The Monuments Men come to mind. Good movies. Good messages. Sometimes grim or sad or just a little tough to watch. But still worthwhile. I also like light, fun, and funny as long as it isn’t stupid. And I enjoy a good Kung Fu flick or series of awesome explosions as much as the average American. So you could call my tastes eclectic with a few specific exclusions, I guess.

I tell you this because, as I said in the beginning, I like movies. And so from time to time the post title will read, “Anika Goes to the Movies: Title Here.” There may be spoilers, there may be contempt or praise for the creative choices made, but there will never be anything with graphic language, sexuality, or gore. I’m not a professional film critic. *sigh of relief* So I won’t see everything. And everything I say will be my opinion, which I am allowed to have. You are allowed to agree or disagree, with respect and thoughtfulness, in the comments if you like. And I genuinely hope you will. Vitriol and rudeness will be deleted.

I hope this will be a fun way for you to get to know me, my tastes, and ideas. To also see a bit of the worlds I choose to inhabit that inspire me in my creative endeavors. And also provide the periodic break from, “I’m an author talking about my book(s) again!” So sit back and enjoy the show.