Percy Jackson and the Olympians

I don't usually do book reviews, but when I power through a series of five books in seven days, we're talking about a particularly review-worthy group of books.

So, I'm here now to talk about the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. Made up of The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Titan's Curse, and The Last Olympian... and soon to be a major motion picture, this is an adventure story after my heart. You see, I've always had a thing for Greek Mythology. I had this little set of books from one of those Scholastic Book Orders from Elementary School that I read a bazillion times. I drank the stories right up, I reveled in the legends of the Olympian gods, the myths of Pandora, Narcissus, and Hercules... there was just *something* that drew me to these tales.

Of course, when I heard there was a series of books that had a lot of the same elements that made us fall in love with Harry Potter -- and had to do with Greek mythology -- I was hooked before I even read the first word. And the stories didn't disappoint at all once I finally got around to pulling them off the shelf. Sure, they're easy reads made for younger children (in fact, the 9-year-old I was babysitting a few weeks ago was reading The Lightning Thief) -- but that just made them all the more exciting. When you can really power through a book -- I read just about all of the 300-page books in 2 days -- you get to enjoy the pace and adventure even more than a book which bogs you down with complex writing.

Riordan is witty and playful as he mixes up the adventures of Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon, and all the other demi-gods who go to Camp Half-Blood. He makes the existence of the Olympian Gods believable with the explanation that they follow the beacon of light that is Western Civilization. He gives Apollo attitude, Hermes personality, and mythical creatures like satyrs, cyclopses, and centaurs so much energy that they seem to leap off the page. I particularly liked the way Riodan mixed other Greek tales -- like the Odessey, the Labyrinth, and the Trojan War -- into the story of Percy and his friends. And the way he drew out the basic plot-line of Kronos returning to power didn't feel stretched, even though it is the focal point of most of the latter four books of the series.

I'm going to be writing brief reviews of the individual stories on my Goodreads account, so I'll wrap this up by saying that I really enjoyed this series. I'm looking forward to see what Chris Columbus (director of the first two Harry Potter films) does with the movie adaptation in February... and I'm pleased to hear that Riordan is writing more Percy Jackson stories, possibly due Fall 2010. Overall, reading these books over the past week has been a fun ride -- if what I've described sounds like something you might like, I encourage you to give the series a go, but don't start until you have all the books and have a bit of time to read, because you won't want to put them down! Cheers :)

NINE

This post is a few days overdue, so I'm hoping I can recreate my thoughts on the new movie NINE* which I saw last weekend...

Nine is a very interesting movie. It's directed by Rob Marshall, the genius who brought the world Chicago a few years ago. In my mind, its cast is rivaled only by the upcoming film Valentine's Day ... It stars Daniel Day-Lewis, and an astonishing assortment of female divas: Sophia Loren, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, and Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson (of the Black Eyed Peas).

The film comes from a 1980's Broadway musical, which in turn was inspired by an Italian play, which itself was based on the film 8 1/2, which is loosely autobiographical of Italian director Federico Fellini. Whew!

It's hard not to have extremely high hopes going into a film like this - just LOOK at the cast list! ... and it's even harder not to have these hopes turn into disappointments if everything about the movie isn't perfect. In all, I really enjoyed the film. It was a flashy, entertaining, and emotional musical with fabulous stars, great music, and an interesting idea. I do agree a bit with some of the more negative reviews I've read that writer's block isn't the best subject for a film. After all, watching Daniel Day-Lewis suffer for inspiration for two and a half hours isn't exactly a blast.**

That said, this film really touched me. It's ironic (and coincidental) that I had been thinking about inspiration on the day I saw Nine. The film deals exactly with the relationship between a creator and the creation... And the struggles that come from lack of inspiration.

Basically, the story is about Italian filmmaker Guido Contini (Day-Lewis), who has had many successes, but more recently, many *flops.* As he struggles to find a subject for his new film, Italia, we meet the seven women that have shaped his life: his mother (Loren), his old friend and costume designer of his films (Dench), his wife (Cotillard), his mistress (Cruz), his leading lady (Kidman), a reporter from Vogue (Hudson) and a mysterious gypsy woman from his childhood (Fergie)

One of the other "stars" of the film is the stage where the new film is meant to be filmed. The centerpiece of the otherwise chaotic sound stage is a beautiful but uncompleted set with columns - some sort of old fashioned Italian exterior... The scaffolding and ropes from the construction of the set provides wonderful monkey bars for several of Guido's songs. Furthermore, all of the songs of the film take place on this set, cutting back and forth between the real-life circumstances of the singer, and the idea that Guido is trying out various parts of his real-life for the subject of the film.

The film is, to use one of the terms I learned last semester, self-reflexive... It itself openly acknowledges its own nature as a film and deals with filmmaking as a subject. Furthermore, its former nature as a stage play can easily be seen, though it has been opened up somewhat to include locations and movement (like the beautiful shots of the winding roads above the ocean as Day-Lewis flees a press conference). This can be seen throughout, in the idea of the stage I already mentioned, in the opening sequence in which the seven leading ladies parade across the stage, more or less introducing themselves to the audience. It continues (slight SPOILER alert) into the end, when Guido finally finds inspiration for a film, called Nine. The film itself ends with his cry of "action!" in a bizarre onscreen-offscreen kind of parallel.

My mind would not stay quiet during the film, and I know I'm missing many of the interesting ideas that occurred to me then. Perhaps when I see it again someday they'll come back to me. I really enjoyed the performances of everyone involved in the film. In fact, two of my favorite songs were not by the Oscar winning actor or actresses... but by the others. Hudson's "Cinema Italiano" and Fergie's "Be Italian" are, in my mind, the most memorable numbers of the work. That said, it was still amazing to see Cruz's flexibility, to hear Kidman's voice again (it's been too long since Moulin Rouge!), to see Dench belt a wonderfully fun number, to see Cotillard overcome awful lyrics in her first song*** to give an amazing and moving performance in her second, etc.

It seems that the critics didn't receive this film as well - EW, one of the only reviews I read gave it an appalling C! - so perhaps it won't reach Oscar-dom. It does have a shot at a Golden Globe, though, and we'll see what happens there. I and everyone I went with sincerely enjoyed the film... it's a great flashy musical with some wonderful performances. Though there are so many movies in theaters right now (gotta love the holidays) - and the ever-so-awesome AVATAR worth seeing again and again,**** I would recommend this movie overall.

Cheers :)



*I'm just going to come out and say it... What's with all the #9 movies this year? There's this, Nine, there's District 9, and there's 9. Of course they're all very different films, but is it just because it's 2009? Weird!
**Although he sure does get to show off the veins in his head and his amazing ability to keep a grungy five o'clock shadow look for nearly two hours.
*** "My husband makes movies / To make them he lives a kind of dream/In which his actions aren't always what they seem!" -- By the way, HOW did she manage to keep tears glistening in her eyes this entire song?
****I still can't believe AVATAR grossed $1 billion worldwide in 17 days... that's just incredible. I'm really rooting for it to beat Titanic's record and for it win some major awards. I stand by my review that it's a stunning and incomparable film - everyone NEEDS to see it at least once in theaters.

I can haz inspiration?

Last night, I talked with a woman who's life story would make a GREAT movie. It would be Erin Brockovich meets Slumdog Millionaire, and it really surprised me how much the movie-ness of what she's been through came out and smacked me in the face.

I find I often struggle with fostering my creativity. Though I want to make movies, write stories, be imaginative, whatever... actual characters and plots don't pop into my head that easily. One of my goals this year is to see this as a skill that I can develop. Hopefully being in my first film production class (last semester, I was only taking critical studies film courses) will contribute to this, but it an ability that I really want to foster.

I often find that I don't know what to write about, even though the truth of the matter is, you can write about ANYTHING. I've been keeping in mind an exchange from the movie Finding Neverland:

Peter Llewelyn Davies (the young boy in the story): I still have no idea what to write.
J.M. Barrie (played by Johnny Depp): Write about anything. Write about your family, write about the talking whale!
Peter: What whale?
J.M. Barrie: The one that's trapped in your imagination and desperate to get out.

It's so easy for me to see stories in people's lives, or the possibilities for a film in a good book (Tamora Pierce movies NEED to happen, people)... but I really want to work on getting inspiration from a good story from all around me, in everyday life.

When I see things like the MoMA exhibit about Tim Burton, I am astounded by the kind of creative visions some people like Burton have. It's like they see a different world from you or I; or like they have this imagination of steel which processes everything and churns about amazing ideas.

Anyway, this is just a random little blog post to get some thoughts out there. If you're a creative person, where do YOU get inspiration from?

Sherlock Holmes

My family went to see the new Sherlock Holmes yesterday, which is a movie I was really looking forward to ever since the first trailer dropped. I can honestly say I was not disappointed... the movie is fun, interesting, and highly entertaining from start to finish.

Robert Downey Jr. makes a great Holmes (not that I have much frame of reference for the character). He's witty, smart, annoying, funny, slovenly, charming... the list goes on. He pulls off a kind of *damn-it-all* attitude that I see in his own personality and in his character Tony Stark from Iron Man. It seems to me that the characters he's choosing matches his Hollywood status as an actor who spent a great deal of time outside the circle and is now a bit wary of being welcomed back into it. I think it's wonderful and, in some ways, highly fortuitous that the trailer for his next movie that is sure to be a blockbuster smash, Iron Man 2, plays before Holmes in theaters.

Holmes is doing well in the box office, as far as I know - it set a Christmas Day record last weekend - so I'm guessing that this first film will be the start (or perhaps RE-start) to a franchise. I welcome this idea, and the opportunity to see Robert Downey's Holmes and Jude Law's Watson continue their banter on screen. On that note, Law's Watson was equally up to par and far from being the sidekick that he is in the books (I've just begun reading an illistrated version of all the Arthur Conan Doyle stories). Law easily keeps pace with Downey Jr., even outshining him at some parts of the film.

All in all, I thought the film did a good job handling the mystery genre. They gave you enough hints to know that Holmes was on the trail of something (a sniff here, a keen look there), but when all the pieces came together at the end, I don't think audience members felt stupid for not having figured out the case - as I've noticed I do after certain similar films. The story was engaging, the bad guy was sinister, and the damsel in distress was... well, a bit of a badass herself. Rachel McAdams was lovely as ever (that pink satin dress? damn).

The film's soundtrack is particularly worth commenting on, as it was superb. Done by Hans Zimmer, one of my all time favorite composers (The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3, Lion King, etc). The music is unusual, upbeat, exciting, unnerving, quirky, adventurous... and above all, completely fitting for the film itself.

Overall, I'd recommend the film as it's just plain fun. Back to the theaters again today to see the movie Nine. Cheers :)