Blade Runner // Ridley Scott {Movie}

Why I'm reading
It’s a scifi classic! I actually borrowed it a little while ago and never got around to watching it, until it was mentioned in Ready Player One.

Where I got the movie
Greenwich Library.

Expectations
Action-adventure, with a dose of existential confusion over what it means to be human. The movie is old enough that I’ve acquired a vague idea of the ending scene, albeit with zero context. Other than that, any expectations have been obscured by my long-standing confusion between this and Blade. Like, Wesley Snipes hunting vampires Blade. ……… ಠ_ಠ

So how was it?

The plot itself is fairly skeletal: Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a blade runner, responsible for hunting down and “retiring” Replicants -- lab-grown (or built?) creatures that are nearly indistinguishable from humans, used as slave labor off-world and banned on Earth itself. A small group of Replicants makes it back to Earth, and Rick agrees to take the assignment.

The movie was very loosely based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, so I’ll probably pick that up sometime soon. It also clearly influenced Fifth Element and the later scenes of Cloud Atlas, just off the top of my head.

Recommendation
Sci-fi fans (of course). Fans of film noir might get a kick out of it, too.

Feels
Our media center gave this movie genres like existentialism and neo-noir... More accurate words could not have been chosen. It has themes of mortality, identity, and what it means to be human… but it never gets preachy or concrete on anything. The filmography and special effects were characters in their own right, with sweeping sci-fi matte painting backgrounds, elaborate noir lighting, and grungy dieselpunk Chinese street scenes.

Favorites
The movie has lots of little details that it doesn’t feel the need to shove down your throat, adding a lot of depth to the characters. Of course, the downside of that is a lot of random shit that doesn’t make sense -- like, say, the unicorn hallucination.

I also like the ending. We know what happened (this isn’t Inception) … but… was it a victory? or a tragedy?

Least favorites
Ummm how about the date rape scene? I'll go with the date rape scene. I can’t call it anything else. I don’t know if it was supposed to be romantic or what, but when you kiss someone and they run for the door, and you follow them, grab their wrist to physically prevent them from leaving, push them up against a wall, and demand that they say ‘kiss me’, and ‘I want you’ multiple times… that’s not romantic. That’s pretty much a script for date rape. Literally the only thing that keeps this from ruining the movie for me is that I’m not sure if they even meant for it to be romantic.

Aside from that, I really wish we got some glimpse into Pris (Daryl Hannah). Her character was just as interesting as the two other (male) Replicants, but we got zero insight into what made her tick. Leon got about the same amount of screen time, but had several lines that made you think about his motivations and see him in an almost-human light. She just seemed arbitrarily evil and manic.

Cinematography
...was gorgeous. Old school matte paintings and real physical models, and filmed with this great noir feeling. With that said, it got a little clunky ; very often the camera (and the action) just ground to a halt so we could appreciate the scene’s setup, lighting, costuming, etc. Not that I don’t appreciate those scenes -- they were beautiful -- but it felt a little forced.

So what did I really think?

Click "read more"... massive spoilers ahead!

An Abundance of Katherines // John Green {Audiobook}

Why I'm reading
The path to me reading John Green was a strange one. I'm a huge fan of SciShow and CrashCourse, two YouTube channels run by Hank and John Green -- who started their YouTube endeavors with Vlog Brothers. Hank Green is this perfect blend of hot and obnoxiously nerdy but you didn't hear that from me...  Meanwhile, the YA world has been abuzz about The Fault in Our Stars by John Green... yeah, it took me way too long to realize John Green is John Green. That was the little extra push I needed to read these YA books everyone has been in love with.

Where I got the book

I'm actually listening to this via CD audiobook in the car, on the way to my new job (yay!) in Greenwich (boo!) Naturally the audiobook is from Greenwich library.

Expectations
Whiny teenage boy plot; fun, friendly, slightly goofy writing style, if Hank's videos are anything to go by.

So how was it?

An Abundance of Katherines is a nice, gentle, fairly predictable teenage coming-of-age story. It follows Colin, a child prodigy desperate to become a genius, and his overweight and fairly religious friend Hasan. Colin just got dumped -- by Katherine the Nineteenth, the nineteenth Katherine he's dated -- and Hasan drags him on a road trip. They meet Lindsey Lee Wells in a small town called Gutshot, and Colin works on an equation to predict the course of a relationship between any two people.

I really liked it! I mean, it's not groundbreaking, but all the characters were fairly engaging, and it wasn't too trope-y. The plot isn't over-dramatic, it's not driven by avoidable misunderstandings, and all three main characters actually go through their own independent coming of age experiences.

Recommendation
Young adult readers, definitely. But this could appeal to an adult, I think. Local history and small town communities are actually strong themes, not just a backdrop to romance.

Feels
Slow in terms of drama, but lots of stuff actually happens to make the story interesting. Natural, relaxed, but entertaining.

Favorites
Lindsey Lee Wells, hands down. Normal, salt-of-the-earth girl, going through her own independent identity crisis, just like Colin. She feels like a real person, not a side character in someone else's story.

Least favorites
There really wasn't anything annoying or upsetting about the book, really. Literally the only think I can think of to complain about is that the beginning ramps up this "going on a life-changing roadtrip!!!" feeling, but then they stay in the first town they visit for the rest of the book. Even that's not too bad, though; it's almost like this is just a chunk of a larger road trip story.

Writing style
Easy to read, fun, engaging. Definitely gets in the head of a melodramatic (but still relatively level-headed) teenager.

So what did I really think?

Click "read more"... massive spoilers ahead!

Life, the Universe, and Everything // Douglas Adams {Audiobook}

Why I'm reading
Hitchhiker! Plus, Martin Freeman (yes, Martin, not Morgan) played a fantastic Arthur Dent in the not-quite-so-fantastic movie adaptation.

Where I got the book
Greenwich Library.

Expectations
I’m not sure about Martin Freeman’s narration, especially after I just listened to Fry’s.

So how was it?

In a nutshell, Life, the Universe, and Everything follows Arthur Dent and Ford Perfect as they try to save the world from evil cricket robots. Cricket the game, that is, not the insect. Freeman has done several of the Hitchhiker books -- maybe the whole set, I can’t tell -- but I somehow managed to skip from Fry’s version of book 1 to Freeman’s book 3. So getting plopped in the middle of prehistoric Earth was a little jarring. Plus, apparently I didn’t remember quite as much about Life, the Universe, and Everything as I thought I did as a teenager (ha!), so it was an exciting read/listen.

Recommendation
Definitely for fans of the movie version of Arthur Dent.

Feels
A bit more wacky than Hitchhiker, but conversely, a more solid plot.

Favorites
Freeman’s version of Trillian was pretty good, and his narration of the flying scenes (my favorite part of the book) was delightful.

Least favorites
Ugh, coming from Fry’s delicious interpretation of Zaphod Beeblebrox, I hated the New York / New Jersey accent Freeman used. It reminded me of the scraggly-blond-trashy-pirate movie Zaphod, who also sucked.