Prince of Persia

So I went to see the new Disney film, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, yesterday with my brother, mother, niece, and my conscience.  No I am not telling you that it was the best movie I've seen from Disney.  However, it was good...not awesomely great, but good.  I loved the character that Jake Gyllenhal plays.  It was not stagnent like many action characters can be.  Gyllenhal's characte is Dastan... an orphan that runs amok and is given a chance to become Prince of Persia by the sheer force of personality and courage that he displays when the king first sees him.....The movie itself seems to be Moses meets Aladin with a ton of gymanstics thrown in for good measure.  I really liked Dastan and Gyllenhal filled those shoes wonderfully...my problem is that without Gyllenhaal I wouldn't have watched the film.  The other characters doesn't seem to be as strongly represented.  You mostly see Dastan and his search for a way to save his family.  Princess Tamina, played by Gemma Artenton, could have been a great foil for Dastan if we could have seen her "grow" more as Dastan does.  The relationship between those character reminded me of The Scorpion King...hostile, hostile, hostile-- until her people's life depends on him.  I would say that it was worth the ticket for the movie but not the popcorn.  I don't think that I will be buying this movie for my house collection..maybe for the school collection- no cussing, no sex, no nakedness, no major problems- except the deaths that happened- but not my personal collection for family...I think that it had the potential to be great but it fell a little short of my greatness mark.

How to Train Your Dragon

So I took the kids to watch the 3D version of "How to Train Your Dragon" and I have to admit I liked the movie.  The extra charge for the 3d glasses and 3d experience just wasn't worth it to me.  I think that I would have enjoyed it with the regular version playing as well as I did the 3d.  Besides it would have been cheaper. I am not saying that no 3d movie isn't worth the price of the ticket, but this movie didn't have enough "effects" for the extras.  There was only a couple of instances in which the 3d was nice...and that was mostly in the beginning and in the commericals.  It was like the movie was not given the extra uummmph that was needed to make it a great 3d movie.  That being said, I really enjoyed the movie.  I plan to take my second grade students to watch it and I know they will enjoy it.  I would like to point out though that if you read the book....the movie wasn't like that.  The ending was pretty different even though some of the events were placed in it. But I think that this was one of the few movies that doesn't leave you saying "that didn't happen" or "in the book.....happened instead."  So I would recommend this movie...especially for the 10 and under group.  My darlings are 9 and 10 and they enjoyed it.

Percy Jackson Movie Review

Okay so last night I watch the new Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief movie... It was good don't get me wrong, but I spent so much time saying "That is not how it happened in the book" and "Where is (different character's name)?"  If I hadn't read the books I might have been happier while watching the movie.  Luckily I am adaptable.  The books are great for my 6th grade tutoring students.  The movie was enjoyable for the whole family. It was funnier than the book in a way.  There were moments in the movie that was explained in the book in a way the movie couldn't and didn't.  For instance, in the book Percy's mom was not rescued by Percy and in the movie was and she even showed the kids how to get to Olympus which she shouldn't have known about because she is mortal. Or how about the reason that the gods and their offspring:  in the book it was that the Big 3 were not to have any children with mortals because of a prophesy and in the movie it was that no gods or goddesses could have contact with their offspring because of chance they risk in becoming more human.   The whole thing lacked the suspense that made the books so good.  The movie lacked the personality that the books had. 
While I recognize that the director wanted to make sure that his Harry Potter deal wasn't repeated, it wouldn't have been better for those that have read the book if it had followed a little more closely...especially since Percy Jackson is a series of books.  If they plan to continue making movies based on the book series, the other movies may have a lot of backtracking to do to make sure that characters that were left out of first movie show up in a way that makes sense. Especially since a few of those leftout characters are important in later books in the series.  For instance two characters that were in the first book were Clarisse and Ares, which were not even in the movie or thought of.  Something else that seemed a little strange was Percy's mom's willingness to "get rid of" stinky (you have to read the book or watch the movie to find out who this character is) when in the book she "stoned" stinky.  (Once again this is an event you will have to read the book to understand.)  The movie and the book portrays her as "self-sacrifing" and just throwing him out just doesn't flow in the scheme of  "protecting Percy from the monsters."   As  much as I enjoyed the movie, I still think that holding to the book would have made the movie better and would have had less of a "why" aspect. 
On to the acting portion of this review:  The character Percy is played by Logan Lerman.  I have to say that the kid did a great job showing insercurity and strength.  He was a good choice for Percy.  He didn't overact and he delivered a believable performance.  Alexandra Daddario was Annabeth.  She was good but showing more of Annabeth's "powers of stratedgy" was have been better.  Daddario's character seemed a little flat in the movie while the book had Annabeth as more of an angry but sticks to the rules kind of person.  Brandon T. Jackson was great in the movie version of Grover...I don't know if he would have been able to pull off the book version of insecure and earnest Grover though. I don't plan to go into the other characters as this time, maybe later.  Just understand that the movie and the book were different.  If you are a die hard stick to the book person...don't watch it.