The Maze Runner Film Review

I’ve waited a long time to go and see The Maze Runner, and I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed with the film, just a little surprised by it.

As a film, it’s an amazing production. Everything I normally look for in a film was there; a great soundtrack, believable actors, tear jerking moments and scenes where I could hear my blood pumping in my ears my heart was racing so fast.

But it was so unnecessarily different from the book! I’m still not really sure why the director and the writers changed so many aspects of the book, but I feel as though they cut out a lot of stuff from the book completely, as if they wanted to speed the film up and make it shorter. The changes they made still worked with the plot, however, and for someone who hadn’t read the books I think it would have made sense, which is the main thing.

The cast were perfectly chosen for the roles, and each character was well thought through and understood. So many films are ruined by rubbish acting and cheesy lines, but The Maze Runner managed to avoid that. The CGI graphics were also well designed and created, with no dodgy, obvious green-screen moments. Despite being very different from the book, the actual maze was incredible as well.

The film featured a few jump scares, which I wasn’t really expecting... although that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? What I mean is that I wouldn’t class The Maze Runner as a horror movie, so I didn’t think they’d have as many jumps as there were. The books are quite scary, especially the second one, but I think the film took the scary parts and made them the focus of the movie. The gore was kept to a minimum however, which made me happy, as so many otherwise fantastic movies have been spoiled by excessive blood and guts.

The soundtrack is jam packed with suspenseful string instruments and tribal drums, really assisting the movie with its jump scares and fight scenes. There’s a very orchestral feel to the music as well, with hardly any electric or synthesized instruments.

Overall, I’m fairly impressed with The Maze Runner¸ and I would definitely recommend going to see it. I think it is better to read the books first, however, because you are given a much deeper understanding of the maze and how it works, than in the film, which focuses more on the drama.

The Maze Runner Review

I’ve always preferred reading the book before watching the film. I feel like if I see the film first, I’m cheating on the book, hurting its feelings. In books, you learn so much more about the characters; how they feel and what they think in their own words, rather than an onscreen interpretation from an actor.

So when I heard about all the fuss of the The Maze Runner books being made into films, I decided to find out what all the excitement was about, so I could watch the film, guilt free, in the cinema when it came out.

James Dashner, the mastermind behind the works, wrote the trilogy first, and then wrote a prequel as a final goodbye. I’m convinced the books are aimed more towards the boys and girls, but that didn’t stop from tearing through the books over the summer holidays… okay, maybe it was only over a week or two. Right from the get go, you’re left with tons of questions about what has happened to Thomas, the main character from whose perspective the books are written.

The plot, in a nutshell, involves a group of teenage boys, otherwise known as the Gladers, being trapped in giant stone Maze, with known way out. Each morning, the 4 doors into the Maze open, and the Runners spend their days running through the maze, desperately trying to find a way out, making sure they return to the Glade (the centre of the Maze where the boys live) before the doors shut again for the night. Thomas wakes up in a rickety metal box of a lift, which opens out into the Glade, where he is greeted by the Gladers and a whole lot of questions.

The books, set in a dystopian world, are laced with action, horror, humour and even a little romance in the form of the only girl glader, Teresa, who arrives a day after Thomas does.

The books are infinitely amazing, and definitely worth a read. I’m sure the film will be just as good, with Teen Wolf’s Dylan O’Brien filling the role of Thomas and Skins’ Kaya Scodelario playing Teresa. 

I’m excited, to say the least.

Oops?

I doubt anyone reads my blog any more, but I still feel really guilty about not writing anything since April. Writing is a passion that I am still very strongly invested in, and I always think about writing a new piece for this blog but I can never think of anything to say, and thus this blog has been seriously neglected. Sorrrrrrryyyy. 

I'm always going to keep this blog, even if I don't post on it, because I am proud of some of my past pieces, and it reminds of my time on Duke of Edinburgh expeditions and receiving advice/praise from my English teacher.

Ruth x

Divergent Film Review

It wasn’t all that long ago that I wrote a Divergent review, but that was a review of the book. This is a film review.

For some reason, Divergent was only in my local cinema for a week, in the smaller theatre too. I am absolutely clueless about the reasoning for this; the books are a massive worldwide success, and so is the film, as well as being the best adaption I have seen in a long time.

People always say the books are better than the films, and I tend to agree. But not this time.

Don’t get me wrong; the books are incredible, and I’m looking forward to reading the trilogy numerous times over, but I’m also looking forward to watching Divergent on repeat, non stop as soon as the Blu-Ray arrives. There are countless reasons why I love the film; everything from the score to the actors to the special effects to the script was perfect. The plot didn’t stray too far from the book, which I always love in an adaption, and the settings were just as I had imagined them whilst reading the books.

Theo James, who plays Four, and Shailene Woodley who acts as Tris, are incredibly well cast for their parts. Theo, who’s tall, dark and handsome puts across Four’s character really well; cold and intimidating at first, but gradually warms up to Tris, letting her face his four fears with him. Shailene is as perfect for the part as Tris as Theo is for Four. She’s pretty and petite, but along with Four’s guidance, proves herself to be a real fighter.

The film itself is well done, the underscore really helping to portray the different emotions throughout the film. There are some real tear-jerking scenes, accompanied by adrenaline filled situations and the odd humorous line.

You get completely lost in the dystopian Chicago, and all the special effects are so realistic, you don’t even feel tempted to question the storyline or the realness of the surroundings and situations. Despite being more than 2 hours, it definitely doesn’t feel that long. There’s a short introduction of the faction system and how everything works in the barricaded city, then it goes straight into the heart of the film; no dilly dallying whatsoever. (I’m pretty sure that’s the technical term.)

Long story short, you need to:

1)      read Divergent,

2)      watch Divergent,

3)       Repeat steps 1-2.

Divergent Review

Written by a 25 year old, the Divergent trilogy could be considered a successor to The Hunger Games. With similar themes of a divided society and rebelling against the government, the trilogy is truly fascinating and thought provoking.

Having briefly researched the author, Veronica Roth is a pretty remarkable woman; she’d sold the film rights for Divergent before she’d finished college. It’s pretty unusual for such a young author to become so successful in such a short amount of time, but Roth undoubtedly fully deserves it.

Divergent is based around the idea that the dystopian Chicago city was divided into five factions after a war, in an attempt to create peace. Abnegation, the faction in which Beatrice Prior grew up in, was founded by those who thought selfishness was the cause of the war. They value the virtue of selflessness and live simple lives.

The 4 other factions, Dauntless, Erudite, Amity and Candor each value their own virtue; Dauntless value bravery; Erudite cherish intelligence; Amity treasure peacefulness ; Candor prize honesty.

One of the first questions that came to mind is: why can’t everyone value all the virtues?

I haven’t fully answered my own question, but it’s something that’s open to interpretation.

The next question was: which faction would I choose at the Choosing Ceremony?

One of the first things that happens in the book is the Choosing Ceremony, another similarity to The Hunger Games in which the characters are subjected to a potentially life altering ceremony.

I’m conscious of giving away some of the plot, but Beatrice, or Tris, makes an unexpected decision, leaving her family and friends and life as she knows it. Would I be able to do the same? This is what I meant when I said it’s a thought provoking novel!

The plot has elements of romance, like most young adult fictions, but the story is laced with tension and suspense that never really goes away, but keeps you coming back for more.  On one occasion, I read for an hour and it felt like 10 minutes. It’s such an absorbing book, interspersed with humour to stop the narrative becoming too heavy and, for want of a much better word, depressing.

Some characters are endearing, others are despicable and some of them are a mix of the two, but each of them is well thought out and developed, and key to the plot.

The story deals with love and loss, conflict and camaraderie, and lots of life threatening decision making, and I think I'm in love with it.

This review really hasn’t done the book any justice, but all I can say is that it really is worth a read. Even if you wouldn’t normally read teen fiction, there’s something to be learnt for it.

Winter Olympics

Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with the Winter Olympics, for one focal reason; curling. I have the utmost respect for the curlers, no matter which country they represent, as I realise they spend a large portion of their lives working to be the best curling team, and to make it to such prestigious events like the Olympics. The actual sport, however, is by far one of the most boring disciplines I’ve come across. That is, of course, my opinion, and I am amazed by people who can sit through the entire 10 ends without changing channel at some point.

I’m sitting here typing, taking sips from my mug of tea, watching the USA vs Canada Ice Hockey Semi-final. There’s less than 2 minutes to go until the end of the match and Canada are one up on USA, which makes me happy. Not because I am prejudiced against America in any way shape or form, but because I have decided I am going to support Canada in the Winter Games a) because they always do way better than Britain and b) because I have Canadian family so it’s not entirely unwarranted.

(Canada just won the match, yay.)

I think my favourite winter sports are the Ski and Border cross, and the sliding events; bobsleigh, luge and skeleton.

The ski and border cross events are two of the few events involving actual races; many of them events rely on time trials or a score board to appoint rankings and positions, which I don’t think is as exciting and suspenseful. With the cross races, there’s struggles and danger and the occasional concussion. Canada also took gold and silver in the women’s ski cross this morning; added bonus. The ski races go quicker, but I think I prefer watching the board races. The skiers seem to get into more accidents, because they often get their ski’s tangled up in one another, or land badly on the tail ends. The board races are cleaner, but there’s still the danger of taking a turn wrong, or getting in the way of one of your opponents. In this morning, several of the races had casualties that had to stretchered off the course. The commentators had named the orange cushion thing The Blood Wagon, but I refuse to call it that. It sounds way too sinister for a luminous orange inflatable cushion.

The sliding events I like just because of the talent and fearlessness involved. With the luge and skeleton, the athletes go down the chute at 100km/h on little more than a tea tray, fractionally shifting their body weights to steer. In the bobsleigh, one ill steer and they tip onto their sides and scrape their helmets on the ice.

All the winter games are incredible to watch (bar curling, but we all have our own opinion), be it freestyle skiing, going up a vertical wall of snow and somersaulting in the air, to cross country, skiing for upwards of 1 hour, to short track speed skating. I wish I was brave enough or motivated enough to try one of the many admirable sports, but unfortunately, I’m too comfortable sat here with Internet and television.

Strictly Come Dancing Live

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to travel to Glasgow with my mum and go and see the SCD Live Tour. It was an amazing day, despite being very rainy, and now I have a weird mish-mash of songs in my head.

I took almost 170 pictures, half of which were out of focus, but I did manage to get some good pictures. We were right at the back, but because the Hydro Arena is so steep, we weren't all that far from the dance floor. We were close enough to differentiate between the dancers, put it that way. There was a live band and singers, which were incredible and faultless, and the 'Three Wise Men', Craig, Len and Bruno were there too.

Here are a few of the many photo's I took.

This was in Princes Square where we went for lunch; very posh and very scary.

Inside the Hydro.

We bought a nice glossy programme.

The professionals opened up the show.

The 3 judges wore tartan outfits; Craig wore a kilt, Len wore a tartan waist coat and trousers, and Bruno was wearing what looked like a skirt.

The line up! L-R: Mark and Iveta, Susanna and Kevin, Deborah and Robin, Abbey and Aljaz, Ben and Kristina, Natalie and Artem and Nicky and Karen.

Kevin and Susanna yay!

Their paso doble is my favorite dance.

Nicky and Karen danced their Argentine Tango to Skyfall.

Abbey and Aljaz danced their quickstep to Walking on Sunshine

Kevin and Karen busted some pretty awkward moves.

All the celebs and professionals together.

Kevin and Susanna's second dance.

Nicky's impressive Charleston.

Most of my pictures focus on Kevin. 

I quite like this photo.

The last photo I took before my camera died!

The Fault In Our Stars Review

A heart-warming and heart-breaking novel, The Fault In Our Stars is definitely a tear jerker, for a multitude of reasons.

Written by the famed John Green, also known for titles such as Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable book, with incredibly endearing characters, from Hazel’s mother to Augustus Waters himself.

The book is based largely on another, made up book, An Imperial Affliction, and its author, Peter van Houten, both of which Augustus and Hazel almost revolve around, with quotes from the ‘book’ interspersed throughout their conversations.

One of the more prominent of these quotes is ‘pain demands to be felt’, and although it’s morbid, I quite like it. It kind of defines and personifies pain; it’s greedy, selfish and doesn’t care about others.

Pain has a massive part to play, with both emotional and physical agony running like a river throughout the book. Green allows readers to experience what it might be like to have cancer, and how it affects not only yourself, but those around you. There are advantages to being terminally ill, but also devastating disadvantages too. TFOIS portrays Hazel as a bit of a cynic with an almost dark sense of humour, but that’s why I love her character. She describes herself as having ‘a touch of cancer’, and makes light of her debilitating disease, but isn’t exactly mean with her humour.

I think the relationship that Hazel and Augustus develop is illustrated beautifully. Over the course of the book, they grow closer and closer, despite Hazel trying her best not to fall in love with Augustus, because of her terminal cancer. They have such an amazing understanding for each other, and illumine the others life. It’s almost a perfect love story. I mean, it would be, if it weren’t for the ‘touch of cancer’.

The tragic end had me in tears for the remainder of the book, and I then proceeded to (shamelessly) cry myself to sleep. But within the heartbreak, there is also a sliver of happiness to be found.

The Railway Man Review

Hard-hitting and incredibly emotive and inspiring, The Railway Man is something everyone should read or watch. Starring Colin Firth, Jeremy Irvine and Nicole Kidman, it’s a truly affecting film.

Firth plays the part of Eric Lomax, a WW2 engineer and railway enthusiast, perfectly. He’s charming at the beginning and exceptionally admirable at the end. Firth is very convincing as Lomax, right the way through the film. Jeremy Irvine, who plays the Young Eric Lomax, had, undoubtedly, a more difficult job. He not only had to act as Eric, but also act as Colin playing Eric. Not only that, but he agreed to pretty much starve himself for 2 months for the role, and endure some very real waterboarding for the film.

The movie was much better than I expected it to be, and has definitely given me a lot to think about. It’s one of those films that you don’t forget easily, and stays with you for a long time afterwards; the best kind of films, in my opinion. Eric Lomax was an honourable and admirable person, and I can’t help but think that if were more people like him in the world, more generous with mercy and compassion and forgiveness, then maybe the world would be a better place. Eric could so easily have had his revenge on Nagase, a Japanese Army officer and interpreter, but he refrained, and became good friends with his worst enemy, up until the day they died.

The picture was directed amazingly and the minimalistic soundtrack emphasised every second of the film. With powerful eastern music and long stretches of silence, the film was both suspenseful and very emotional and hard to watch at times.

I can’t even begin to comprehend the suffering of so many races and religions that is caused by war, but I definitely feel as though The Railway Man has given me an insight into a part of WW2 that I didn’t even know existed. It’s definitely worth seeing, or reading Eric Lomax’s autobiography, from which the film was inspired.

On a lighter note, I saw my old Year 6 teacher at the cinema, and I’m glad I was sat down so she couldn’t tell me how much I’ve grown.

Obsessions

It has come to my attention that I have developed a a strong liking for several film franchises over the Christmas holidays, which have been heightened even more recently; being ill has given me the excuse to mope about the house all weekend watching films.

I’ve always kind of liked the Harry Potter films and books, but I managed to watch each of the eight films at least twice over the holidays, and the result of this is a rather worrying attachment to the series. ITV showed all the films over the holidays, most of which I watched, as well as ‘Behind the Scenes’ side shows, and now I can quote a line from the films/books in almost any daily situation.

It’s a similar situation with the Lord of the Rings films, as well as The Hobbit. I watched An Unexpected Journey a while ago, but didn’t have much appreciation or understanding of the film. Then, on my Dad’s birthday, the two of us went to see the second instalment, which ended on a ridiculous cliff-hanger. I’ve never read the book before, and had no idea if and how Smaug would meet his end, and whether the Dwarves would reclaim the mountain. So I read the book, and I now understand the two films much more. I do think they could have made two films, however, instead of three; I felt some scenes in Desolation of Smaug were a bit drawn out and violent. The Lord of the Rings films are another of my new obsessions, Legolas and Gimli and particular. I’ve never seen the films or read the books, as I thought they were boys’ films and girls wouldn’t like them and that they were rubbish. But I proved myself wrong. After enjoying the Desolation of Smaug, I thought LOTR would be worth a shot. Especially as the three Blu-Ray discs were on sale for a grand total of £10.

Having read The Hobbit by this point, I got really into the first film, although I didn’t know all three films were around the 3 hour mark. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the trilogy, and I’m actually quite surprised at the amount of humour there was in the films, particularly with Legolas and Gimli, which is why I think I’ve grown to love them so much. Although Legolas isn’t exactly hard to look at.

I don’t really know what the purpose of this post is supposed to be, I think it’s just because Harry Potter and LOTR are on my mind a lot, (for better or for worse, I have no idea) especially as I have many tracks from their respective soundtracks on one of my Spotify playlists, which I’m listening to as I write this. I think I was just trying to say we all have different obsessions, whether we’re proud of them or not, and mine have had quite a quick onset.

They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE-1RPDqJAY

Happy New Year!

I usually don't get very bothered about the beginning of a new year, as I rarely make resolutions, much less stick to them. But this year, as I sat in front of my TV watching the fireworks go off on BBC1, I felt an overwhelming sense of panic. Whilst my sister was checking that the cat wasn't too scared of the fireworks, I was sat there trying not to think about what 2014 will undoubtedly present to me.

There are some things that I'm looking forward to and I wish would arrive sooner, but there are others that know are going to come all to quickly, namely sitting my GCSE exams, getting my results and starting 6th form.

The event I'm looking forward to the most is going to see the Strictly Come Dancing Live tour, the tickets for which were in my Christmas stocking. I got way too emotionally involved in the recent series of Strictly; I cried at a pre-recorded results show. At that point, I realised I was taking the show a bit too seriously. Nonetheless, I am more than excited to be seeing some of my favorite celebrities and professionals live in February.

I'm also half looking forward to my 16th birthday. I feel really materialistic saying this, but I do quite enjoy birthday, especially as there is a tradition in my family to have a Chinese takeaway for each birthday meal. My Dad's birthday is the 23rd of December, so we have Chinese for tea, and have the leftovers on Christmas Eve, and then Christmas dinner on Christmas Day.

But I'm also slightly scared to turn 16. I know it's an irrational fear, but I feel old thinking about it. There are so many things that you're free to do, legally, once you're 16. You can even get married. I just feel as though being 16 weighs you down with a load of decisions and responsibilities that I'm not prepared for, but that't probably just me being me; a worrier and an overthinker. 

There's also the dreaded exams. Back at the beginning of Year 10, June of Year 11 seemed worlds away, but now it's a harsh reality. In about 5 months time, I'll be sitting exams that basically sculpt and mould the rest of your life. After getting my mock exam results back, I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, especially now that I know I was a mark or two off a higher grade in some subjects. My results weren't even that bad, but I think I felt like the exams went pretty well and didn't get the results I thought I was going to get. I just hope I don't feel disappointed come results day in August.

Once I've gone through the GCSE exams and results, I'll have 6th form to look forward to and worry about. I'm kind of excited to be going into more depth in Biology and English Literature, as they're subjects I genuinely enjoy and find interesting, and I'm willing to work hard at. I'm also keen to start Psychology, as it's always been an interest of mine, so I'm looking forward to learning more about the human brain. I am nervous about the undoubted increase in workload, however. It's not that I don't want to do it; I'm more worried about whether I'll actually be able to do it, and to get all homework in on time. I guess we'll have to wait and see. For now, I'm focussing my worry on my GCSE's.