Between the Covers: Stories from My Bookcase

Monday, July 29, 2013

The Wolverine (2013)

Confession time: The boyfriend and I have watched a movie a week in the last four weeks of July with my work barkada. That's a lot of movies, not that I'm complaining. It's been fun going to the movies with friends, you're more emboldened to be noisy - to laugh at the funny scenes or to comment out loud about those you can relate to. Haha. 

Last week, we saw The Wolverine on its opening day.  We were quite the entourage entering the cinema that day, almost all eight of us were dressed in formal wear - lakas maka-premier night effect pero tanghaling-tapat naman.


The boyfriend and I didn't really know what to expect. There was at least one Wolverine movie already in the XMen movie franchise right? We missed that so we weren't sure if we'll feel lost in this one. We also haven't been paying attention to the trailers. Gladly, we didn't get too confused in the story. So this one happens after XMen: The Last Stand where Phoenix dies and Magneto seems to lose his power. 

Here, we see Logan live like a caveman. He lives away from people, and has become friends with a big bear. The bear dies. Logan is summoned by a Japanese soldier whose life he saved when Nagasaki was bombed in WWII. The young girl Yukio who comes to get him is also a mutant, but that's not what makes her amazing to my eyes - she's kick ass with or without a samurai. 

I won't spoil the story for those who have yet to see the film but here we see a Logan who seemed to have lost his reason to live after he kills the woman he loved deeply. Will he grab the chance to lose his ability to self-heal very quickly? Will he give it all up to become normal?

It wasn't an all-out action-packed film but there was enough to keep me glued to the screen. Though my seatmate did (it wasn't the boyfriend), the rest of us stayed up. The fighting scene above the bullet train was something. I know there's been fight scenes atop trains before (there was one for The Lone Ranger too), but this is the first time where they were almost flying because of how fast it was going. 

I don't know what to make of Viper - she was a mutant doctor employed by Yashida - the Japanese soldier mentioned earlier who lived a long life and built an empire. She either did not have enough time to annoy me, or her character was really wasted on this film. I mean, that was all from her? Hah. 

As in other XMen movies, there was a preview of what's next after the closing credits started rolling. We stayed for that and I wasn't really surprised about the second person who unexpectedly appeared. It's enough to whet our appetite for the next installment in this franchise.  

If you ask me, I'd say go see the film. But if you're still not sure if you want to, here's the official trailer:



About the cinema - AliMall Cineplex. This was the first time I saw a movie in the new AliMall Cineplex. The theater probably sits 150 or more and looks quite cozy. Reminds me of the newer cinemas in Greenhills, and Resorts World. Each ticket set us back 200 pesos for a non-3D offering. The only downside was that we got confused about which cinema to enter (and it wasn't a big deal, really). Our tickets said Cinema 12 but there was no 12 there. Turns out it was Cinema 2. Even the personnel at the entrance wasn't sure. Bah. But we enjoyed the experience, so we'll probably watch there again.

Monday, July 22, 2013

A Clash of Kings (Book 2 of A Song of Ice and Fire) by George R.R. Martin

If I didn't like Theon Greyjoy when I first met him, I hate him all the more now. Hah!


Two months after I first picked it up, I finally finished the last chapter of A Clash of Kings, book 2 of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, basis for the hit TV series Game of Thrones. 

I was both happy and sad that the TV producers and writers made some departures from the book. Making Arya Lord Tywin's cupbearer in Harrenhal was more interesting, on the other hand, it didn't allow us a closer look at Roose Bolton's character like it did in the book (okay it wasn't much of a look but at least there was a glimpse). I guess what I'm saying is that the changes that the TV writers did made the series sell better than it would have had they strictly followed the original.

Looking back, I feel that I should have finished reading book 2 sooner than I did but there was something in the way it was written that just didn't make that happen. There just wasn't so much happening in Book 2, I guess. It didn't grip you as much as GoT did. Perhaps it didn't help that we're already on Season 3 and much of what happens is already known. That's probably it. 

There just wasn't much of a clash between the four kings of the realm (and one queen across the seas). We didn't hear much from King Robb. King Stannis wins the battle against King Renly although it isn't clear whether he knew how it happened. Meanwhile, Joffrey plays at king and just grows more annoying every day. Stannis makes his claim known by sending announcements to the realm. If this was in modern day, he could have print flyers and rented choppers to make the drops at densely populated areas of the realm. That surely would have made more of an impact to his claim. Anyway... I am still looking forward to the rest of the series but I think I'll take a break and grab some light reading before I start with the next installment. 

Awards received: Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (1999), Ignotus for Novela extranjera (2004) 



Saturday, July 20, 2013

Sleep and Sleep and Sleep

The lack of posts on all of my blogs saddens me. But the tradeoff is that I get to sleep a little more than usual on work days. Yes. I tend to doze off as soon as I get home, sometimes not even getting the chance to eat properly. 



I get home quite exhausted every day. It doesn't necessarily mean that I feel so stressed while at work, but as I drive home I know I'm ready to go to bed almost immediately. 
Sometimes I do get to do stuff first. Like reading a chapter or two from Book 2 of A Song of Ice and Fire: A Clash of Kings. Or crochet a couple of rows for my ripple blanket. I get to watch a bit of TV too. But mostly, I do stuff that don't require much thinking. That's probably my body telling me I need to give my thinking brain a rest.

Even when I feel awake and not sleepy at all, I find myself dozing off a few minutes after sitting in front of my PC. I'd get some blog hopping done and try to compose a new post, but I'd never finish. It doesn't help that sometimes our connection is slow or the browser freezes up.  

Perhaps we need to clean up our harddrive, or maybe just run a virus scanner or something.  Something is definitely up. We unfortunately don't have enough money to buy an iMac just yet so we'll need this PC to keep working.