Friday, 2 September 2011

Book and Movie Review II

I have received a lot of movie and book suggestions, and I will try and get through as many as I can on a weekly basis; provided I can sit upright and be of sound mind.. or otherwise..

Oh Yeah ,SPOILER ALERT!

Mars Needs Moms: 
The mother of a little boy named Milo is targeted by female Martians.  The Martians want to kidnap her and bring her back to the planet Mars where they will extract her “mom-ness” and use it to upload the information into the nanny-bots that raise and train all the youngling Martian girls on the planet. During a heated argument with his mother, Milo says that he hates her and wishes she was out of his life.  After being sent to bed he wakes up later that evening heartbroken, wanting to apologize and take back the terrible things he said to his mother. He investigates a bright light coming from her bedroom and witnesses her being kidnapped by the aliens. He chases the smaller ship back to the mother ship where he gets caught on the retractable landing gear. He finds himself jettisoned into space (which he thinks is super cool), but stays focused on trying to find his mother. Once they land on the planet Mars, he is taken prisoner by the Martian women and is placed in a prison cell. He manages to escape from the cell with the help of Gribble, a human secretly living within the bowels of the Martian space station. Together they devise a plan to free Milos’s mother. They meet a trusty Martian rebel accomplice named Ki. There are a lot of twists and turns but they eventually rescue his mother and return to Earth. I felt that this film was emotionally excessive for younger audiences. At one point there is a scene where Milo’s mom is unable to breathe out in the open Mars atmosphere and asphyxiates. What a terrible scene. I don’t really recommend this film, especially for children; it’s definitely does not deliver the usual Disney Magic.

I continued reading 2 more volumes from The Walking Dead Graphic Novel series.

Volume 3-Safety Behind Bars:  The survivors continue on their quest together. They find an abandoned prison, which was at one point overtaken by the Zombies. The survivors manage to segregate an area for themselves and begin to settle in. We see the pressures of the constant fight for survival begin to affect everyone. At times, while clearing areas where Zombie population resides within the prison, they lose precious loved ones during the Zombie attacks. Rick’s instincts and desire to keep the whole group alive are evident and at times; desperate. His over protection begins to resemble fanaticism and the group becomes very concerned that his judgement is askew. We as the audience understand that he wants to weed out the evil doers, those who will potentially act selfishly and bring the group in harm’s way. Relationships between some of the individuals become more strained as time goes on.

Volume 4-The Heart’s Desire: There are a few more characters that are introduced, they are survivors that make their way to the prison and seek refuge. The group is coming to the realization that there will be no rescue and that this will be the matter in which they will have to survive going forward. Some of the intimate relationships start to fizzle as the new people mingle with everyone. Jealousy and sexual deviancy begin to surface.  Rick begins to sense that everyone is starting to lose control; he begins to question his own control. He tries to establish “laws” or “rules” that everyone can abide by. The survivors begin to feel territorial and defensive. They do not want Rick as their leader any longer as they feel he is compromised with his emotions and has made some rash decisions. They form a committee with 4 leaders consisting of 4 men of which Rick is included. The women do not want to be on the committee and are content with the men representing and protecting them.

These 2 volumes confirm that in desperation people will break rules and seek out their unexplored desires regardless of how dire a situation may seem. Ego’s and selfishness are prevalent; there is a feeling of anarchy. People will behave selfishly and disrespect laws of man and laws of nature in these circumstances to serve themselves. 

Veronika Decides to Die, by Paulo Coelho
An account of a beautiful young Eastern European woman who is perceived as ‘having it all’. Her mindset is quite different than those around her. She doesn’t want to fall into the everyday mundane life that society expects of her.  She attempts suicide with sleeping pills. She does not succeed, and wakes up in a mental institution. She is told she has done irreversible damage to her heart and only has a few days to live. Within these few precious days she has left, she meets a few characters in the institution that make her re-think her look on life. Veronika realizes that she does have so much to live for-her own individuality. She makes the most out of the little time she has by learning the life stories of the people that are in the institution. Her physician teaches her a hard lesson about her precious life; in truth she is not really dying. She never finds out about this secret. She leaves the institution thinking every day could be her last.

We realize that the lunatics in the asylum may not be as crazy as everyone thinks. More so we realize that people who are perceived as different or do not subscribe to society’s conformities are labeled as ‘insane’ or ‘mentally unstable’. A redeeming and eye opening novel that will definitely provoke thought.


A Grand Weekend to all.

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