Film Addict's January Film Choice

As I haven't been to the cinema this month because there hasn't been anything I particularly want to see, I chose to review one of the films out of my eclectic collection.

Due to a mad obsessive session of watching an old TV show on YouTube, I decided to pick a film adaptation of said TV show.  Ladies and gentlemen, TMNT.  There was a lot about this film that I loved but it derives from my love of the characters and the franchise.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were, and still are, some of my favourite fictional characters growing up because they are such a random concept, turtles that were mutated by some alien goo which leads them to grow to an extraordinary size and are able to walk and talk and then were taught ninjitsu by their walking, talking rat master.  TMNT is the 2007 computer-animated film from Kevin Munroe that pretty much continues the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise from the 2003 series following the defeat of the Turtles' archenemy, the Shredder, and Leonardo is sent away by Master Splinter to become a better for his brothers, leaving the other three to their own devices without someone to help guide them.  This film stars Nolan North (Uncharted series, Assassin's Creed series), James Arnold Taylor (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Johnny Test), Mikey Kelley (Invasion America), and Mitchell Whitfield (My Cousin Vinny) as the turtles, Raphael, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello respectively, Mako Iwamatsu (Pearl Harbor, Memoirs of a Geisha) as their master, Splinter, and Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cruel Intentions) and Chris Evans (Captain America: The First Avenger, Fantastic Four) as their human friends, April O'Neil and Casey Jones respectively.  Though not the villain of the story, Patrick Stewart (X-Men series, Star Trek: The Next Generation) is a new character in the franchise, Winters, who unwittingly unleashed monsters into the world millennia before.

Rating: 9

Recommended To: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans; animated fans

Favourite Characters: Raphael - always my favourite; Casey Jones - another old favourite; Michelangelo - yet another favourite

Favourite Part: Raphael: We live together, we train together, we fight together, we stand for good together...we are ninjas.  We strike hard, defend and protected and fade into the night and there ain't no bad guy or monster that gonna ever change that.  That's what is important and that's why we will always be...brothers.

Good Points: The introduction of each brother; the story; the relationships between all of the characters

Bad Points: No Shredder

Rachel Caine - Daylighters

Now for one of my favourite series which is coming to an end, the Morganville Vampires series, which has spanned 7 years and 15 books. As I love this series, because I'm partial to a bit of Shane Collins, the main character's, Claire, love interest, I decided to ignore my own system and read this one way ahead of my plan because I have been wanting to read it for ages!

Daylighters is the fifteenth and final book in Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires series that focuses on Claire Danvers and her housemates, Shane Collins, Eve Glass (formerly Rosser), and Michael Glass, as they try to survive living in Morganville, a town in Texas that is run by vampires (or was prior to this book).  Claire and her friends have been through hell and back, from a psychotic vampire hunting father to another psychotic father who takes over the town to a race of vampires, Draug, who target other vampires as well as humans for their source of food drenching the town and overthrowing the ruling vampires.  As well as the problems in the town, with the vampires, Claire goes through a lot regarding her relationship with Shane, which has had its troubles because of his dad interfering and Shane being jealous of Claire's relationships with the vampires in town, including her employer, Myrnin, and even Michael.

Rating: 10

Recommended To: Vampire lovers; Rachel Caine lovers

Favourite Characters: Shane - always and forever

Favourite Part: And then he kissed her, all passion and intensity and heat and dark chocolate sweetness melting on her tongue, but not just sweet because there was spice in it, too, bursts of searing pepper, and he made her hungry, so incredibly hungry to feel his skin on hers that it almost drive her crazy. - Page 334

Good Points: Lots of action; Shane's character development; good end to the series

Bad Points: Michael's happy ending being linked to the villain

David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas

I am willing to admit that the films I watch has an effect on the type of books I read as I occasionally watch a film and find it that it was adapted from a book and then I go and find the book that it came from because I am curious to find out what the differences are between the film and the book.  Sometimes I'm impressed but sometimes I'm let down because the film is occasionally better from my point of view.  I really liked the Cloud Atlas film because it was impressive how they made the handful of cast members they had vary in gender and ethnicity convincingly and I just wanted to see what the book was like.

Cloud Atlas is a novel from David Mitchell and his third novel overall, following Ghostwritten and number9dream; Cloud Atlas is a multi-narrative piece following six protagonists, all from different times and places and all of different ages and backgrounds.  Due to the fact that there are six protagonists, spanning different times and places, this book covers a number of genres, going from a historical fiction piece written from the point of view of an American lawyer through a diary he is keeping to a story being told to some children by their grandfather in a post-apocalyptic future.

Rating: 10

Recommended To: Anyone; book lovers

Favourite Characters: Zachry - fascinated me; Somni - amazing

Favourite Part: A half-read book is a half-finished love affair. - Page 65

Good Points: Different writing formats; the theme of a reincarnated soul; the question of authenticity

Bad Points: Abrupt interruptions

Distracted Bibliophile

Sorry from the bibliophile once again because I got distracted over Christmas and the New Year by my new Playstation games as well as my old ones along with some old TV shows that I found on Youtube from when I was younger, Spiderman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I am currently reading Cloud Atlas so that should be up soon and I am hoping to do a new feature on this blog called Film of the Month, depending any films I watch while I'm home, even if I go to the cinema.