Movie Review: The Hunger Games

Man, my first movie review of 2012. I'm glad I picked The Hunger Games. It lived up to my expectations. It was a nice visual reference for the book. Basically they cast the very people I saw in my head. Except for Peta. I envisioned someone a little more tubby. I don't know why. Probably because he was the son of a baker.

The real gem of the movie is Jennifer Lawrence. She really displays her acting chops. More so than in X-Men: First Class. That's not to say her acting was bad in X-Men. It's just to say that she was not the focal piece of that movie. What a hit she's been? That's two big movie franchises in less than a year. I bet she's skipping all the way to the bank. I'll keep following her to the theater as long as she continues making quality movies.

Even though he wasn't prevalent in the movie I thought Woody Harrelson was great. I've always been a big fan of the guy. For as far back as I can remember anyway. I remember enjoying his character in Cheers as a kid. Why I was watching Cheers as a kid I'm not sure of. It was probably on tv, and my parents weren't around to tell me to change the channel. I turned out all right so I guess that makes Cheers harmless. I think my love for Woody was revitalized when he was in Zombieland. That was his best bit since White Men Can't Jump. Ha. Now, Haymitch. Honestly, the look was not exactly what I had in mind, but that doesn't matter. It was the person that Woody created. He made Haymitch feel real. The movie doesn't delve into Haymitch's flaws the way the book does. The book is pretty heavy. Suzanne Collins deals with weighty material for young adults. You have a dystopian world, teenagers fighting to the death, an alcoholic, and a slew of other things.

Since I'm on the subject of the heavy subject material I might as well opine further. I've seen so many posts on Facebook of parents warning other parents not to take their children to see this movie. Duh! Have they read the synopsis, the books, or done even an iota of research? These freakin books are about teenagers that kill one another for sport. Of course the movie is going to be violent. It should be violent. If it hadn't of been violent I would have felt they compromised the subject material. The most important thing when adapting a piece of art is to stay true to it. Violence is apart of the world that Suzanne Collins created. It must be incorporated into visual form. Furthermore, neither the novels nor the movie is intended for children. The books were written for young adults. Wikipedia defines a young adult as anyone from 20-40. I think it's generally accepted that young adult books are written for kids between the ages of 13-19. I don't believe in censorship of any form. I do believe in common sense and being smart. The movie is PG-13 for a reason. Don't be shocked when people get killed. It's apart of the movie's premise. Besides I found people's criticism of the violence to be exaggerated.

Do I recommend this movie? Yes. For a few reasons.

1. The strong female lead. I enjoy literature and movies with strong female characters that aren't manly. Katniss is strong while remaining feminine. If my wife and I have a daughter one day I'll put these books in her hand before she has a chance to read Twilight. I'd prefer my daughter be apart of team Katniss rather than team Bella.

2. Good writing and good movie making. I thought the script and movie making justified the adaptation. My only complaint was the shaky cam during the action scenes. I don't attend movies for motion sickness. I want to see everything that happens. Shaky cam is a poor excuse for failing to shoot a good action scene.

3. Costume and set design. The movie did a better job than the book of brining these things to life. I'm not going to elaborate. You need to see it.

This is a good film to start the 2012 spring/summer movie season with.

Check it out, folks.

mark

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Editing: A Love Hate Relationship

Recently I decided to try my hand at a writing contest. The contest is being put on by a website I frequent: Fantasy Faction*. Initially I was hesitant. I've never let anyone outside my circle of friends or family read my writing. These will be people who I've never met judging my story. That's sorta scary. The other thing that made me step lightly is that I've never written a short story before. The word count for FF's contest is 8,000 words. After writing a 150,000 word novel 8k words seems like a tear drop in a pond. No, a lake. After I moved past the feelings of hesitation and fear I got inspiration for the story I would write.

The story wrote itself. It was a firestorm of words and action. It was a beautiful time of creation. That was back around the 3rd of February. The story was finished in about two weeks. Since then all I've been doing is editing: cutting, chopping, rearranging, and throwing whole sections away.

When I began the editing process it was fun. That's strange to say. Especially if you listen to some writers complain about the process. They put the fear of God in you. When I put hands to plow though it seemed natural. I cut words that were unnecessary, changed dialogue that didn't work, made action flow more smoothly, and did whatever I could to make the story better.

I contacted three friends to beta read the story. Two of the guys have been especially busy, and haven't gotten back to me on their thoughts. I'm now working on my fourth draft, and my friend Marc, has let me know his thoughts each step along the way.

A Word About Marc:

Marc is not a fantasy reader. He's read your classics but he's more of a literary guy. This is good because he can read the story with unbias. Our friendship doesn't get in the way of his critiques.

Back To Our Regularly Schedule Program:

Not gonna lie, some of his suggestions have been discouraging. Not in a bad way. But in a I-don't-know-what-the-hell-I'm-going-to-do-with-this-blankety-blank-story-kind-of-way. My biggest problem with the story so far is the ending. I've changed it with every draft. My first ending came on a high note. My main character gave a rousing speech that riled up the crowd, and it set up future stories for bad assery. The problem was that the ending was not consistent with my main character's character. It is not a speech he would have made. He's a guy who's indifferent to the things that happen around him. He's more of a force of nature than a man. He does not contemplate his decisions. He just does. Saying that, that's a hard character to write. You have to consider every little thing he does.

I rewrote the ending a second time. It was terrible and not worth spilling words over.

My third ending was an improvement, and more consistent with the character, but still didn't work for the character.

This morning I finished a first round through my fourth draft. (With each draft I do two or three rounds through the story before moving on to the next draft.) I came to the ending and crossed out everything I wrote. I began writing a new ending. I believe this moves my story in a better direction for an end, but I wasn't satisfied with what I wrote. Not gonna lie, I'm getting aggravated. It began to turn into one of those moments where I take my ink pin and stab the manuscript to death. Luckily, I refrained and let the story live. Tomorrow I'll go back to work on it.

A minor problem I'm also working on is two sections of the story where Marc's not happy with my main character's characterization, and I can see his points, but I'm not as bothered by them. I may be looking at this with tinted lenses, but I just don't see it as big as deal as Marc does. While I want to take all of his suggestions into consideration I have to remember that he's not the only person that's going to read this story, and that's no slight to him. He's been a great help. But I have to take into consideration every person that may read this. What Marc likes they may hate. What they hate Marc will like. The best thing I can do is get the story to the point where I'm satisfied with it. These sections he's point out I enjoy. Could they use improving? Yes. But I'm not going to rework the scenes entirely. I like the way they unfold. I like the way Thoros - my main character - acts in these situations.

Editing is fun. It's all in your attitude. You can't let yourself get unleashed and lose all sense while doing it. You'll destroy your story, lapse into a depression, and won't resurface. You've got to let yourself have fun. Otherwise being so strict with the story will stress you out. You want the words to shine like a newly minted quarter, but there are going to be flaws no matter how many times you brush through the pages.

Neil Gaiman, one of  the most brilliant living writers, says that a novel can be best defined as a long piece of prose with something wrong with it. That statement can be taken a number of different ways, but it should be kept in mind, no matter what you write. You can polish and define and mold until your manuscript has no kinks, but even then there'll always be another problem. Eventually you're going to have to put your story out there to be read despite whatever's wrong with it. I'm trying to keep this in mind as I work on Thoros's short story.

Keep writing, friends

mark

*Clink the words Fantasy Faction. You will be taken to the contest page if you would like to enter the competition. Hurry. Deadline is looming.

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A Cause for Celebration

I've been away from the blog a long time. A much longer time than I'm normally away. My last post September 16, 2011. Part of that is because I haven't had much time for writing. For the past five months I've been working on a novel. The first draft began way back in July. July 24th of 2011 to be exact.

Today I typed the last sentence of Thronebreaker's final chapter.

It's a truly bittersweet feeling.

I'm excited because this is the first novel I've completed writing.

I'm sad because I've spent the last five months of my life with Thoros Thronebreaker, Faye Flamekisser, Rhezak, and Khul. Who am I going to spend my time with now? I know that there's editing and revisions to do (a lot of editing and revisions I'll admit), but that's not the same. While writing the first draft I was getting to know these characters. I learned what their personalities are like, what idiosyncrasies they have, what their viewpoints of the world were, etcetera etcetera. Once I start editing I'll refine all those things. I don't feel like there will be more to learn about these characters. Maybe there will be. I don't know.

I had planned on ending the book with an epilogue, but I don't want to pull a George Lucas.

The new year is starting off pretty well. I already have a cause for celebration. I'm also scripting a comic. My first comic script actually. I hope to finish that by the end of this week, or early next week. I'll keep you guys updated on the progress.

There are more posts to come.

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Even Heroes Die

This will be a short post. I may do a more in depth, and more thought out blog in a few days. I just wanted to take a moment to remember one of my heroes.

This author made me fall in love with fantasy after not having read a fantasy novel in 9 years.

This writer made me fall in love with words, and made we want to write my own stories.

This man left behind a legacy that will never be forgotten.

On this day of September in 2007 James Olive Rigney, Jr., otherwise known as Robert Jordan, passed away.

Rest in peace, Mr. Jordan.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.

-Excerpt from chapter one of The Eye of the World

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Words For Writers: Shock Factor

Ursula K. Le Guin must be one of the most brilliant women to ever live. I admire her so much. Not only is she brilliant but she is a prolific writer, whose stories are mind bending and intelligent, and are beautifully written. I don't believe there is a better writer of prose.

At 81 she doesn't publish as much as she once did. She recently released a book of poems. Her last novel was released in 2008. A book by the title of Lavinia. Stephen King included her novel The Lathe of Heaven in his list of 100 Greatest Horror Novels. You can find that list in his book Danse Macabre. Thankfully she regularly updates her blog. It is always an entertaining and enlightening read. Today she posted a blog titled Dangerous Writing, Dangerous Cover Copy. 


She opened the blog by talking about the word "edgy" is the fashionable word to praise books. Another word to go along with edgy is "gritty." Every time I read a review or check out a blurb or listen to someone talk about a newly published book - especially in the fantasy genre - the word gritty and other such words are heaped upon the novel. This is done to appeal to the readers of George R.R. Martin. Dude has built a gigantic fanbase because his books are edgy and gritty. What folks don't understand is that his books are to the fantasy genre that Alan Moore's Watchmen is to comic books. They are a commentary of fantasy, a look or a reflection of the genre.

The last few paragraphs of Ursula's blog killed me. I'm going to copy/past them here. However you should read the entire blog. Click here.

This excerpt from Le Guin's blog is going to knock your socks off. Enjoy!


    But I don’t think Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Bronte, Melville, or Steinbeck were writing to horrify, to shock or frighten or sicken, to sear eyeballs or to wrench guts. They were aware of audience, oh yes indeed, but their intentions were not violent. They were not in assault mode. A writer whose intention is to frighten and distress the reader has a very aggressive program and a very limited goal. Serious writers want to do something beyond asserting power over their audience, beyond self-satisfaction, beyond personal gain — even though they may want all those things very much.


    I think the mystery of art lies in this, that artists’ relationship is essentially with their work — not with power, not with profit, not with themselves, not even with their audience.


    If this is true, a writer’s relationship with readers has no need to be aggressive, exploitive, coercive, or collusive. To writers whose essential relationship is with their work, the shock, distress, and fear their work may cause their readers to feel are means to an end, their only way of saying what they have to say. They will use these dangerous means carefully, sparingly, at need. The effect can be immediate, long-lasting, and profound. It can last several thousand years.

    Writers whose work is not an end in itself but a means to gain fame, power, money, etc., may find that causing shock, fear, digust, etc. are a direct means to that end and can be hugely effective. They use them as a pusher uses drugs. The effect is immediate, brief, and trivial. It lasts until the next best-seller.


    Readers who want no more than to get their jollies from the latest exploitation of the latest shock fad are praised by the blurbs for their courage in daring to read dangerous revelations, but I suspect that they’re just as complacent as the readers of “cozy” fiction — risk-free, knowing exactly to expect.


    Good writers ask for our consent, in fact our participation in their work, our collaboration in its recreation on the stage as we watch it or on the page as we read it. I guess the reason they’re “good” writers is that they’re so good at winning consent and participation from us, persuading us to give them our trust, and rewarding it with something we did not expect.


    That’s quite different from asking us to sit there guzzling another jolt of starbug caffeine while reading a novel in order to have our panic buttons pushed again.


    Trust somebody who’s going to give us something we didn’t expect? But that could be dangerous!


    Never fear. You’re safe. Just trust the cover copy folks. They’re all out there, ready to wrench your guts and serve them up in a presentation of fried eyeballs and fugu in complacency sauce. Bon appétit!


** I can't figure out why the formatting of the blog is turning out so weird. I apologize. I'm not tech savvy enough to fix it. I hope you enjoyed the blog anyway.

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Words for Writers: Writing Goals

Every writer who puts pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, wants to be great. I don't believe people are born great writers. I believe people can become great. Sure some folks are born with more of a knack for composing, but they must fine tune their craft. If they do not they'll have talent that'll become dull like a knife.

Before I sat down to work on this blog I wondered what makes a great writer . . .

Here are a few things that popped into my mind:

~ Creativity

~ A knack for words

~ Desire

~ Discipline

Those are by no means definitive answers. They are necessary to every writer's quest. He should keep those as handy as a carpenter would his hammer. This blog is going to focus on one aspect that makes a writer great.

Goals.

Every writer should have them. I don't think you can write a short story, let alone a novel, without having certain goals in mind. Since July 24th I've been working on a story called Thronebreaker. It's unlikely this story will been seen by the eyes of another reader. Part of Thronebreaker is being written to give me the thrill of writing. Part of Thronebreaker is being written to give me practice. Part of Thronebreaker is to establish the mythology of this fantasy world, and the Otherverse (a dimension that will tie all of my stories together). Since the 24th of July I've written 33,142 words. I've filled 135 pages. Thronebreaker started out as a short story. I had planned for it to be around 25,000 words, and I wanted to submit it to a magazine. It has outgrown that goal, and there is no end in sight. You have to understand, I am no outliner. I hate it. It kills my creativity. I'm a discovery writer. I sit down, start writing, and discover the story along the away. I take a lot of rabbit trails, I write a bunch of boring pages, but I stumble upon things, and they turn into beautiful moments of story. Editing will be a bitch, but will be worth it when I'm reading the final product.

I said all that to get to this . . . Before I made goals for myself I was undisciplined and started four novels that I've never finished. One of them is on my computer still and hadn't been thought about in a year's time. Writing Thronebreaker reminded me of this novel. I opened the document to check and see how many words I had written before I stopped. It was somewhere around 30k words. I vowed to myself that I would not stop writing Thronebreaker at that point. I then vowed that I would finish Thronebreaker. I'm close to finishing the fourth chapter of Thronebreaker, and have seven chapters, plus an epilogue, left to write.

Goals.

The kind of goals you make are up to you. I'll share with you the goals I've made for myself.

4. Word Count

Some writers are adamant about having no word count. They claim that the count gets in the way of the quality of words. There's a little truth to that, but I think it's a stupid belief. You can always go back and improve the quality of the words you've written. One of the most important things for me is getting words on a page. One of the ways I do that is having a specific number of words I want to get on the page that day. Back in July I started out with a goal of 500 words. I hadn't written in a while, because as I've said before I'm a lazy guy, and 500 words didn't intimidate me. Some days I slapped the words on the page in twenty minutes. Other days it took me nearly an hour. After two weeks I upped the count to 700. Two weeks later I raised my goal to 900. I'm now writing 1000 words every morning. On a good day I meet the goal in about thirty minutes. I'll keep writing until 9 a.m., and then go about my day. Other days it's a slug fest and it takes me until 9 a.m. to meet my goal. I usually start writing around 7:30 in the morning. Eventually I would like to stretch myself so that I am writing two thousand words a day.

3. Words

Some of you are seeing where words rank in, and are turning your nose up at my goals. Words are important. You can't tell a story without them. The problem is that sometimes words get in the way of a story. If you want to understand what I'm talking about read nearly anything by Ursula K. Le Guin. That's no slight against her. There is no finer writer of prose. I believe she is overlooked. One, because she's a woman. Two, because she unashamedly writes Science Fiction and Fantasy (unlike Margaret Atwood). Reading The Wizard of Earthsea is always a chore for me. It's so beautifully written I read passages two, three, four times. I'm admiring her prose and have forgotten what's going on with the story. I don't shy away from writing prose that is beautiful to read, but at the same time I do my best not to let it take away from the story I'm writing.

2. Write Everyday

Just before I started working on Thronebreaker I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts The Nerdist. The special guest was Neil Gaiman. Mr. Gaiman is one of my absolute favorite writers. The first book I ever read by him was Anansi Boys. To this day it's one my favorite books I read. I was then led to read American Gods which I enjoyed in an entirely different manner. If you're a writer you must read Neil Gaiman. The man is so brilliant, and such a phenomenal story teller, it pisses me off just a little bit. You should do yourself a favor and download the episode of The Nerdist he was a guest of. He made a comment that scared the day lights out of me, and is the reason I do not fail to write everyday:

If you don't writer everyday you'll never write a novel.

That was a hard pill to swallow. I'm naturally a pretty lazy guy. If I don't have to do something I won't do it. And if there is something that I must do I'll put it off until the last minute, and get it accomplished with haste. That's just the way I am. The above comment lit a fire under me and I wake up every single morning at 7 a.m., and I am writing by 7:30 or 8 o'clock because I'm determined to write and finish a novel.

1. Story

Of the goals I've listed Story is the most important goal of them all. You can't write everyday, put words on paper, or meet a certain count unless you have a compelling story to tell. Stories are why readers read. It's seldom for the words. The fact that Twilight has been guzzled by millions of readers is testimony to the fact that readers read for story. Whether or not Twilight is good story I cannot say, but people - millions of people - picked up a book and read. Kids around the word followed Harry Potter from beginning to end because of a great story. Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, C.S. Lewis, Homer, Dante Alighieri, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc. etc. have been read for years and years because they all told wonderful stories. All other goals pale in the light of telling a great story. Making the story the most important goal gives you the desire to write everyday. Words force themselves on the paper when you have a great story to tell. If the words you write aren't so beautiful at first the great thing is that you can go back and edit. Forget about the words you're writing and tell a story that will make someone pick up a book and read.

These are my goals. Each of these things motivate me to write when I don't feel like it. Over the past month I've wanted to stop working on Thronebreaker, but I've written no matter what. Except Sundays. I take that day off from writing so my mind can rest and refuel. If you have no goals when writing you should take some time, between now and the next time you write, and make some. Who knows what may happen.

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The Help Helped Motivate Me To Blog

I haven't blogged in a while. I've been lazy. I do this often. I won't apologize. I'm not that sorry. ha.

Before I review The Help do know that I've seen a number of movies since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. Here's a rundown of the movies I've seen: Captain America, Cowboys & Aliens, and Crazy Stupid Love. The best of these by far was Crazy Stupid Love. Cowboys and Aliens is the most disappointing movie I've seen all summer. It ruined my whole Saturday. No lie.

Second on the agenda is to welcome a number of new people to the Madhouse. Thanks to everyone who has started following my blog. It's appreciated. Maybe this influx of new followers will motivate me to blog on a more consistent basis, but don't base your life on it. That's one of my charms. You never know what to expect. Here's a few things I can guarantee:

I. I will not blog consistently. This is why my blog will never see as many followers as George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, John Scalzi, or Patrick Rothfuss. Those are four blogs I follow regularly and in my dreams I aspire for the Madhouse to be as cool as their home on the net. You should check those guys out. You won't be sorry.

II. When I do blog it will not be a waste of your time. I don't want you to come here and waste your time. I've been working on a story called Thronebreaker. It's taken a lot of time away from the Madhouse. When I have planned to update the site I've been working on this story instead. Sorry but my personal writing time is more important than updating the Madhouse. This story is pretty important to the mythos of the universe my stories will be taking place. Earth is included in this universe and so are other planets. One named Nardanth. This is the planet Thronebreaker takes place on. All the planets are connected by a realm called the Otherverse. I'm going to stop talking there. A good writer is like a good magician. He doesn't give up all his secrets. In the next few weeks you can expect a single, or maybe a few, blogs on the topic of Writing Goals. I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately. When it's fully percolated in my brain it'll make it's way on here.

Now, on to the movie review . . .

A few weeks ago my wife and I decided to have a weekend get away. We try to get away from Tulsa as often as we can. The last time we did so it was for a vacation to Hawaii. That was how we celebrated our 2 year anniversary. That was back in May. Almost three months have passed since then, and we figured it was time for a pause from our life in Tulsa.

My wife was able to get us a king size room, in a grade A hotel, in OKC for $46. We jumped on the opportunity to get out of town. The icing and cherry on top for my wife is that a new outlet mall has just opened and I'll be spending my day there tomorrow while my wife spends my hard earned cash.

We're hanging out in the hotel now catching up on the latest episode of True Blood. We got into town about 3pm, checked into our badass room, and got ready for a night out on the town. Our night out on the town consisted of dinner and a movie. Unfortunately our dinner choice wasn't the best, and we'll have to redeem ourselves for lunch tomorrow. The movie choice was much better.

From the very first trailers I knew I wanted to see The Help. I'm no discriminators when it comes to movies. If it looks like I'm going to get the bang for my buck I'll go. The Help looked like one of those movies that would give me my money's worth.

The Help is set during the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement. It focuses on three main characters: Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny. Skeeter is a recent grad of Ole Miss and has aspirations of being a big time journalist. Aibileen and Minny both work as help for well off white families. Minny works for Hilly Holbrook the bitchtastic queen of the socialites, and Aibileen works for Elizabeth Leefolt who wants to be Hilly.

I didn't find out that The Help was based on a novel until a few weeks ago. This intrigued me even more. From the opening frames the movie was enjoyable. The help go to their jobs. They work in the white people's homes cooking, cleaning, and taking care of their children. The help are looked down upon. They do not eat with their bosses. They prepare their meals, and if they do eat the meal they prepared they do not eat at the dining room tables. They eat in the kitchen. Alone. Some are not even allowed to use the bathrooms in the houses.

Skeeter is different from the other white people. She enjoys the help. She had a close relationship with a woman who helped her family for years. She raised Skeeter until she went off to Ole Miss. When she comes home from school she finds this woman is no longer working for the family. Skeeter is told that she has woman has moved to live with her family in Chicago.

Soon after arriving in town Skeeter gets a job at the local newspaper writing an advice column on housekeeping. Skeeter knows little about keeping a house so she gets Aibileen to help her. The causes a relationship to bud between the two. As Skeeter grows closer to Aibileen she conceives the idea for a book written from the perspective of the help.

This is where the movie takes off. Some of the stories included in the help you see unfold on screen. Other stories you get to enjoy the telling of from different women. There is one particular scene that takes place that is one of the funniest moments I've ever seen in a movie. I'm not going to tell you anything about it. You'll need to see it for yourself.

The movie is extremely well written. I was taken in from the moment is started. Emma Stone is one of the best actresses coming up in Hollywood. I've enjoyed her since I first saw her in Zombieland. Before finding out much about the upcoming Spider-man I decided I'd see it because she was starring as Gwen Stacey. This is the first movie I've seen her in where she was the flagship actor. I believe one day she could go down as a Julia Roberts. She's a pretty all American girl who's charming, and is a fine actress.

The rest of the cast is fantastic. On many occasions Octavia Spencer (Minny) steals the show. I don't recall seeing her in much, but she is one funny lady. The said scene that is one of the funniest moments ever is one of Octavia's focal scenes. Man, I'm laughing just thinking about it. Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays the part of Hilly, also has many defining moments in the movie. She is one mean lady. Also, who knew Ron Howard could produce such a pretty daughter. There were times, though, when I hated her character regardless of how pretty she is.

My favorite character of the movie was Aibileen played by Viola Davis. She is the hero of the movie. You grow close to the character and you sympathize for her throughout the movie. She's not a weak character. She begins the movie as a timid woman but as she sets out on the trying path of helping Skeeter writer her book she becomes a strong woman. Like Minny, Aibileen has a character defining moment of the movie. It was much different than Minny's but just as satisfying.

My only complaint was the movie's ending. It's a minor complaint. I can't say why I want to complain. It was just bitter sweet, and I expected things to end on more of a high note. This by no means ruins the movie. For myself it was just meh.

All in all I give the movie an A+. It's one of my favorite movies I've seen all summer.

The summer movie season is coming to an end. I've done a pretty good job of reviewing the movies I've seen. There's only two movies I haven't seen that I planned on: Green Lantern and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I don't think I missed out on anything as far as GL goes. I'm sorry that I haven't got to check out Apes yet. I've heard great things. Next week I plan on seeing Conan the Barbarian. It'll be the last movie I see this summer. I'm exited about seeing this movie. Jason Momoa was awesome as Khal Drogo and I think he'll do a great job as one of the most recognized characters of fantasy literature. Personally, I hope he overshadows Arnold's legacy. His movies were good but I don't think they were true to what Robert E. Howard envisioned. We shall see.

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