Review: Jurassic World

I finally got the chance to see Jurassic World on Friday with my cousin Wendy. We were both pretty excited, being big Jurassic Park fans. I was also a little worried about it, especially when I think about how the third one disappointed me. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the third one, but I wouldn't miss it if they had never made it. So this movie had me really hoping that they would make up for the third movie. It didn't disappoint at all.

The story picks up 20 odd years after the events of the first movie. The park has been opened for a while. It was rebranded as Jurassic World and gets 20,000 people through the gates a day. In order to maintain numbers the scientists at the park cook up a hybrid dinosaur in their lab. It quickly becomes obvious that this was a huge mistake because the dinosaur they created is highly intelligent and vicious. It breaks loose in the park and wreaks havoc. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howards star in the movie as park employees trying to bring the dinosaur down and save the day. Bryce Dallas Howard plays park executive Claire, who originally oversaw the creation of the dinosaur and who is desperately trying to track down her nephews amongst the chaos. Chris Pratt plays Owen, the Velociraptor wrangler. He has trained the Velociraptors to view him as their alpha. Owen teams up with Claire to track down her nephews and bring down the dinosaur.

Right off the bat the movie’s storyline is far better than that of the third movie. The third movie’s storyline was fairly weak and it relied too heavily on making the big bad dino scary. The storyline in Jurassic World is strong and the scariness of the big bad is more an added bonus than the saving grace. I especially loved that this movie didn’t rely on the T-Rex and Velociraptors to be antagonists. They took these dinosaurs in a different direction and gave them protagonist-type roles. It was a refreshing change from the other movies. I think if they had of followed suit with the other three movies with those dinos it would’ve been old and uninteresting.

Despite the fresh take on the dinosaur storyline this movie took, it still managed to retain the classic style that the first two movies had. The banter, dino interaction and filming style all seemed to reinvigorate that 90’s style that I and many others loved so much. The creators of the movie clearly had a lot of respect for the original movie and made sure they didn’t bastardise it in any way. I will admit that it still isn’t as good as the first two, but it comes pretty damn close. It’s a bit slow at the beginning of the movie, but it picks up quickly and is pretty much non-stop for the rest of the time. I don’t think they could’ve have got any closer to the original movie quality-wise as they did.

All-in-all this movie was everything I was hoping it would be. It completely made up for the third movie and I’m so happy that everyone who worked on it seemed to carry a great respect for the original movie because it’s what made the movie so enjoyable. Huge thumbs up from a loyal Jurassic Park fan!

Review: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments: Book 1)

For my birthday this year my beautiful friend Carol bought me the first two Mortal Instruments books by Cassandra Clare. I’d been wanting to read the series for age but never got around to buying them for myself. I finally got around to reading the first in the series, City of Bones a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t wait to have time to get on here and tell you guys my thoughts on it.

City of Bones revolves around Clary Fray, a girl who discovers that she comes from a family of demon hunters called ‘shadowhunters’. She teams up with other shadowhunters when her mum goes missing and discovers the world that her mum kept her sheltered from her whole life. There are demons, werewolves, vampires and more that Clary and her friends face. She also has to face Valentine, a shadowhunter who was thought to be dead. He terrorises the shadowhunters in the search for the ‘Mortal Cup’ and his self-assigned mission to eradicate the ‘downworlders’ (werewolves, vampires, etc.). Through her battle with Valentine, Clary finds out more about her family’s past than she ever expected to.

I actually really enjoyed this book. I ended up watching the movie when I was already about six chapters in and got really worried because I didn’t really like the movie that much. I kept reading though and I’m so glad I did. The book is so full of storyline and information that I was quickly able to see why the movie didn’t work well. The story was intriguing and fun to read. I really like these supernatural or post-apocalyptic types of books. I love to see the different versions of the world that authors can create, mainly because that’s the type of story I like to write myself.

Overall I think it’s a really great book for its genre. It’s not anything ground-breaking, but it’s easy enough to read and the story is compelling enough that it has me excited to read the rest of the series. If you’re into this genre of book then I definitely recommend giving it a go!

Review: Wild by Cheryl Strayed

I’ve been making a point to make more time for recreational reading lately. I lost the taste for it over the last couple of years with all the uni reading I’ve had to do. By the time I’d finish reading a chapter on global security, Australian law, criminal psychology or American politics the absolute last thing I used to want to do was read anything else. The past couple of months I’ve found books that I just haven’t been able to resist though, and Wild by Cheryl Strayed was one of them.

I reluctantly went and saw the movie adaption of the book earlier in the year. I ended up absolutely loving it. It was one the best memoir-based movies I’d ever seen. I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I went and picked up the book. It didn’t take me long at all to get through, even with the myriad of assessments I had to get through. For those of you who don’t know who Cheryl Strayed is let me explain. In the early nineties Cheryl’s mother died suddenly of cancer. I believe it was about 45 days from her diagnosis to her death. Her mother’s death destroyed her and she put herself down a path that ruined all the other facets of her life. She turned to drugs and extramarital affairs. Eventually she realised what she was doing to herself and she set out to change. She decided to walk the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) for three months by herself. She walked from the Mojave to the Washington/Oregon border. Approximately 1,100 miles.  

The book isn’t really written in chronological order. It follows Cheryl along the PCT but also flashes back through times spent with her mum and family and the terrible times she went through after her mum’s death. A poorly written book would have felt disjointed when structured like this, but luckily Wild is very well written. I absolutely loved it. I was actually really worried because I’ve fallen in love with movies based on books before only to find out that the book is kind of crappy. I’m so happy to report that I didn’t have that problem with Wild. I was also really happy to find that the movie hadn’t veered too far off the path of the book.

The more I read it the more I became invested in Cheryl’s story. She didn’t tiptoe around anything that happened to her or anything she did to herself and the people around her. I found the story inspirational but kind of in a more gritty way than a lot of other books in its genre. I find it similar to Lena Dunham’s book in that way. Now, before you all start thinking I’m crazy because those two books are completely different, I know they’re nowhere near the same. What I did find the same was the way I felt their stories were told and the inspiration I took from them. Lena Dunham’s book was also very raw and honest in the way it portrayed her and her experiences. I much prefer when people are able to unabashedly show the ugly things along with all the good things that got them where they are. It shows the rest of us that everyone experiences ugly times, but you can get through them and be better for it (ugh, now I’m getting mushy!).

All-in-all this was a fantastic read. It’s really well written which makes it easy to read and even though she went through heavy stuff and she’s real about it, the book isn’t a downer. It makes you think about life and what you can do to make your own just that little bit better. If you’re looking for a good memoir-type book then definitely give this one a try!

Bookfest June 2015!

Hey guys! 

I went to the Lifeline Bookfest here in Brisbane the other day. I went with a clear list and unfortunately none of the things on my list were found. I did pick up four others though, which I'm happy with. As you can see from the pic I got three Star Wars books (I know, they're old and kinda geeky but I don't care!), and a Buffy one. I could only find the second in the series of the Buffy ones, but since I never even knew they existed I'm not complaining. In the pic you can see the last four Mortal Instruments books. I had to find these on Gumtree because I scoured the Bookfest tables and couldn't find them, but I thought I'd add them into this post because I bought them on the same day. I got the first two of the series for my birthday from my lovely friend Carol and I've already read the first and loved it so I'm really excited to read the rest. I've gotten really behind with my post, especially my book reviews because of my crazy uni schedule this semester, but I'll start playing catch-up this week, I promise! I mainly wanted to get this little post up to give a shout out to the Lifeline Bookfest because it's an awesome fund-raising event. You can find some awesome books for such a little price and the proceeds go to a good cause. It's final day is tomorrow and if you want some more info here's the link to their site: http://www.uccommunity.org.au/lifeline-brisbane-bookfest

I just wanted to also add that I'm planning on moving the site to a different platform as soon as I can figure it out (or afford to pay someone to do it for me!), so if there's some weird stuff happening with the site over the next few weeks that's why. :)