The Desolation of Smaug

So here it is, the trailer (well, one of many more trailers to come, I'm sure) for the second part of the Hobbit movies.  The Hobbit is one of my favorite books, so I'm slightly bummed that the fim version doesn't follow that storyline very closely, but I get that the movies are supposed to sort of encompass the entire LOTR universe.  That's cool, I guess.  I can get on board.

So, I don't know about anyone else, but I think Bilbo Baggins is pretty crush-worthy.  First of all, despite the hairy feet, he's kind of adorable (why yes, I will happily admit that Martin Freeman, the actor who plays Bilbo, happens to be one of my few celebrity crushes.  I mean, he's been in the Hitchhiker's Guide movie, Sherlock the tv show, Hot Fuzz (one of my favorite movies), AND he's Bilbo?  Who DOESN'T love this guy?!).  Second, Bilbo is a seriously badass and epic hero.  Yes, he starts out wanting to sit around in his little* hobbit hole drinking tea and eating biscuits and making nice floral arrangements (okay I don't know if he actually does this, but arranging flowers seems like a hobbit-y type of thing to do).  He's not into the whole adventure scene, going out and fighting scary things and slaying dragons and rescuing looted treasures and stuff.  But that's sort of exactly what makes him a freakingly awesome hero.  Right? Because anyone who's INTO that kind of stuff can go out and do it and maybe be pretty good at adventuring and all that; but you kind of have to admire Bilbo because he's terrified and uncomfortable and doing something so far beyond what he ever imagined he would or could do in his  life--and THAT takes some serious guts.  THAT, I think, is what being a hero is about--being ballsy and sticking up for and rescuing your friends and standing up against the bad guys, even when you're terrified.

The movie comes out in December!  Can't wait.

Put the first movie, The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey, on hold at APL or
find the book in our catalog

*I say "little," but let's be honest, that hobbit hole is HUGE and pretty freaking luxurious.  I'd trade my tiny little apartment for Bilbo's hobbit hole any day.

‘THE MAZE RUNNER’ FIRST LOOK: GET LOST IN THE GLADE

Best maze EVER

Apparently the picture here isn't a screenshot from the upcoming movie version of James Dashner's The Maze Runner, but is just a picture director Wes Ball created for himself as inspiration for the filming.  Should Wes Ball happen to stumble upon this blog, my thoughts to you are: PLEASE MAKE THE MAZE IN THE MAZE RUNNER LOOK EXACTLY LIKE THIS.  It is awesome.  So freaking awesome.

For those of you who haven't read The Maze Runner, it's about this kid Thomas who wakes up in an elevator that rises up out of the ground and drops him off into this lush, green pasture-type place called the Glade, where a bunch of other kids -- all dudes, no girls -- sleep, eat, work, hang out, and basically live, trapped in the Glade, with no adults in sight.  It sounds kind of awesome, but it isn't -- Thomas can't remember anything other than his name, a lot of the other guys in the Glade are hardened and tough, they have no memories or any idea why they've been brought here, and seemingly the only way to escape what is essentially their prison is to try to find their way through a maze that changes each morning and is deadly to be trapped in at night.  Also, there's no girls (this is not a main plot point.  Thomas doesn't sit around wishing there were girls.  I'm just saying, a green field with a bunch of smelly guys and no girls?  Lame.)  There's a lot of suspense in The Maze Runner, plus a couple of pretty good plot twists.  It's not like, my most favorite YA book ever, but it's definitely pretty great.  Worth reading for sure, two thumbs up, etc.

The Maze Runner will star Dylan O'Brien as Thomas, and the official movie release date is currently set at February 14, 2014.  Valentine's Day!  Nothing says romantic like a dystopian movie about teenagers who've had their memories wiped and are forced to fight for their survival, right?

You Had a Good Run, Uncle Vernon

So I'm sure as many of you know, our beloved (and Harry's much despised) Uncle Vernon Dursley passed away this past Thursday in England.

Obviously as you can tell, I haven't posted much (i.e. at all) the past couple weeks, mainly because I've been feeling a little under the weather lately (weird combination of sore throat and migraines; I'm shaking my fist at you, weird and windy Iowa weather!).  But the news of Richard Griffiths's passing stirred me enough to drag myself on to the internet and fire up the old blog again--okay, actually I'm work right now and therefore probably would've been on the internet anyway.  That being said,  I did feel pretty emotional about the loss of the actor who played Uncle Vernon.

Here's the thing about Vernon Dursley, his misunderstood (but also pretty jerky, even if she did sort of come around in the end) wife, and his pretty annoying (again, even if he did sort of turn out slightly okay) son.  Actually,  here's the thing about pretty much all of the "Harry Potter" villains: they are awesome.  They are fantastically awesome.  Yeah, you hate them, because that's what they're basically there for in any story--to be evil and therefore be hated for their evilness while we cheer for the good guys and, you know, their goodness.  But you also kind of love the HP evildoers, too, don't you?*  When I think of say, the White Witch in "Narnia," I don't feel any particular fondness for her; she's just a jerk, and I hate her, and I'm glad when she's gone.

But Voldemort?  Totally fascinating.  I wanted to know everything about him.  I love seeing his weird lizard face on screen and took a strange delight in his quest to rid the magical world of Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore.  J.K. Rowling's bad guys aren't just bad guys--they're characters with histories and quirks, and they're interesting.  Maybe you wouldn't want to run into any of them in real life on the street, but from a safe distance, they're pretty freakin' fun.  I'm glad all ends well for Harry and company (well, minus a twin and a few others), but come on, let's be real: what's the HP-universe without a little Voldemort in it?

So back to Richard Griffiths.  Vernon Dursley, as written by Rowling, is a deliciously mean-spirited, fat old man that I absolutely despised, and I felt a lot of satisfaction each time Harry or another character managed to one-up him (which, yeah, was pretty much most of the time).  But Griffiths made that character.  He was the perfect Vernon Dursley--a totally bossy, petty, garish, contemptible, and kinda insecure guy of mediocre intelligence--and portrayed Harry's uncle in a way I doubt any other actor could.  A guy's got to have pretty damn good acting chops to make you not only hate him, not only love to hate him, but also feel genuine affection for.  So I suppose that's the finest praise I can give: Mr. Griffiths, you had some damn good acting chops.  I will think of you fondly each time I watch "Harry Potter" (which will, of course, be many, many times).

*The correct answer to this is: Yes.  Yes, you do.

Movies!

I absolutely cannot wait for the November release of The Hunger Games and the second installment of The Hobbit in December; they're probably the two movies I'm looking forward to the most this year.  In the meantime, though, there's Oz: the Great and Powerful (March), The Great Gatsby (May), and The City of Bones (August) to look forward to.  (The Sea of Monsters, the second Percy Jackson book, is also coming out in August, but I have mixed feelings about that one.  I didn't care for the fact that Percy is 11-years-old in The Lightning Thief, but like, 20 in the movie.  Seriously, he looked older than me!)

So here's the trailer for The Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones, which is the first in a series of six books by Cassandra Clare (the sixth book comes out next year).  I'm sure many of you have already read it, but if not, I'd definitely recommend it.  The story begins when 15-year-old Clary witnesses a murder at the Pandemonium Club in New York City.  Sounds like a call-the-cops kinda situation right?  Yes, except the murderers in this case are seemingly invisible to everyone but Clary.  Soon she's drawn into the world of Shadowhunters, whose mission is to hunt demons.  It's a supernatural and suspenseful and generally awesome read; it's also slated to become the Next Big Thing after Twilight and The Hunger Games.  That's a pretty bold prediction, I think, but who knows?

APL currently has three copies of the book which, as of today, are each are checked out, with two people on the holds list.  If you're interested, definitely get on that list now!  I guarantee the request list will only get longer and longer the closer we get to the movie's release date.  (No pressure or anything though... :)

Apparently a movie is in the works for the first book in Clare's The Infernal Devices series, which is set in Victorian-era England and is a prequel to The Mortal Instruments.  She's also currently in the process of writing another series, The Dark Artifices, a series of sequels to The Mortal Instruments.  Geez, Cassandra Clare is one busy lady!  Gonna be honest, it made me tired just writing all that out.