Remaining June Reviews
Jul. 1st, 2016 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearA few reviews to catch up on before I do my stats!
Cherub: The Killing
This was the next in the series by Robert Muchamore, and I'm still really enjoying listening to these. Things came to a head for protagonist James when all his friends decided to stop talking to him because his behaviour had become unacceptable. This is a pretty strong stance to take against your main character, but it was definitely deserved - I've always had problems with James, and it's good to see that his behaviour is meant to be seen as bad. As ever, the book was too short, but had lots of fun stuff along the way, and enough time spent with the other, much more likeable characters for me still to enjoy it. I'm very interested to see how James develops as a character after this.
The Amulet of Samarkand
This is the first in a series of books by Jonathan Stroud, which were recommended to me earlier in the year. I enjoyed listening to this, not least because it had an excellent narrator. It really took me by surprise, because the title made me think it was going to be classic fantasy, and it was actually set in the modern day. The main character was a demon called Bartimaeus, which is much more plain-spoken and forthright than you might expect, and made for an irreverent and enjoyable companion throughout the book. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it enough to want to pursue the other two books in the triology, but I might get round to them at some point.
Howard's End
This is the current family book club, due to be discussed next Saturday, so I won't go into much detail here. I remember being a huge fan of E M Forster during my university years, so I was looking forward to revisiting this book. It surprised me in a lot of ways, as it wasn't quite how I remembered it, but I got quite a lot out of it and I'm looking forward to hearing what other members of my family have to say about it next weekend.
Independence Day: Resurgence
If anything, this film has cemented my growing view that my opinions and those of Empire magazine no longer co-incide. I have disagreed with four or five of their reviews in recent months, and this was no different. They gave it four stars, and I would be more inclined to go along with Total Film's two. It was mostly okay, but it lost a lot of the charm of the original, from the characters knowing all about the aliens beforehand and expecting the renewed attack. It all felt very jaded and much more remote, since the world was now very different to our own, and thus much more difficult to relate to. The world-weariness of Jeff Goldblum's character felt rather demoralising to me, when he was really funny in the first one. Judd Hirsch is always good value, and he was brilliant whenever he was on screen, but this wasn't often and he really didn't have much to do. And the "new generation" of characters mostly just really annoyed me. Two of the fighter pilots are girls! But one of them is only noteworthy because she had nice hair, and the other one's arc was all about being rescued by her boyfriend (Liam Hemsworth sets gender equality back fifty years with four simple words: "I got ya, baby!"). Sigh.
Cherub: The Killing
This was the next in the series by Robert Muchamore, and I'm still really enjoying listening to these. Things came to a head for protagonist James when all his friends decided to stop talking to him because his behaviour had become unacceptable. This is a pretty strong stance to take against your main character, but it was definitely deserved - I've always had problems with James, and it's good to see that his behaviour is meant to be seen as bad. As ever, the book was too short, but had lots of fun stuff along the way, and enough time spent with the other, much more likeable characters for me still to enjoy it. I'm very interested to see how James develops as a character after this.
The Amulet of Samarkand
This is the first in a series of books by Jonathan Stroud, which were recommended to me earlier in the year. I enjoyed listening to this, not least because it had an excellent narrator. It really took me by surprise, because the title made me think it was going to be classic fantasy, and it was actually set in the modern day. The main character was a demon called Bartimaeus, which is much more plain-spoken and forthright than you might expect, and made for an irreverent and enjoyable companion throughout the book. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it enough to want to pursue the other two books in the triology, but I might get round to them at some point.
Howard's End
This is the current family book club, due to be discussed next Saturday, so I won't go into much detail here. I remember being a huge fan of E M Forster during my university years, so I was looking forward to revisiting this book. It surprised me in a lot of ways, as it wasn't quite how I remembered it, but I got quite a lot out of it and I'm looking forward to hearing what other members of my family have to say about it next weekend.
Independence Day: Resurgence
If anything, this film has cemented my growing view that my opinions and those of Empire magazine no longer co-incide. I have disagreed with four or five of their reviews in recent months, and this was no different. They gave it four stars, and I would be more inclined to go along with Total Film's two. It was mostly okay, but it lost a lot of the charm of the original, from the characters knowing all about the aliens beforehand and expecting the renewed attack. It all felt very jaded and much more remote, since the world was now very different to our own, and thus much more difficult to relate to. The world-weariness of Jeff Goldblum's character felt rather demoralising to me, when he was really funny in the first one. Judd Hirsch is always good value, and he was brilliant whenever he was on screen, but this wasn't often and he really didn't have much to do. And the "new generation" of characters mostly just really annoyed me. Two of the fighter pilots are girls! But one of them is only noteworthy because she had nice hair, and the other one's arc was all about being rescued by her boyfriend (Liam Hemsworth sets gender equality back fifty years with four simple words: "I got ya, baby!"). Sigh.
