Movie Review: World War Z

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This was one I missed in theaters, but I got it from Redbox over the weekend. Gotta say, I really loved it!

I tried to read the book several months ago, and for me, it was a dud. I won't go too much into why, except to say that there wasn't a common thread or character throughout it. It was a collection of stories that read like mini episodes of Dateline. In and of itself, that's not bad, but there wasn't one common character to follow and root for, so I kept getting bored. I skimmed a lot and barely finished. (For more details, see my review.)

In the film, though, Brad Pitt's character (obviously) is the one you're rooting for throughout, which makes the story much more cohesive.

Plot: Having recently quit his job working for the state department to spend more time with his family, Jerry (Brad Pitt) is thrown into the chaos of the spreading zombie contagion. The only way to protect his family is to jump back in and tried to pinpoint patient zero, in the hopes of perhaps finding a way to counter the disease. The plot was believable and unrolled easily, with no confusion or boredom.

Dystopian World: Of course, chaos and dystopia ensue for Gerry. I thought the world building was well-done. The chaos in the cities, especially the Jerusalem scene was just so stinkin' intense, it was hard to look away from the screen. There was also a lot of talk about how it doesn't really zero in on a zombie, but I don't think that's a very fair critique. You see lots of zombies and you don't feel like you didn't get a good look. There's enough zombie gore to satisfy most die-hard zombie-lovers, and you even see the quick (12 seconds, in fact) turning of human beings to undead when they're bitten. I thought that was the most disturbing image in the film.

Twists: Being an action film, there weren't really any major, shocking twists. The plot twisted and turned as it went on it's way, though, and, as I said before, I never got bored. It was a well-paced, well-told story. 

Characters: Brad Pitt, whom I'm not always a huge fan of, did a great job. The characters felt, real, believable, and easy to root for. You just couldn't help it. 

Overall, the film was exciting, the scenery amazing, and the story, easy to follow. I think it's a great contribution to the zombie and dystopian genres. If you haven't seen it yet, I'd highly recommend it!

Did anyone else see this film? What did you think of it?

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Top Ten Tuesday: Best/Worst Series Enders

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list  that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Top Ten Best/Worst Series Enders (All covers courtesy of Goodreads.com unless otherwise linked.)

Worst Enders:

3. Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis--I actually don't like putting this on a "worst" list, because it really wasn't. I didn't mind it, I was just disappointed by the final book. It's called "The Last Battle," but it's actually very slow and somewhat anti-climatic. What happened was pretty cool, but it just didn't feel as engaging as other stories.

2. The Twilight Sagaby Stephenie Meyer--I was actually a pretty big Twilight fan while the series was being put out, but I really hated the end of book 4. It felt like she changed her mind right before the end. She set us up for a huge battle, but then when everyone got there, they just changed their minds and went home. Really? I will say that, surprisingly, the movie did a better job with it. We got to see the whole battle before it was retracted, which made the ending feel more real and justified. At least to me. :D

1. The Girl that Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson--I've talked about this before, but I totally hated this series, mostly because of the way it ended. Book 1 was okay, but this was a case of the author setting us up for something, then changing his mind fifty pages before the end of the series. I kept reading, hoping it would get better. Afterward, I decided it had been a colossal waste of time.

Best Enders:

5. All is Well by Gerald N. Lund--Such a great conclusion to an epic historical fiction saga! It ended on the perfect note and I totally loved it!

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4. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins--I know lots of people didn't like book 3, but I think that's to be expected. Parts of it did feel rushed to me, but the end of the book--and I mean the VERY end--kind of made the story for me. Maybe I'm a sap, but overall I really liked it.

3. Confessor by Terry Goodkind--I won't say it was all kinds of epic, but it got to the point where I really didn't know how he would end the series and solve all the problems he'd come up with over 11 books. I ended up being pretty impressed with what he did.

2. The Deadly Hallows by J.K.Rowling--I know people had some complaints about book 7, but most of them didn't bother me. I still started reading and just couldn't stop, finishing this tome in only 2-3 days. In my book, that's a pretty great finale. Plus, we got lots of tragedy, battles, and a fitting end to an epic villain. I especially liked the "19 Years Later" afterward. The line where Harry tells his son that he was named after two Hogwarts headmasters and one of them (referencing Snape) was the bravest man he'd ever known is, in my opinion, one of the best lines I've ever read. I still tear up when I think of it.

1. A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson--So you totally saw this coming, right? I know I'm a broken record on the subject of this series, but I can't emphasize enough how great the final book was. The most amazing, epic, battle-ridden, awesome character arcs, in all other ways incredible series ender! Everything we could have hoped for over fourteen books and literally thousands of pages!

Bonus: Enders That I Can't Wait for (the Veronicas!):

2. Allegiant by Veronica Roth

1. Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi

What are your Best/Worst Picks?

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Creative Challenge: Character Sketch

Last week, I put up an image of a landscape on Musings on Fantasia and asked my readers what it made them think of. I actually got a really great reaction to that post. So, I decided to try a similar post on this blog. Only this time, its a person, rather than a place.

Look at the image and come up with a brief character sketch of who you see.

Here's mine:

This is a character from my epic fantasy series, Dragon Magic. He's a soldier from the Deep Lands, south of the Six Realms, who participates in an invasion of the prosperous kingdom. He rides a massive, ferocious black dragon and fights with a spear that spouts brown fire.

These pale-faced, black-cloaked soldiers invade my fantasy land and kidnap several of my main characters. They come from a society that sanctions slavery and even human sacrifice in service of commerce. They dabble in magic so dark, it's forbidden in the northern lands, and use it to conquer.

And they're about to be very surprised when the Six Realms fight back...

I pinned this image  (on my Character Archetypes board) because it reminded me so much of the characters in my story.

How about you? What kind of character sketch does this image evoke for you?

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Follow Friday--I Gotta Read That!

Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers -- but you have to know -- the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow us to show off more new blogs!

How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools -- keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them "hi" in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you!

What book (or TV show) have you not read that seemingly everyone else has? 

There are tons! But I'll go with Julie Kagawa! Everyone I know is reading her books, but I've never picked any of them up! *Hangs head in shame* I seriously doubt I'll get to any before the end of the year, but maybe in 2014. Wish me luck! 

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How about you? What have you not read that everyone else has? 

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Thoughts for Thursday: Flashback to Friends!

Thoughts for Thursday is a new feature hosted by Musings on Fantasia and LKHill.  In this meme, we share thoughts or quotes that we know or have recently come across. Each week there is a specific subject or theme. These can be quotes from books, quotes by famous people, (quotes by YOU, perhaps ;D). Anything from anywhere is game, though we do ask that you keep your quote to a few sentences at most. Don't quote, for example, entire passages of a book or essay. These can be funny quips, cool sayings, hair-raising antidotes, movie lines, any kind of quote you can think of!

Just have fun, collect awesome sayings by awesome people, and try to be inspired!

I decided to do a fun one this week. I was a bigfan back in the day, and still watch a fair number of re-runs. So, this week's theme is Quotes from Friends! (For more quotes, check out my other blog.)

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Book Review: The Samaritan's Pistol

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Today I'm reviewing The Samaritan's Pistol by Eric Bishop. It took me forever to read this--but not because it's bad or hard to read. Actually, it's fantastic! I've just been so busy lately that it's taken me much longer than usual to finish a book. :D

Bishop has managed to write a modern western with a Louis-Lamour flair to it. Jim is a loner cowboy who owns a ranch in Wyoming. He's been around the block, fought in a war, buried a childhood friend, and had his heart broken.

For extra money, he acts as a guide for wealthy hikers and fishers, who he takes into the mountains and then picks up again when they're read to leave.

While heading back from such a trip, he happens on an unlikely scene that will change his world forever: a group of mafia henchmen trying to off someone who's crossed them. 

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Teaser Tuesday: Girl of Nightmares

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

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Whoo-hoo! My first Halloween read! :D Today's teasers are from Kendare Blake's Girl of Nightmares. I read #1 last year for Halloween and am loving book 2! :D

"Stay close," I whisper, and they press in on either side. "I tell myself every time that we're crazy for doing this," Carmen mutters. "Every time, I think that I'll just wait in the car.""It's not like you to stay on the sidelines," Thomas whispers, and on my other side, I sense Carmen's smile."Get a room," I mutter, and reach forward to pull open the door.Thomas has this annoying habit of going in hot, flashing his beam of light every which way at a million miles an hour, like he's expecting to bust a ghost mid-haunt or something. 

What are you reading this week?

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