C. L. Norman

Sunday, my adorable husband took me to see The Green Hornet movie and I came out with mixed feelings about it.

On one hand, it was fun and fast paced and I adored the Kato character. He is definitely of the rogue variety; he has nice moves, fun skills, and one-liners that zing. And we know how I love rogues.

On the other hand, I had issues with their “bad guys fighting other bad guys” persona. In fact, it made it hard to like the characters, especially in the middle section of the movie.

Let me explain (hopefully without any spoilers).

During the scene that inspires them to take on the Green Hornet and silent partner personas, they are fleeing capture by the cops and one of the police cars flips and crashes in a spectacular and deadly fashion. The police officer in the car is probably dead or at the very least seriously injured. I can understand how in the heat of the moment, they don’t give it a second thought. Later, however, they are celebrating their first success as ‘heroes’ and the news is on the TV.

In my writer mind, the scene played out like this. News announcer comes on and announces the death of a cop in the pursuit of unknown vigilantes. Britt AKA The Green Hornet and Kato see this and feel some guilt and vow to be more careful in the future. Then the scene continues on from there.  Instead there is no mention of the cop and in fact, they run cops off the road in an equally as deadly fashion at least two more times during the movie.

Add that to Britt’s cavalier and abusive attitude to every one around him and I wanted  him to fail and for Kato to take over and do the superhero thing better.

To sum up, I had fun which I suppose is the point of a movie but I will probably not see it again as I was unsatisfied with the character growth/consistency.

Did you see The Green Hornet? What did you think of the movie?

        

Another month has come bringing with it more movies to look forward to watching. Here is a list of the ones I am eyeing.

Iron Man 2 on May 7th: Robert Downey Jr is back as Tony Stark and ready to suit up and it promises to be a wild a crazy ride. I had fun with the first one and I see no reason why I won’t have even more fun with the second. Action, humor, and superheroes in one movie? Count me in.

Robin Hood on May 14th: I love Robin Hood stories. Movies like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Disney’s Robin Hood. Books like Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley and Jennifer Roberson’s Lady of Sherwood. The story of Robin Hood is all about a do-gooder rogue with a bow. Which puts it squarely in my area of interest. Russell Crowe stars in this version and I can’t wait to see how the story is told this time.  

Letters to Juliet on May 14th: A love story, Verona (where Romeo and Juliet takes place), and Amanda Seyfried in one movie? I am so there. I have mentioned before my love of romantic comedies and this one looks especially touching.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time on May 28th: While I am not familiar with the game, the fantasy element of this movie is very attractive to me. Add in a magic dagger that appears to have some sort of time travel powers and I’m hooked.

That’s my list for May. What’s yours look like?

        

Howdy Folks! How was your week? Do anything wild and crazy? Try that hot chocolate with the dark cherry or discover some other yummy treat?

Movies

Last Sunday I went to see The Bounty Hunter with my oldest daughter. I have to say having a kid I can drag with me to romantic comedies whenever my checkbook and time permits is very cool. As anticipated Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston had me laughing and rooting for the big kiss moment and I wasn’t disappointed.

As a side note, after seeing this movie I started brainstorming how I could write a bounty hunter story myself, in a fantasy setting, of course. You see a lot of assassins and pickpockets in fiction but not as many bounty hunters and they deserve to wear the rogue mantle too. So keep an eye out and maybe one day you will see a bounty hunter story from me.

Reading

Remember how I said I had to fix the lack of reading I’ve been doing last week? Well I did. In spades. I’ve read the thee Mortal Instruments books by Cassandra Clare and the first two Blue Bloods novels by Melissa de la Cruz.

It all started when my daughter and I stopped at the bookstore after the movies and I got her a book and me a book with the idea we would swap when we finished. I finished the first of the Mortal Instruments book by the next day and of course I had to go right out and get the next one and the next. By then my daughter finished her book and I read that one and had to get the next. I stayed up super late reading three nights this week and even though I feel a bit sleepy I feel a lot more like myself now.

I probably don’t need to tell you after all that that I thoroughly enjoyed the books. The pacing, world-building, characters and their relationships were spot on. I even have to say that the way the Blue Bloods is set up I could believe that they might exist. Makes a lot more sense than nocturnal bloodsucking pale people.

Gaming

I was suppose to run the second session of my Night Below campaign last night but Monday I decided I just didn’t have the time to work out all the conversions necessary. So instead I am going to run the Kingmaker adventure path by Paizo. The first adventure didn’t arrive before last nights session but it turned out ok as 2 players didn’t show up and another 2 were later than they anticipated. So we worked on characters, building some background and personalities, even generated birthdays. The next session should be fun.

Writing

As you probably guessed I didn’t get much writing done. Balance is not a specialty of mine. I have decided to try to participate in the #fridayflash social event on Twitter as a result. Maybe the structure of having to have something written and posted every Friday will help out poor pathetic me who spends way more time talking and writing about writing than actually doing it.

So, next Friday, if you don’t see a story posted here, feel free to beat me about the head and shoulders with a boffer weapon. I will deserve it.

Have a good week, friends.