Meggin Watches Serenity

WARNING: For those who haven't seen the TV show Firefly, then Serenity probably won't make much sense.

So in this film version based off of the Firefly series, we actually get to find out the importance of River Tam and who the Reavers actually are. However, we still don't know who Shepherd Book truly is, although there has always been great speculation and countless theories about him in Firefly forums and such.

In Earth's future, the humans overpopulate and leave the planet in search for more planets like Earth. Seeing hardly any, the humans terra-form the surface of planets to make these planets habitable for humans. Then a war breaks out between the Alliance, a strict government of sorts controlling the stars and planets, and the Independents, nicknamed the Browncoats for their well-known attire of brown trenchcoats. The Independents' final battle happens at Serenity, where Mal Reynolds and Zoe Washburne fight for the Independent Army. The Indpendents lose, and Mal and Zoe look for a way to recover from the war. And so Mal finds the Firefly.

The Firefly is a type of spaceship, and when Mal finds a scrappy one for sale, he falls in love with it. He names it Serenity, after the battle the Indpendents lost. Joining him and Zoe are Wash (Zoe's husband and the pilot), Kaylee (mechanic), Jayne (hired muscle, who only cares for the money), Inara (companion, or modern-day courtesan), and some passengers: Simon Tam (a doctor) and his sister River (a strangely gifted and intelligent person who discovered a secret about the Alliance), and Shepherd Book, although he leaves Serenity's company in this film.

Serenity puts on a certain finality to the Firefly series; while the last episode of Firefly could make a good ending to a TV show, there are still some unanswered questions, and Serenity answers most of them.

Upon discovering the truth about the Reavers, an extremely hostile, cannibalistic version of the human race, my jaw literally dropped. Usually only Steven Moffat can make me do that, with his crazily outrageously brilliant Doctor Who ideas, but Joss Whedon certainly takes the cake for this.

Something technical that I've noticed about the ship Serenity is that it's got a certain bluish hue about it on the inside. In Firefly, it was a warm brown with lighter touches of gold, but in Serenity, the corridors look like they have a blue tint to it. It makes the ship seem almost colder, like it's just a ship and not something familiarly connected to everyone inhabiting it like in Firefly. To be frank, it reminds me of the idea of spaceships as merely transports like in Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars (of course, omitting the Millienium Falcon). This also partially takes away the idea that Serenity isn't just a ship, and this idea only briefly shows up when Mal decides to disguise Serenity as a Reaver ship, and everyone's faces went whoosh at his decision. Yeah, exactly like that.

The dining room of Serenity is warm with light brown and gold colours.

Whereas the corridors have a slight change in colour scheme.

As a side note, the Reavers kind of remind me of zombies, except they aren't exactly brain-dead (or undead, as the case may be). Although, I have to be reminded that they can actually pilot spaceships.

Serenity has definitely rekindled my love for Firefly. The movie has certain elements of fun and humour and yet it displays the heavy amounts of impending danger at the same time, as seen in many adventure films. Serenity also tackles some of the troubling concepts our own world is currently facing. It seems that history keeps repeating itself, even in the future.

I'm really sad that Firefly had to go. I guess some people don't know a good thing until it's gone.

Meggin Reads Airman

It is nearing the end of the nineteenth century, during the age of the English Industrial Revolution, and where the age of flight and invention begins. There is heated competition between countries across the world to invent the best innovated contraptions in order to make their rival countries look like fools and scatterbrains living behind the times. One of these aspiring places is the island of Great Saltee, off the coast of Ireland, whose king encourages advances in science and technology. It is also the place where a young boy gets caught up in conspiratorial turmoil, and must take to the skies to make things right again.

I've read Eoin (pronouced "Owen", for those non-Irish folk) Colfer's spectacularly fantastical series Artemis Fowl, in which a teenage criminal mastermind encounters the fairytale creatures of legend, and when I received this book as a gift, I thought it couldn't be anything short of brilliant. Colfer manages to take realistic, plottable places on a map and turn them into fantasies. Yes, I did Google Map search Great Saltee, and it's there. It exists. But it's nothing like the Great Saltee in Airman.

Some brief history: the Saltee Islands are composed of two islands: Great Saltee and Little Saltee. Great Saltee is where they have their own little monarchy of sorts, with an actual king and queen and sirs and ladies in waiting and such. Great Saltee was given to a knight of England's King Henry II in 1171 as a cruel joke. Said knight, Raymond Trudeau, was a bit overambitious, so King Henry crowned him king of the Saltees, which were barren islands at the time. The Trudeau family reluctantly ruled the Saltees, until they struck gold on Little Saltee. Well, not gold, but diamonds. King Henry didn't know that he just made Trudeau the wealthiest man in Europe. Little Saltee was excavated and mined for its riches, and throughout the generations, the Trudeaus sentenced criminals to the diamond mines to dig up the gems for them as punishment. Most of the diamonds were traded with other countries for money and other necessary supplies for Great Saltee. However, many countries knew of the riches the Saltees contained, and tried to invade countless times, but were always trumped by Great Saltee's impenetrable wall that surrounds the island, and by its highly trained Saltee Sharpshooters. When "Good King Nick", a survivor of the Trudeau line living in America fighting in the Civil War, assumed the throne, life greatly improved on Great Saltee. He abolished taxes, increased trade, and strongly encouraged developments in science and technology. But someone wanted to overthrow King Nicholas. Someone whose family has been patiently waiting for generations to do so...

And so, we come across the miraculous birth of Conor Broekhart. Declan and Catherine Broekhart attended a balloon festival in France with their close pal, Victor Vigny. Catherine was several months away from giving birth to a son, but she pressed that she wanted to ride in a balloon. After a heated assassination attempt in the air, Catherine went into unexpected labour in the balloon, giving birth to Conor. So you see, Conor was "born to fly," as everyone keeps saying. And that was all Conor ever thought about: how he desperately wanted to fly once again. After living on Great Saltee with his family for fourteen years and being close friends with the king's daughter, Princess Isabella, Conor receives training and education from Victor Vigny himself, from fighting to aerodynamics to scheming up flying machines. However, all of this changes when Conor accidentally gets involved with a conspiracy over the Saltee throne. Conor is branded a traitor and is sent to Little Saltee to mine diamonds for the rest of his life. At least, until he thinks of a perfect way to escape the prison, involving a certain heavier-than-air flying machine...

There are times when Colfer's writing prose takes me back to a time of limited technology, dramatic royalty, and women in long, heavy dresses, and yet he can switch to quick-thinking and scientific advancement when the story focuses on Conor. It's as if Conor's mind is accelerated compared to most of the society he finds on the Saltees, and we witness him easily manipulate others because he simply observes everything and knows more. Conor also has this incredibly sharp and sarcastic wit that we see whenever he talks to Victor Vigny and his prison mate, Linus Wynter.

I hardly think there should be an age limit as to who should read this book (although I did spot the Disney logo on the spine), because it appears to have enough material for anyone of all ages to understand. However, it is not a girly book. I mean, there are some romantic-type bits, but not in the sappy, dramatic way that girls usually interpret. Another book or book series that I strongly recommend if you like Airman is the previously mentioned Artemis Fowl series. Really. The guy is like a kid genius.

Meggin Watches Notting Hill

Just like some successful romantically comedic American films have the classy, hard-to-get British guy, the same goes for some British films with the American girl factor.

I spent several hours the previous night Google searching "British teenage romantic comedies," because:

1. I love the film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, and I want to watch more British films similar to that.
2. I am already quite frankly bored of summer (it being my first week out of school for summer hols), and I need something new to watch, and
3. My Netflix DVD queue has been filled with an endless marathon of classic Doctor Who serials of the Tom Baker/Elisabeth Sladen era, enough to last the whole summer, but those won't get mailed to my house until next week, so I need something to bide my time.

My Googling results came up with one film in particular: Notting Hill. After reading the synopsis, I noticed that Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant are in it, and that a book shop in England is involved. Being a fan of all three of these factors, I typed the name into the Netflix search, found it on instant streaming, and pressed play.

Might I say, of the countless drippy love films I've seen for the past two years of my life, Notting Hill is a breath of fresh air. It's not exactly a teenager film - and by that, I simply mean the story isn't about two teenagers in love. After watching several French romantic films, Notting Hill deals a lot less with the sexual tension of a relationship but more of a comedic romance. And please don't get me started on some American romantic films, especially the ridiculously sappy Nicholas Sparks tear-jerkers that always make me want to gag to death, resurrect myself, and repeat my actions. I am so glad I decided to watch Notting Hill, let's put it at that.

The story is as follows: William Thacker, a somewhat attractive man, I might add, feels his life going in a downward slump since his wife left him for a man who resembles Harrison Ford. William now lives in a flat at Notting Hill in London with a slightly dim-witted bloke named Spike, and William also owns an unsuccessful travel guide book store. However, his life gets turned around when a woman walks into the shop, but not just any woman: Anna Scott, the famous Hollywood actress.

In some aspects, Notting Hill reminds me of another film called Dan in Real Life, where a columnist falls in love with a woman he met in a shop while on his family get-together holiday. While Dan talks to his family about the woman he met, William often discusses his relationship with Anna to his friends and family.

What I love the most about this film is the insane amount of comedy, especially of the sarcastic factor. William (portrayed by Hugh Grant), always has this perfect facial composure whenever he blurts out witticisms. He appears to be nonchalantly making up sarcastic statements to Anna Scott (portrayed by Julia Roberts) when on the inside, he's freaking out. Also, Spike is hilarious. I would love to have him as a flatmate just to witness him blunder through life. The people and relatives that William surrounds himself with all have their own bit of humour as well. For example, at William's sister's birthday party, everyone at the table has to talk about how miserable their lives are, and whoever leads the most miserable life gets the last brownie. I find this a somewhat morbid yet entertaining practise, and I honestly might try it at a party one day.

Notting Hill has certainly earned a permanent spot on my Netflix instant queue, at least, until I get the chance to buy it on DVD.

Meggin Reads The Hunger Games

For the past several months, I've seen numerous girls in my high school reading this book, so I assumed it was something of impeccable grandeur, or extreme popularity, or strange addiction. And it wasn't only until last weekend where I found I had no desire to read anything I've already read (a specialty of mine, as it happens), so I decided to read something new. The Hunger Games.

It always makes me happy to read about the future, because everyone has a different view of what will happen. Suzanne Collins destroys the North America that we know today and makes a Capitol rise up from the ruins. This Capitol lies in the centre of everything, and has twelve Districts that branch out from it. There used to be thirteen Districts, but after the Districts revolted against the cruel treatment of the Capitol, the last District was obliterated. The remaining Districts lie in fear of the Capitol's power, therefore doing whatever the Capitol wants them to do. This includes participating in the Hunger Games.

The Games happen yearly; each district must contribute two children, one boy and one girl, between the ages of twelve and eighteen to fight each Tribute (nickname of the Districts' contributions) in a "game" to the death. There can only be one survivor. These Games take place so the Capitol can taunt the Districts, in a way, to let everyone know who really is in charge, thanks to the rebellion ages ago. The Tributes are picked in a "reaping": a child must enter their name in a drawing, but each year, the odds for the child increase because they must enter their name another time, for a grand total six entries on their final year. Then there's this benefit of sorts called tesserae, where a child can enter more times a year and receive a year's supply of grain and oil for one person, because supplies are very slim in the Districts. But here's the catch: the number of entries must double each year. In Katniss Everdeen's, the protagonist, case, she entered three times her first year, so by the time this novel reaches the reaping, she enters twenty times. Tesserae greatly increases one's chances as a Tribute to the Games.

Katniss spends every day breaking the rules. She goes out past the fence containing District Twelve, her home, and hunts with her friend, Gale. She illegally trades her game with other traders in the Hob, a trading centre, and with those of higher authority, so she can help her family get by.

When her younger sister, Prim, gets her name drawn in the reaping, Katniss takes her place in the Hunger Games. Katniss and Peeta Mellark, the boy Tribute, get taken to the Capitol, where they are primped and well-fed before the Games. The Capitol seems like a dream to me when I read about it, and it almost seems ridiculous as to why the Districts dislike it so much.

Katniss and Peeta keep up the illusion that they are in love even as the Hunger Games begin, and it plays a major role in guaranteeing their survival.

I enjoyed reading The Hunger Games, though not enjoy as in relishing the idea of catastrophic and dangerously life-threatening situations. I enjoyed my fear for the Games, how it turns some children into barbarians purely for the sake of survival, how Katniss manages to cope through situations that endanger her life, how it's difficult to find out who one can really trust. I actually am a fairly slow reader, taking more than a week to finish a book consisting of three hundred pages, but because this book is so perfectly paced with the perfect dosage of suspense, I managed to finish in six days. Which is awesome for me, considering I live a somewhat busy life, what with being in theatre and all. If I read a book and it takes me more than a week to actually grasp the concept of the plot, then we have a problem. But The Hunger Games is composed by a brilliantly well-balanced recipe of some highlighted elements of fantastical literature: suspense, adventure, imagination, and danger.This is more than enough to keep me reading into the late hours of the night. I've had to dig out my flashlight and read under the bedsheets for several nights on end because I just couldn't stop.

However, one grammatical flaw I've noticed throughout is the overusage of commas, especially when incorrectly used after some prepositions. Usually I don't think much of the grammar of novels because all I can focus on is the plot, but the commas can get to me. After the first time I noticed it, I paused and reread because the fluency didn't sound right, but it's there, a comma for everyone to see. I just blatantly ignored it and moved on, but the next day I found it again. I noticed it more and more often, and it started to irritate me. I was just about ready to take a bottle of White-Out and mark out the unnecessary commas, but then I stopped myself at the last moment and realised that it actually wasn't my book, but a borrowed copy from a friend.

Grammatical errors aside, I strongly suggest this book to anyone on the lookout for a sense of adventure in a society that used to be our own. I also heard that it's going to be a movie, so I can't wait to point out the flaws in that adaptation.

Meggin Reads Thirteen Plus One

WARNING: This book is the fourth in a series entitled The Winnie Years, written by Lauren Myracle, so if you haven't read the entire series, I strongly suggest you click on something else...of course, unless you're the kind of person who doesn't care much for spoilers...
Winnie Perry is just about ready for school to be over. But with the end of the school year comes many other endings, including her older sister, Sandra, leaving for college, and Winnie's boyfriend, Lars, planning on going away to Germany over the summer because of his mum's fellowship gathering there, oh, and her junior high school year ending, and she'd be a freshman the next school year. Winnie's best friend, Dinah, is also leaving; Dinah's parents want her to go to a summer camp where she can learn good leadership skills after Dinah gets peer pressured into stealing things for someone else. To escape the idea of being left behind, Winnie decides to help Dinah find the perfect summer camp, where Winnie will tag along. However, Winnie and Dinah's other friend, Cinnamon, gets left behind in the camp planning, but surprises them at making an appearance at the camp, saying she's staying with them. However, at camp, Winnie feels she is getting farther and farther away from Lars, relationship-wise.
This newest installment of the adventures of Winnie Perry seems to be focused on one main problem (with some side problems attached): Winnie's complicated relationship with Lars. While the romantically troubling plot is childishly riveting, I noticed that Myracle's writing style has changed in this book when compared to the others of this series. In the past three books, each installment chronicles a year of Winnie's life, using twelve chapters, one for each month, to describe her adventures. Each month, she encounters an issue that loosely contributes to the main plot of the story. Whereas in Thirteen Plus One, each chapter focuses on a small goal she plans to accomplish before she goes into her freshman year of high school. Instead of a whole year, the book starts from her fourteenth birthday in the spring to the middle of summer, and almost every chapter is focused on her worrying about Lars. Because of the many differences in this book compared to its prequels, I was a bit disappointed in the general formatting. Like Winnie, I don't respond all too well with change, and Lauren Myracle certainly has changed the style of writing mid-series. Usually, I think of series books as those with the same style or theme. For example, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events has set the tone of series books for me, most likely because it was the first book series I've ever read. In Unfortunate Events, the format of every book is the same: thirteen chapters in thirteen books with the same predictable plot throughout, and I thought that most series books would follow the same pattern. Of course, I was in elementary school when I assumed this, but the idea still sticks to me today because it's been with me for so long.
However, one could interpret the difference of Thirteen Plus One from the other books in the series as a result of Winnie reacting to change.

Meggin Watches Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut

 Where else can you find time travel, scary aliens, paradoxes, and an awful lot of running thanDoctor Who? Especially when all of these events and so much more can be found in the very first episode of the new series.

            What scares me the most about Doctor Who is the show’s head writer. Steven Moffat has managed to boggle my mind beyond belief in the duration of forty-three minutes and leave me with even more questions than I had to begin with. Moffat’s prose can be seen in other shows he has written for; Jekyll scared the living daylights out of me with his fast-paced, modernised interpretation of the classic story of Jekyll and Hyde, and I had to watch Sherlock a countless number of times to fully understand each case, and each time, I’d learn something new. My favourite bit about Moffat’s creative style is that he can always get me to shout, “WHAAAAAAT?!?!” at the TV screen at the end of almost any of his episodes. And while Moffat’s brilliant mind scares me, I also love it.

            What’s also quite scary? The new aliens! When I first heard about the Silence before this episode aired, I thought it would be like some sort of menacing storm that brings silence or something, but my idea was quite preposterous compared to the real thing. Upon watching the trailers, the Silence (or is it Silents?) were always blurry and somewhat obscured, and from that perspective, they reminded me of the aliens in the cantina band in Star Wars: A New Hope. But they’re a bit different in focus. Also, I thought they wouldn’t be able to talk, hence their name, but OH GOD THEY CAN SPEAK TELEPATHICALLY. And it’s so scary. It’s kind of like a mix between Darth Vader and the dementors. IN YOUR HEAD.

            I must say that I loved the setting of this episode. Doctor Who in America! I noticed that in the previous series, most of the episodes dealt with Earth, but it’s nice to see a slight change in the setting. You know, the big change in setting from the United Kingdom all the way over to the United States. The Oval Office looked extraordinarily the same as the original, almost like the Doctor Whoteam actually got to film there. And the desert scenes and the Glen Canyon Dam were just picturesque. I found it somewhat difficult to keep track of the storyline because of the setting. However, the American bits were a bit too stereotypical for my taste. Being an American, I thought it was odd to see how America is being seen by the British eyes. Is America really just vast desert, country accents, and Stetsons to most people? I’m looking out the window right now and I see none of these attributes…Of course, this stereotypical version of America may just be Moffat’s way of a brilliant British interpretation.

            There are loads of memorable quotes in this episode! I just thought I should share with you my favourite ones:

“Look how cool this stuff is!” I suppose, yes, it looks cool. When Matt Smith puts on an astronaut helmet.

“I wear a Stetson now. Stetsons are cool.” Oh no, another piece of millinery for the Doctor to try on. I bet the Doctor’s going to have a ginormous haberdashery of hats with which he’ll constantly add to over the years.

“Hippie!” “Archeologist.” Quite literally hilarious.

“I’m your new undercover agent on loan from Scotland Yard. Codename: The Doctor. These are my top operatives: The Legs, The Nose, and Mrs Robinson.” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Okay, is it safe to ask questions now?

-Who is the astronaut?

• I have the slight feeling that it could be River from the future because of the tip-off in Flesh and Stone back in series 5 that she killed a “very good man”. However, I’ve been hearing other theories that it could possibly be Amy’s baby…

-Amy’s pregnant?

• NOT AGAIN! We saw in the Dream Lord episode! Because I’ve seen this happen before, it didn’t come as a shock to me as Moffat probably wanted to. But really? No. Just, no.

-How did the Silence even get to Earth? And what are they there for?

-WHO IS RIVER????

-So, the Doctor dies at his eleventh reincarnation?

•  Forever? No more Doctor? Well, I sense a plot hole….Something’s up….

-WHAT HAPPENS?!?!?!?!?!? I can’t wait for part two!

Meggin Listens to Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol Soundtrack

Murray Gold, the composer for the outrageously spectacular TV serial Doctor Who, has composed yet another firecracker of a soundtrack for the 2010 Christmas special, A Christmas Carol.

One way to make a soundtrack great is to start it off with a fantastic opener, and Come Along Pondtakes the cake. I can actually imagine the first scene of the Christmas Special in my head, going along with the music. It’s fast-paced, intensely moving, and it makes me excited to listen to the rest of the CD.

There were several themes I’ve noticed throughout this soundtrack. It has a very Christmassy feel to it; there are occasional jolly songs with jingling bells like Christmas Dinner, and some slow, flowing songs that remind me of the more passive moments of Christmas, like in Halfway out of the Dark, but that’s what one can expect from a Christmas Special soundtrack. The use of a choir also adds to the Christmas spirit, like in the previously mentioned song, and it reminded me of the Edward Scissorhands soundtrack by Danny Elfman.

In almost every song, I could match it to the dialogue of the show. When I listen to The Course of My Life, Everything Has to End Some Time, and I Can’t Save Her, I can listen to the song and think of the words that go along with it on the TV show.

The Doctor’s fast-paced theme can be heard in some songs! I could detect it in Come Along Pond,Ghost of Christmas Past, and Everything Has to End Some Time. I hope the Doctor’s theme will make an appearance in series six!

The highlight of the soundtrack is obviously Abigail’s Song. Katherine Jenkins is so amazing. She has a brilliant voice, and if you were to combine Katherine and Murray’s musical talent, you’d get this dazzling song. It’s also the only song in the entire soundtrack with words, and lyrics that Moffat wrote hint at something even more:

“When you’re alone, Silence is all you know.”

Could this “Silence” be the same Silence mentioned in series five?

Murray Gold has certainly written a brilliantic Christmas Special album. I started listening to his music after I was entranced by the amazing, outstanding music he wrote for series five of Doctor Who. After listening to this album, I feel a new excitement for series six!