Saw the trailer for this in front of Prince Caspian. I guess it's based on a book. Never read it.

But the trailer?

Oh yes. YES. Absolutely drew me in. Can't believe this won't be out until October. I need to see this. NOW. Love the visual style, love the concept, and even the cast looks great. What an odd role for Bill Murray, yet the brief clips we see look like he pulls it off.

I want this movie.

When I saw this trailer in the theater, at first I thought it might be for the remake of Logan's Run. And then I did a double-take-- "Is that Bill Murray?"

Looks good. I'll be there.

Interesting.

A Scholastic book that my students (and I order) from Arrow books. I like them!

I am right now halfway through this book. Lil' Taft and Mrs. Taft both read it last week, so I figured I should follow suit.

I'm liking it! It's a kid's book, clearly, but a darn good one with good characters and a truly excellent premise. I think we'll be getting the other three books in the series, no doubt.

Finished. This book was GREAT. I loved it and will be buying the second and third books tomorrow on my way home from work.

I am now even more stoked for the movie than I was before. I also can't wait to talk about the book with the rest of the family (who are now in bed).

So? Wake them up! I haven't read the book, so I can't help you. But it looks interesting, and I trust your judgement. Well, mostly. So I will investigate further...

AUGH! Amazon sucks. I skimmed the editorial review, wondering if I should order it online or grab it from the store, and Amazon's own in-house editorial review appears to give away the entire plot of the second book. Not a brief hook, but a brief SYNOPSIS. Augh!

I will have to check this out. Off to the library!

Looks cool. I'd watch it on DVD.

I liked the trailer too. I agree with Eric, I'll be watching this.
The book is good, you say? I'll have to head to Borders this weekend...

Read the book, it was good. I'm excited about the movie now.

We saw the movie yesterday. Verdict?

Thumbs up. Not a gushing thumbs up, but thumbs up nonetheless. The actors were all very good in their roles -- the gal who played Lina was wonderful -- and the City of Ember was convincingly brought to life. Very impressive set in every way. Makes me think of the awesome steakpunk stories that could be set there. There were changes to the story, of course, but nothing overly offensive, and the narrative hits all the major beats of the book. Some minor steampunkish stuff (a few small robotlike things) and big bugs might throw you, but it's no big deal.

On the down side, they could have done a slightly better job of making you feel like the city is falling apart. I didn't feel it as strongly as I did in the book. Same with the darkness. I guess they felt as if they couldn't go pitch black when there was a blackout, but even so, there was a little too much ambient lighting. They didn't quite sell it to me. An action sequence added in the middle is unnecessary (but not surprising), and the stuff at the end (those who read the book know what I mean) was Indiana Jonesed up a bit.

All are relatively minor flaws.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed this. So did the family.

Typical Taft, always thinking of food. "Steakpunk" indeed.

Hm. Actually...

...I guess Captain Beefheart would be the seminal steakpunk hero?

I must have been hungry when I wrote that ...

I should be able to finish The Prophet of Yonwood in one last dash, but man, I really, really don't want to. I loved the first book and really enjoyed the second, but third is heavy-handed and not at all enjoyable. And it barely relates to the first two! "Prequel" indeed. Blech.

Eli is reading the Prophet of Yonwood right now and loving it. He figured out the connection right away. I think there may be a fourth book, and I have that on reserve, too.

We may have to go to the movies on Monday.

01/20/2009



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001LPWGBO/?tag=imwan-20

Fourth book arrived today. Perhaps I will read it tonight.

After checking it seems that the movie is on only one screen in town! ONE! Way up north! What is up with that!

Well, it has been out nearly (over?) 2 months...

Oh, yeah. I kinda lost October.