reviews

The Once and Future King by T.H. White

I give this book a 4.

Everyone knows the story of King Arthur, or at least, some part of it. I thought about trying to read Mallory and decided to pass. Then I thought of the cute Disney film, The Sword in the Stone, and learned that much of it came from the first “book” in this story. Truth be told, I was always curious about this book, but never took the time to read it, so at last I had an opportunity to listen to the audio book and took it.

For the most part, I adore this book. This is everything the story of King Arthur should be, a combination of realism and fantasy, innocence and guilt, and as always an underlined lesson to be learned. I don’t know if this is supposed to be a children’s book, but I guess it could be, as long as an adult is around to do a lot of explaining. If you can get a teen to sit down and read (or listen to) a book of this length, I think they will enjoy it.

I must say there are a few long passages that seem to drag the story along, over describing or explaining things, but I’ve been guilty of that myself. I would have to say that my least favorite part of the book was the whole love triangle. It seemed really silly to me, but most love triangles are, so that wasn’t a big deal and it is actually part of the original mythology. There were also some very drawn out political discussions that I could have done without, but if you’re a fan of politics in general, you’ll be quite pleased. My favorite part was, of course, Arthur’s youth.

It’s a shame that it took me so long to getting around to this story. It’s clear how this story has inspired others of its kind and I’m glad that to have finally experienced it.

This review has been posted to GoodReads. If you’d like to obtain a copy of this book, try this link.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Highlighting interviewees, guest posters, my standard weekly posts, and whatever else I can think of, going into the next week.

So, here what’s happening next week:

Sunday | Sample Sunday: EC: Battleground

Monday | Listography of favorite foods

Tuesday | Character Files: Paul’s opinion of the Eternal Curse

Wednesday | Blogdom

Thursday | Count Your Blessings: Books

Friday | Friday Forecast

Saturday |Weekly Recap.

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Later today | I’m having some friends over to watch some gritty, quirky, and indie films.

Tomorrow |I’m posting an episode of “So Yeah, Cards” on my You Tube channel.

Space Battleship Yamato Review – Mock Squid Soup #4

This review will consist of me asking myself 10 questions and answering them to the best of my ability.

1. What is this film about?

Well, let’s see. The year is 2199 and humanity is on the verge of extinction thanks to an alien race known as the Gamilas. Apparently, there’s been a war on for 5 years and the latest battle proves discouraging when a famous ship and it’s captain are taken out. Back on earth, the dead captain’s brother is salvaging for the war effort when he has a strange extraterrestrial encounter and is knocked unconscious.

Fast forward a bit, the brother is also a captain who re-enlists in the war effort after miraculously recovering from his encounter and is at the helm when earth’s final weapon of destruction is put to the test. He and a bunch of other people head out on a quest that goes far beyond the known galaxy in search of an end to the war and a hope for humanity.

There’s more, but to be honest, I didn’t finish the movie. I’ll talk more about that in a minute.

2. What did I think of the title, poster, and or trailer?

This film was completely new to me so I had to go and find a trailer for it. In hindsight, I probably should have watched the trailer before agreeing to watch and review the movie, but I don’t think it would have deterred me.

I liked the trailer. The story seemed epic; just the kind of thing one likes in a space opera. I liked the graphics and appreciated seeing subtitles that were easy to read. I didn’t bother looking for a dubbed version of film once I saw that subtitles were an option, but that ended up being an issue for me once I got started.

3. What did I think of the main character(s) and how the actors performed them?

I wanted to like Susumu/Kodai, but I didn’t (the whole name thing is confusing to me). I mean, he is supposed to be the hero, but he just bothered me and so did Yuki. They both whined too much and acted like entitled, holier than thou, drama queens.

The only major character I really liked was Okita. Also, many of the supporting characters were entertaining. I don’t know much about any of these actors outside of what I can read about them online. Unfortunately, I didn’t take the time to read much about them.

I have no idea why, but I liked the way the role of the engineer was portrayed. Whenever they needed to fire their weapon or reach warp, he made it seem like it was real to me while everyone else seemed to clearly be acting.

4. What did I think of the direction and cinematography?

I have an appreciation for films that allows me to appreciate different styles, techniques, cultural influences, and budgets. Too many people miss out on great visual stories because they’re not delivered to them in standard super-high quality Hollywood fashion. Having said that, I think the direction of this film could have been better. I feel like the actors could have transitioned better at times and perhaps, better direction would have whipped away the feeling of watching people act.

For the most part, I thought the cinematography and special effects were pretty good. There was, what appeared to be, an overabundance of CGI in this film, but I can understand why this is so. It seems as though, the crew did the best they could with what they had, but perhaps a few scenes could have been cleaned up a bit. Then again, I could have been watching a low-quality image due to streaming (though I toggled through 3 different versions).

Oh how I miss the days of scaled miniatures that reflect reality.

5. What did I think of the soundtrack and score?

I tried to ignore the music in the movie. It was all grand, epic space themes and mood music as far as I could tell.

6. What did I like about the story as a whole?

The story itself seemed like a great premise full of twists and turns, failures and triumphs, and action and drama. Unfortunately, the delivery was weak. I admit that I do have a soft spot for quest stories, but I felt like the quest was pushed aside for the sake of constant battle.

Well, the movie is called battleship Yamato and not quest Yamato. I guess would have liked it more if it had been more about the quest.

7. What did I not like about the story?

Unfortunately a lot. I don’t think it’s a bad film, just not a very good one. I kept wanting to connect to at least one of the characters, but I never did. I wanted to pull for the cause, but the overwhelming odds almost made me want to root for the other guys. Plus, it seems like some stuff could have been left out so that other areas could have been better developed.

I mean, why bring a cat on a spaceship and not explain why?…I do realize that I getting a bit petty here, but that’s only because I don’t want to list all the issues I have with this film.

8. Would I recommend this movie to others?

Probably not, but life is strange sometimes.

9. If yes, who? What would I rate this movie?

I’m one of those people who has very varied associates. The truth is, I can actually think of two people who would probably love this movie, even though I didn’t. I didn’t even finish this movie, which actually breaks my heart. I hate not finishing a movie. I was so busy this past month and since this movie didn’t grab my attention, I watched it in bits. Then one day I was simply tired of watching bits.

Perhaps one day I’ll finish this film and learn why the radiation didn’t kill Susumu/Kodai. Perhaps I’ll get to see a real Gamila and finally make it to Iskandar, because by the half-way point, I hadn’t learned any of this. Who knows, the climax and conclusion of this film might be more than I could have hoped for and turn this all around. For now, though, I just didn’t like it.

On a scale of 1 to 5 movie reels, I give this film 1 reel.

10. Was there anything in this movie that could be related to me or anything I have written?

I so wanted to like this movie because I love science fiction and space journeys, but perhaps my heart just wasn’t in it. I’ve never tried to write a space story, but I’m still young. There could be one forming in the back of my brain right now.

The one thing this movie does have that I can relate to my own writing is a sense of loss. The characters in this movie suffer many losses to the point where they are simply expected. In my Eternal Curse series, I’ll be touching on such senses of loss down the road.

Watch, rent, or buy this movie here.

Be sure to click the image below to see other reviews of this film.

Mock Squid Soup – Film Society

MOCK! and The Armchair Squid are proud to introduce Mock Squid Soup: A Film Society. Each month, on the second Friday, we shall host a bloghop devoted to a particular movie. We invite others to watch the same film and post their own reviews…Don’t be shy; come join the fun! 😀

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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