Beach Pictures/ Avengers: Age of Ultron Movie Review

Hey it's Eve. Well, duh, who else would it be? So today we're going to do a two part post. The first, if you can't tell already by the title, is going to be some pictures I took at the beach. Mostly of my uncle's dog Mandy, but also some of the "beach" itself. It isn't so much a beach as it is a nature walk next to some water with a little sand thrown in for good measure. So, here are the pictures I promised you.

Rolling in the seaweed.

Fetching a tennis ball.

The water was kind of muddy near the bank, but as you can see, it gets clearer as you go out.

Weeds.

Fetching the tennis ball.

And bringing it back.

The water through the trees.

Clouds x trees x water.

More trees, water, and ground.

This mansion through the trees. It's huge!

And a piece of key lime pie, just to make you jealous. :)


And, for the second part of this blog post, the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie review! Okay, background information. This is the second movie in a huge superhero franchise. Watch the first movie before this one or it won't make any sense. This movie stars Robert Downey, Jr. as Ironman, Chris Hemsworth as Thor *makes heart eyes*, Chris Evans as Captain America *makes heart eyes again*, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye. The plot centers around these heroes as they try to contain a new threat, artificial intelligence. Ultron, a robot built by a lab in Sokovia, is placed in a robot body that Tony Stark (Ironman) built, much like his. Ultron escapes from Stark's lab, and rescues two other experiments performed by the Sokovian lab, twins with powers, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, or, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. As explained to Captain America, "he's fast and she's weird," meaning, he has super-speed and she can read minds and move things with her mind. Ultron's (it tried to autocorrect to Leroy, I have no idea why) goal is to annihilate the world, and start it new again. He needs a humanoid body to do so, and he steals Loki's former scepter which has an infinity stone in it (for more on those, watch Guardians of the Galaxy), the mind-stone. Thor has a vision telling him this while fighting Ultron and the twins. This  was the Scarlet Witch's doing. Meanwhile, Ultron inhabits the mind of a brilliant young scientist and forces her to start building him a body. Scarlet Witch reads his mind and rebels, stopping the process, and forcing Ultron to complete it on a semi-truck. Captain America and Hawkeye and Black Widow split from Stark and Bruce Banner (Hulk) and manage to stop him from building himself a body. They give it to Stark who uses it to build JARVIS (his artificially intelligent home computing sysem) a body instead. Ultron takes Black Widow prisoner. He also builds a device that will rip Sokovia off the Earth and then smash it down after it gets to a certain altitude, which will destroy the Earth instantaneously. He also builds an army of robots. Bruce rescues Natasha (Nat, A.K.A Agent Romanoff, A.K.A. Black Widow) and they profess their love to each other and kiss. Nat throws him off a cliff to turn him into Hulk. They fight and defeat Ultron and his army, and rescue all the civilians. Watch it to find out how. I wrote this whole summary on my own.

Watch the trailer here: http://youtu.be/JAUoeqvedMo

I absolutely hated this movie! JK I loved it SOOO much! But the ending I almost cried. Ah, the feels! The twist about Hawkeye threw me off, but it was so sweet. The acting for this was wonderful, but that is to be expected when you have a star-studded cast like this. The only thing I disliked about it was the ending, and the fates of a few of our heroes. One scene I wished they had included was the Scarlet Witch confronting Tony Stark about the bomb in their house that killed their parents. Backstory on the twins: during the bombing of Sokovia, their house was bombed and it killed their parents, and they were stuck their for two days, staring at a bomb that never went off that said STARK on the side of it. I feel like that scene would have added a bit more depth to their characters' backstories, and might have been influential in Ironman's character. And the Hulk! Poor baby! I need to know what happens, because I ship him with Black Widow so much! Okaysies, that's it for this blog post.

xoxo,


Eve

Book Review- Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Hey there, people! Does anyone actually read this or am I just writing to write? Well, I guess only the readers know. So- update on me- I got a computer! Yay! It was a birthday/Christmas/Easter present for the next 5 years. So expensive but so worth it! It's a MacBook Air which are lighter and less expensive than the normal Apple computers. I got it on Sunday, so I'm still learning to use it, kind of, and I thought "what better way to practice typing than to do a blog post." So, this book review is on an amazing young adult contemporary novel called Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. My computer keeps wanting to correct his last name to Leviathan. Okay, I admit: this is one of the books I stayed up all night reading. It was so good! Disclaimer: before any of you get mad at me for liking a John Green book because of the controversy over him "sexually abusing" girls, I'm saying that I'm reviewing his writing, his characters, his plot, not him as a person, and also, just trying to make a point here, no hate please(!), just because a person writes about teenage girls, does not mean that they have a wish to have sex with them. My main characters are a 16 year old fairy and a 16 year old boy. Does this mean I want to sexually abuse a 16 year old fairy and a teenage boy? No. Okay, that's all I have to say about John Green and the abuse thing. Stick with me here.

This is the cover:

This is the Goodreads summary: 

Will Grayson meets Will Grayson. One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers are about to cross paths. From that moment on, their world will collide and lives intertwine.

It's not that far from Evanston to Naperville, but Chicago suburbanites Will Grayson and Will Grayson might as well live on different planets. When fate delivers them both to the same surprising crossroads, the Will Graysons find their lives overlapping and hurtling in new and unexpected directions. With a push from friends new and old - including the massive, and massively fabulous, Tiny Cooper, offensive lineman and musical theater auteur extraordinaire - Will and Will begin building toward respective romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history's most awesome high school musical.

What I thought:

I loved this book! We're gonna call heterosexual Will "Will 1" and we're gonna call homosexual Will "will 2," okay? Okay. I love the way that David Levithan treated homosexuality and depression. I loved that, instead of making will 2 discover his depression, he decided to let will 2 deal with it. I have been around depression enough and I have an understanding of it. Not a very good understanding, but I have one. I also love how well thought out and how real these characters were. I just wanted to give will 2 a hug when I read his chapters. And Will 1's gay best friend, Tiny? OMG! I love him. SPOILER ALERT! When will 2 and Tiny started dating, I knew it wouldn't last. It was obvious it wouldn't work out. And Isaac! I hate Maura. will 2 deserves a happy ending. END SPOILER! My favorite scene by far is when Tiny gives that amazing glass bowl to will 2's mother. It was so sweet it was when she got tears in her eyes. I can understand that and I bet my mom could, too. And I love how Will 1 realized how much he loved Tiny. I can totally understand how much he loved Tiny without "love, love." You don't have to be attracted to someone to love them. I have a friend like that- his name's Aaron- and I love him sooooo much but I'm not at all attracted to him. He's amazing. Okay, back to the book. will 2 had to be my favorite character. He's much more relatable than Will 1. Will 1 is more, how do I say this, perfect. He doesn't seem to have any problems, other than Jane, and even that turns out well. will 2 should have gotten a better ending. I loved how will 2 went on a rant accusing Tiny of having no problems, or rather not having problems, and Tiny goes on saying how he knows people think he's huge, but he's okay with that and he loves himself anyway. We could all take a leaf from Tiny Cooper's book. I, for one, am a little chunky and I can understand where Tiny comes from, everyone thinking he's huge. I loved the way we have two completely opposite characters, like polar opposites, but they both happen to have the same name. 

I loved this book, and I would recommend it to mature readers anywhere. Give it a shot. It's not for everyone, and it does have bad language, but I don't care. Don't judge a book by how many times it drops the"f-bomb," rather, judge it by how well it is written, how well developed the characters are, and how the plot unfolds. I'll see myself out. ;) 

Thank you so much for reading!

xoxo,

Eve

Movie Review- "Tomorrowland"

Wow, two blog posts in a row! I know right, guys?! Who are you and what have you done with Eve Thompson? Well, I'm bored. Believe it or not, but our last day of school was on June 4. Wow! We got out early. But I go back to school late too, like August 31. So I get a looong vacation. I know most people would kill to have a long vacation, but I hate being bored! And I'm a hypocrite, when I actually do go back to school, I long for a vacation. So sue me. Okay, consequently I went to the movies today. Yes, out of boredom, but "Tomorrowland" was playing.

Here is Rotten Tomatoes' summary: 

 

From Disney comes two-time Oscar (R) winner Brad Bird's riveting, mystery adventure "Tomorrowland," starring Academy Award (R) winner George Clooney. Bound by a shared destiny, former boy-genius Frank (Clooney), jaded by disillusionment, and Casey (Britt Robertson), a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity, embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space known only as "Tomorrowland." What they must do there changes the world-and them-forever. Featuring a screenplay by "Lost" writer and co-creator Damon Lindelof and Brad Bird, from a story by Lindelof & Bird & Jeff Jensen, "Tomorrowland" promises to take audiences on a thrill ride of nonstop adventures through new dimensions that have only been dreamed of.(C) Walt Disney. 

To watch the trailer- click here: http://youtu.be/0sH0__SpV88

"Tomorrowland" was a bit overrated in my opinion. The fight scenes were incredibly staged and I didn't really get the special effects. Overall, though, the plot line was good and the acting was incredible and I don't say that about many movies. "Tomorrowland" promises action, adventure, and futuristic fun, and it delivers. And I'm not just saying that because George Clooney stars in it. So, if you're bored and you don't think anything good is playing at the theater right now, give "Tomorrowland" a shot.

xoxo, 

Eve

Book Review- A Court of Thorns and Roses

So, hey. I'm going to be real with y'all- I'm busy. Like, really busy. I've been tossed around on a plane, back and forth, between Florida and Virginia. And in the meantime, I've been busy with school- finals, help! So I will try to write more. (Seriously, I say that every blog post. Sorry :()) 

My book review this time is on a book that just came out- A Court of Thorns and Roses. 

"A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore.

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!"

- Goodreads summary

What I thought: 

Sarah J. Maas is one of my favorite authors. She weaves rich, delicate details that make you hunger for more. She takes an old fairy tale (this one was based off of Beauty and the Beast) and brings them to life! I was in a bit of a reading slump and her amazingly written stories helped me get out of it.  Her main character, the huntress Feyre (Fay-re) is well written, jumping off the page! Feyre is finding herself in this story. She goes through some incredibly tough tests, and (SPOILER ALERT!) I'm pleased to say she survives to the end, being reunited with the mysterious and sexy High Fae Lord Tamlin. Lucien, a part of Tamlin's court, was hilarious at times and brooding at others. He had mood swings like a teenage girl (and boy does this teenage girl know mood swings). My favorite character had to be Rhysand (Reese-and). He was a sarcastic devil. He managed to persuade Feyre, and believe me when I say that's difficult. Overall, I would most definitely recommend this book to mature readers, because there is a little, ahem, mature theme running. 

Thanks for reading! 

xoxo, 

Eve