#hope this reaches my target audience (ethan)

[aavara]

[fintensifies]

please please please imagine the "look I didn't want to be a half-blood" line but in the last olympian. People died thinking they were fighting for the righteous cause when in reality it was just a fight for power. Charles quite literally went on a kamikaze mission to weaken enemy forces. He was barely 18. Ethan Nakamura literally fell off of the heavens after being stabbed in the abdomen. He wanted to reach a balance. He sacrificed his eye for it. a 16-year-old Ethan sacrificed his eye for it. Sacrificed his eye to get stabbed and drop to the ground from hundreds of kilometers. Thalia. Oh my fucking god Thalia. And Annabeth, who could only watch as all her friends and family get succumbed to this force. Do I even need to explain? add all the sacrifices, Luke quite literally killing himself to protect the world from himself/Kronos, All that was almost simply brushed off by the gods. Not the first time it happened, not the last. An endless cycle of pointless bloodshed and war to serve those that won't even remember the ones that died to keep them in power. It's a cycle you can't break. You can only replace the tyrant with another. The most you can hope for is stopping the wheel for just a little longer. He didn't want this. He's a fucking teenager, of course, he didn't want this. It's all so hopeless, so oddly dystopian.

Am I overanalyzing a book with the target audience of ages 9-12? Yes. Yes, I am.

[doomonfilm]

Thoughts : Mission : Impossible - Fallout (2018)

When Tom Cruise first popped up as Ethan Hunt in 1996 and firmly established himself as an action star, most of us were entertained, and possibly slightly intrigued about what was next.  I’m almost certain that none of us imagined the Mission : Impossible film franchise going six movies deep (and counting) nearly a quarter century later.  The fact that this property continues to pump out high quality films that do high box office numbers is a testament to the work of all connected to the franchise, and this streak continues with Mission : Impossible - Fallout. 

In the wake of Solomon Lane’s (Sean Harris) capture two years prior, the Syndicate finds itself splintered and reforming as a separate cell dubbed the Apostles.  The group has activated itself in hopes of purchasing three stolen plutonium cores from a Berlin-based seller, but IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), with associates Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) in tow, arrives to intercept the buy.  All three parties get into a firefight, and while saving Luther from a hostage situation, Hunt loses the plutonium cores to the Apostles.  CIA Director Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett), in a fit of anger from the loss, assigns Special Activities Division operative August Walker (Henry Cavill) as a shadow to Hunt with the primary goal of retrieving the plutonium.  Hunt and Walker go on a mission to intercept extremist and plutonium buyer John Lark (Liang Yang), replace him with a masked replica, and infiltrate a planned buy of the cores from arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby), better known as the White Widow.  The mission is botched, however, and Hunt assumes the identity of John Lark without the mask in hopes of keeping the plan active.  Mitsopolis tasks Hunt, who is assumed to be Lark, to capture Lane and turn him over in exchange for the plutonium cores, and he tenuously accepts, not knowing that MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) has been tasked with killing Lane.  With the Apostles planning to detonate the cores, Faust in hot pursuit of Hunt’s target, and both the IMF and CIA breathing down his neck, Hunt is pushed to his extremes in hopes of succeeding on his mission and protecting the world once again.

Despite having a very basic and unsurprising story structure each of these movies must stick to, the series manages to somehow stay fresh with each offering.  This time around, the majority of gadgetry and high-level explosions are set aside for more ground and realistic action, giving the tone a feel closer to a knife fight than a firefight.  Guns and bombs are still in the mix, but a lot of the tension lies in chases, vehicular assaults, trickery and espionage for Mission : Impossible - Fallout.  The hand to hand combat in the film is extremely high level, being some of the best to date in the franchise, with Henry Cavill especially shining in his role as a heavy.  It’s an undeniable fact that other film franchises that arrived after Mission : Impossible have now managed to exert an influence on Cruise and company, but the Mission : Impossible team manages to display these new influences and growth without being carbon copies, as it would be very easy to just lean on a John Wick look and feel if need be.  Cruise, despite turns at other action heroes and properties, has really turned Ethan Hunt into an iconic action hero in the character’s own right.

It’s subtle, but with each film in the franchise, small aspects of Hunt’s potential PTSD begin to appear.  To my recollection, however, this is the first film where these beats become noticeable to other characters, especially those outside of his circle.  Disavowal is nothing new to Hunt, as this sixth installment in the series indicates, but the constant sacrifices that Hunt makes for his team, the people he loves and his country have undeniable impact on his psyche, and the glimpses we get into this in Mission : Impossible - Fallout not only give us rare glimpses into the moments that Hunt fears, but it opens the door for new avenues of storytelling in the future.  The re-integration of characters from past films helps drive home this aspect in the sense that it makes Hunt have to face those demons in both his head and in the real world.

When it comes to stunt work, it’s hard to top the work done in the Mission : Impossible series, and some of the stunts done in Fallout (the helicopter scene comes to mind) will flat out floor you.  The majority European, Eastern Block and Eurasion locations not only allow for great backgrounds and sets, but for a solid, rich golden tone that is offset by harsh whites or other primary colors in certain interiors.  The twists and turns that the story take not only do a good job of making the narrative gripping, but the whack-a-mole of audience surrogate perspective keeps us guessing, as we are never quite sure who is being duped, who is in on the act, and who ultimately has the upper-hand.  The score gives nods to both the original theme and the many modern updates, but is slowly classing itself up to reach Bond-like levels.

Tom Cruise can play Hunt in his sleep at this point, but the levels that he pushes himself to in terms of stunt work are phenomenal in this film, including a handful of moments that made the final cut showing actual injuries he sustained.  Ving Rhames brings his zen-like nature to the team once again, allowing his sage wisdom and calm nature to play against Simon Pegg, who is slowly transforming from a neurotic bag of nerves into a solid agent with confidence and grit.  Henry Cavill plays a savvy and intimidating protagonist, getting to use both mind and muscle while attempting to be simultaneously in full view and in the proverbial shadows.  Rebecca Ferguson brings nerves of steel to the party, harnessing Terminator-like energy for most of her performance in pursuit of her target.  Sean Harris counters this steely nerve with an ice-cold manner of his own, making him both tough to read and intimidating due to the mystery of his demeanor.  Vanessa Kirby, Angela Bassett and Alec Baldwin make strong supporting appearances, as well as Michelle Monaghan, Wes Bentley, Frederick Schmidt, and Liang Yang in brief appearances.  A nice cameo by Wolf Blitzer is also memorable.

Mission : Impossible - Fallout is a clear-cut indicator that the series is here to stay.  My only wonder, at this point, is what will happen when Tom Cruise hangs it up... what current or future star will be able to step into the giant shoes created by Cruise and his reckless abandon?  Only the future knows... but until then, I imagine we will get at least two or three more Cruise-based Ethan Hunt performances, and I will be ready for them when they arrive.

[smstith-blog]

The Great Escape

How do you escape?  Do you do so through relationships, cliff jumping, unwinding after work in a bar, or talking for hours to a friend?  And what is escaping really? ��Why do we do it?  Why do we need it?  Is it helpful? Is it second nature?  For me, at least, I know what my great escape is and that is art in its many forms.

Since it’s my escape, I often wonder what art is.  Is it simply to bring beautiful things into the world? Is it to help us learn things about ourselves and each other that we didn’t know before? Or, perhaps, it’s the combination that’s important.  Learning within, either about ourselves or each other, is bringing beauty into the world.  We escape into ourselves and from there we learn or we pause or we heal.

To me writing has always been my great escape, from reading books to watching movies.  For awhile I’m elsewhere.  For awhile I get what I need, and often I learn something new about myself or about life in general.  That’s what today’s blog post is about—where I escape to and why. And if anyone wants to share their escapes and maybe even why they need to escape, feel free to comment below or on my Facebook page.

I do not pretend to be a critic or to understand how a movie was intended to be.  I only know, as a viewer, how it resonates with me.  And if you are unfamiliar with any titles I am about to talk about be warned.  Spoiler Alert is in affect.  

Sometimes I dream of finding love—the kind that should only exist in fiction, even though I know this to be far-fetched.  It’s an impractical idea from a girl who has spent far too much time in her own head.  It’s even more outrageous for a girl who doesn’t have the energy to keep up with a boyfriend.  And I don’t have to.  That’s where story-telling comes in.  One of my favorite things to do of late is watch re-runs of Dawson’s Creek before I go to bed.  Pacey Witter is the boy I would banter with if fantasy were real.  He’s a wise smart-ass, which is the best kind.  He’s sexy and romantic, but he’d punch a bully in the face for you and still name his boat True Love.  I remind myself he doesn’t truly exist.  He’s a character played by an actor spouting lines a writer or team of writers wrote.  Still, he keeps me company.  And if life had been different, Pacey Witter is the type of boy  I would have looked for to marry.  In a drama series I learned that I’d want a man who could pull a quip as fast as I could, call me out on my bullshit, always make me laugh, and be romantic without thinking it made him less of a man. Even though I’m not out in the world making my own romantic mistakes, I’m still learning.  I understand what it means to me.

Another character I have spent time with is Jace Wayland from the Shadow Hunter series by Cassandra Clare. I was first captured by the MOVIE version.  I was so enthralled with him (which is weird because he’s blonde, and I normally go for the tall dark and handsome type) that I bought the books and have read the series at least three times and will probably re-read them again after I finish re-reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, which is one of my favorites too.  

Jace is the warrior type.  He fights demons after all!  Yet, he’s a bad-ass that can play piano, be vulnerable, and fight for love while doing it so carelessly cool.  He plays in my head when I need to feel tough.  I imagine a female character as tough as him with him. They’re entwined in love and always have a weapon or two up their sleeves.  I like the contrast of that.  I like the mystique of him.  He has an untouchable quality in any enduring sense, yet he finds a soul mate anyways.  I like that.  To me that’s sexy, and since fantasy is my favorite thing to write it’s right up my alley. I can get lost in the Shadow Hunter world any time.  I’m still upset to this day that they dumped the sequels to the movie, but I will always be grateful for Jamie Campbell Bower who played him so well.  Making that movie so well from all fronts for a female who loves fantasy was art.  I’m their target audience, and I loved it!

I’ve been suspended in the struggle and impropriety of Penny Dreadful.  They took something daring, messy, and bloody and made it evocative.  This series ended too soon, but I loved every minute of it.  Vanessa Ives struggled with evil, real true evil. She felt turned away from God, but her friends never turned away from her.  Ethan Chandler had his own crosses to bear, seemed simple but was complicated, and would have died for her. Sir Malcom knew her from childhood and loved her as a daughter, then hated her, then grew to love her again, because he saw in her the same things that were in himself—which weren’t endearing qualities, but qualities they needed to survive in their lives.  This show twisted the works of Oscar Wilde with his character, Dorian Gray.  I loved this book, and I love the spin they gave to him for the show.  There were other familiar villains given a new twist such as Dracula and Frankenstein and his monster—or in the show’s case, monsters. There were familiar faces like Billie Piper and Josh Hartnett (who played Ethan Chandler) that played characters with tragic pasts and bloody futures.  The entire cast did an amazing job.  The writing was phenomenal, and they touched on diversity, rank, and status that still exists to this day.  This was a show you watch to see how many boundaries can be pushed and how far actors can reach. And all the actors in this series showed impeccable reach.

I even fell for the Twilight movies, and I’m not embarrassed to admit it since I didn’t fall as hard as some. But who wouldn’t want to be Bella stuck between Edward and Jacob?  I’m a Jacob girl all the way.  He was described as the warm best-friend.  Who wouldn’t want to end up with that?

I love how certain movies could have gotten it wrong but got it right.  Like how Warm Bodies was in a way making fun of the zombie craze yet it did it in a way that was funny, original, and just good.  Ironically or on purpose they ended up creating ANOTHER good zombie movie.

Vampire Academy is my guilty pleasure.  I’ve watched it at least half a dozen times, because I think it did what it was mean to.  Parts of it showed overacting as teen dramas tend to do, yet it had a story line that wasn’t too deep or to shallow.  And the actress Zoey Deutch portrayed her character well in scenes and with lines that weren’t easy to pull off. She made the movie for me.  I think it was supposed to be a “bad, non-serious, non-accolade” type of movie, but as far as “bad” goes it’s top of the list for me.  This shows that everything has a place and not everything is meant to be the same.  Follow certain rules.  Break others.  Create something.  Some people will get it, and some people wont. Not every line needs to be a soundbite.  Not every story needs to be deep.  Sometimes you just need to laugh, figure out how the script of a show works or didn’t, see how actors can make or break good and bad writing.  Realize how much effort and people it takes to make a good movie or a good book.  For me, just knowing these people, characters, writers, directors, set designers etc are out there makes me feel like part of the world, because when I like a movie or a book, they’re all speaking to me, and my fandom speaks to them.

And today I watched A Walk to Remember.  Jamie dies of cancer in the end.  Her tragic teen love story changed her love interest, Landon, who otherwise would have ventured down a different path with likely hard, unfulfilling consequences.  I don’t like sad endings. Life is hard enough, why take the time to watch something that will make you cry?  Today, with this movie, I made an exception, because at least her death has a point.  She changed him.  Where there was sadness at least there was a silver lining.  I find that in life, if you look hard enough, good usually can come from the bad times too.  I don’t believe we are meant to suffer like these characters did, but until we fix the world’s tragedies, at least we can grow from suffering instead of taking it in and letting our pain add to the collective.

The Farthest Away Mountain by Lynn Reid Banks is what dropped me into the world of words.  This book intrigued me so much that from fourth grade on, I never have stopped reading.  As children we used our imagination to play with dolls or to pretend to be superheros, but until I read this book I didn’t know imagination could go deeper than that or last longer.  It awoke something in me.  My teacher, Mrs. Brock, used this as a class read.  She used this book as an example of how to write creative sentences. And every time she put a plain one up on the whiteboard my hand was first in the air to jazz it up.  With her encouragement, I found that words were inside me too, and I enjoyed playing with them and urging them to come out.  Back then I never realized how much writing would mean to me and not just my own.  Stories have kept me company. Stories have made me laugh and imagine and wonder and hope and feel joy when I need those sensations most.

In Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (which is my favorite Jane Austen book) I sympathized with Fanny Price while wondering if it was weird, in modern times, to root for her ending up with her cousin.

I’ve learned love and forgiveness with A Course In Miracles.  

I can’t wait to get my hands on anything by Marianne Williamson.

Then there are books like Harry Potter.  I wished to be in his world, from being at Hogwarts to the Burrow, to giant friends and Diagon Alley, and from Lord Voldermort to believing in something so much you’d die for it.

My point with these erratic examples is that art in any form takes us away for awhile.  I don’t have to be lonely.  I can imagine there are Pacey Witters in the world.  I don’t have to be bored. I can go on an adventure with Jace Wayland.  I can find boundaries in my mind being pushed with shows like Penny Dreadful.  And I can be inspired by them all.  While I sit silently while people talk about their normal lives, I’m laughing in my own head with characters I’ve read or watched and characters of my own I hope to share with others to make them laugh some day.

I’ve escaped real life when I needed a break and learned something along the way with all of these characters and countless more.

Something true that will always stay with me is this:  ART IS THE GREAT ESCAPE

What is yours?