One More Chapter
A twenty two year-old's view on life, death,
and Taylor Swift conspiracy theories
and Taylor Swift conspiracy theories
So I like to think that I haven't necessarily "jumped on the bandwagon" with this film, but rather I beat everyone else to it. And I'm not just saying that! I became a huge John Green fan when one of my high school teachers made my history class watch some of his "Crash Course" videos to introduce various subject matters as we moved through the curriculum. As my teacher would let the videos play the class sat there in silence, staring blankly ahead. But if they listened carefully they would hear a small, stifled laughter at the back of the class, as I attempted to contain myself. No one else (aside from our teacher) seemed to think the videos were funny. But I was cracking up the whole time from Green's clever and well-placed humor. His ability to be informative and humorous was perfect and I was immediately hooked. I went home and actually began watching his crash courses for other, more interesting subjects, such as Literature and Philosophy. They were a joy to watch, even though I had to admit that these were some of my nerdiest moments. But who cares? Soon I learned that he was also an author, and began looking into his work. I learned about Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns and, of course, The Fault in Our Stars. But it didn't make sense to me that a book such as this was coming from John Green, the man from all those Crash Course videos. But I decided I would give it a chance. By this time word had spread that the book was going to be turned into a movie and therefore more and more people were reading it. (It also meant I had to but it in hardcover, much to my dismay). I bought the book and put it on my "to-read" bookshelf which was already filled to the brim with other books that were lined up for me to read. Normally I would then forget about a book until months later when I finally decide to read it. But this book was a bit more difficult to forget about. Mainly because the vibrant blue cover stuck out among all the rest of my more dull covered novels that I got at various used book stores and yard sales. So it only sat on the bookshelf for a few short weeks until I turned to it. By now, word had spread like wildfire among the YA community about this book. Everyone was saying how amazing it was, every review on Goodreads gave the novel 5 stars. People who I knew didn't read books were reading this one and were enthralled over it. So I was obviously extremely excited about it and dove right in. It only took me a couple days to read since it was easy and enjoyable. But in the end I was a bit let down. Not because the book was poorly written or the plot was uninteresting. It was actually a really great book. But I think that there was so much build-up to it and too many people telling me that I would "cry my eyes out" and that it would "change my life", that I was waiting for that moment a little too consciously. The same thing happened when I read The Perks of Being a Wallpaper. Too much build-up tends to ruin books for me. It also makes it more difficult to really loose yourself in the novel, and feel like it's your own little world since you know there are so many others who are in there with you as well. ANYWAYS, back to the movie. I was really looking forward to the movie adaptation of the novel mainly because I knew that I wasn't going to be as critical as I would have been if I had really LOVED the book. When such is the case, you tend to be more offended when scenes are left out or changed. But I knew that this would just be a nice romantic, tear-jerker no matter if it was slightly different than the novel or not. I went with my sister and her friend on opening night. Mistake one. We showed up for the 7:00 showing only ten minutes early without having had pre-ordered tickets. Mistake two. The show was sold out and the next showing wasn't until 9:30, so we had to figure out how to kill two and a half hours while we waited until the next show (which we went ahead and bought tickets to then before those sold out as well). When we entered the theater at 9:15 it was packed and I knew I wasn't going to be able to enjoy this movie the way I would have liked to. In the end I really enjoyed the film and I think it's safe to say that most anyone else will as well no matter if they read the book first or not. Both Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort blew me away with their performances. Shailene has continued to amaze me lately with these new and improved roles of hers. She has come a long way from the girl on The Secret Life of the American Teenager all those years ago. I used to really dislike her as an actress because of that show, but now she is one of my absolute favorite starlets of the time. And don't even get me started on Ansel. Did you know that this movie was only his third film? That's right. He was a lead in Carrie in 2013 (his first ever film...!) then went on as yet another lead in Divergent (playing Woodley's brother here, as ironic as that sounds) and now he is debuting as the lead in The Fault in Our Stars. I'm not sure if he's just very, very lucky or an absolutely amazing actor. Perhaps it's a bit of both. But what's undeniable is that if there is ever posters made with his face on it, there will soon be one on the wall of every teenage girl in America. He's a charmer, ladies! And has a killer smile to boot. I felt my heart absolutely melting in some scenes because of the chemistry between these two. All in all this was one of the best film adaptations of a YA novel that I have yet to see. Probably died with Divergent, which was another amazing adaptation. The only thing that would have made this movie a bit better would have been to see it in a less crowded theater, and without Audrey's friend, Lily, next to me. It's a bit hard to loose yourself in a film when there is a cacophony of sniffled and sobs pulling you back into the real world. And it's hard to feel sad when your laughing at the person sitting next to you who has completely lost it. I give this movie four and a half stars out of five, way to go John Green! Thank you for reading, Amanda Lucille Song of the DayYour Song covered by Ellie Goulding BONUS VIDEO!One of my favorite Crash Courses by John Green: How and Why We Read
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About This Blog:I started this blog as a way to challenge myself to write more over the 2014 year, but it has blossomed into so much more than that. I use it to let people in on what's happening in my life, talk about things I find important and to spread the news about amazing people, places and art. Archives
November 2017
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