Hobbitmania

I've already seen it and incase you wonder if it's good I have to answer yes. You have another good film in The hobbit 3 but not a masterpiece like The two towers or The return of the king. You're hearing it loud and clear, a fan of  The Lord of the Rings criticizing the hobbit films. As I see it the hobbit saga is much more focused on the special effects made by computer instead of the old fashioned handcrafted ones used on the previous trilogy. As you may notice I'm a very old fashioned guy in this aspect and I really value the work of the people that search for the scenaries or the people that made the swords and the make up etc... And in my opinion that was the thing that made the difference in the lord of the rings, by removing it the only thing that they've achieved is to make me wonder if they've sold their soul to the market in order to get a few more views or if they were doing the things this ways because they had no choice. I really hope it's the second option.

                                                      VS

Freaking nervous

Yup the most relaxed and laidback person in the world it's actually under pressure (just to make sure; that person it's me). This is NOT one of my usual reviews but I needed to chill out a little bit.

Startng from the beginning (obviously) this week I've face more pressure than what I'm used to handle. I had to finish my portfolio (the easy part) and to hand out my project but one of my mates had a little memory lapse and didn't put the parts of the project together (he did it in time but so close to the deadline  I almost had a heart attack). That was the easiest part to manage now comes the real deal. I was training for the world karate championship (in the team category) when I found out thet my brother, who had almost left karate aside, had signed with the USA team (thing that we promised not to do since we were both born in Spain), but the issue doesn't end there we've both passed to quarterfinals and in a week or so we'll have to fight. A face to face! With my brother! And with our parents watching!. If anyone knows how to get out of this one nice and safe please say something.

Valerio Massimo Manfredi

Valerio it's not a very known author, but his work it's as good as any other in the hall of fame of fantastic literature. Mr.Manfredi isn't, as I said before, very known in the fantasy area and that is probably because he waks in the border of two major genres; the historic novel (In which he is very well known for his novel "The ides of march") and the fantasy novel ( In which he is little known because he is at the limit of the genre).

He has a very polished and very vivid way of writing, plus his knowledge as an historian. He is not like Paul Kearny, Paul uses aleternative worlds and makes enough metion of real historical facts to make you recognice them. Valerio it's the opposite of that, he uses myths and parts of history that are not very clear to add them the fantasy part that makes his novels so interesting.

This author has also a unique way of approaching his characters, he makes them more human and less mithological (like in the case of  Alexander the Great and Odiseus). He totally neglects the god part of the characters bringing them to a more human context, without stealing their epicness. 

I'll attach here some of  his work so you can read it if you want.

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Hotel dusk

Today it's about videogames. Yup this game might be a little bit old and yup it might not be very famous, but I'm mentioning it for a particular reason. The game it's a freaking interactive novel, and not a normal novel but a mistery one. 

The thematic it's a very big large and known cliche a detective who loses his partner and changes his job. At the begining of the game you find a girl ( not going to make spoilers about her identity) and you stop in a pretty crappy hotel, and that's when the murders and the real fun start. The most notorious thig about the game it's the black and white comic cartoon approach, it totally fits the story and it gives a very gangster-like atmosphere (I personally think that it's super cool). 

I f you want to play it you can do it free just by downloading a NDS emulator and the rom (But shhhhh I didn't say anything),it's the most direct way to get it because it's old and they don't sell it anymore at usual videogames shops. 

GIVE IT A TRY

Yahooo

It's been a while since my last post due to some issues (mainliy work issues) but I'm back for round 2. And  for today I bring you a movie (actually a book saga but I haven't read it completely and I don't want to review it without having a complete idea).

Maze runner

I've been introduced to this movie thakns to my brother Hector, we're not really into "teen garbage" movies but I'm hooked to this particular one, because it's out of the "big hit" formula ( the formula is basically boy meets girl or girl meets boy in an action movie envirorment), this film adds something new to the equation; lack of knowledge. That lack of knowledge it's what leads to curiosity and that to action it really reminded me to the experiment with the apes an the electrified ladder. 

I can't really make a strong affirmation about this film an that's what makes me so curious about it. 

will it be a new beginning to the genre or will it get stuck into the formula like soooo many other movies? 

I guess we'll see, stay tuned.

Pros and cons of fan fiction

As everyone should no by now fan fiction is a very extended activity nowadays. Now I'll proceed to open a debate:

Arguments for

Fan fiction is the perfect way to make the readers contribute to their favourite works,and also is a good chance for the readers because it's an opportunity to keep reading good sagas even if the author is'nt writing them anymore. There are a couple of cases where fan fiction feedbacks the story and the world that they're inspired in( Dragonlance), and that's a prove tha fan fiction can work.

Arguments against

Fan ficion is considered in many circles bad or disrecpetful, they say that because  it's obvious that the fan fiction works are not the same as the original saga, and because ih these days the fan fiction writers dare to tell the original authors what to do or what to write next, like "A song of fire and ice" case ( and that in my humble opinion is unacceptable)

Here are my arguments for and against fan fiction  the conclussion as always is up to you

My favourite Place

Yes, I'm a bit late but I didn't know that we had to upload this practice until last week.

My favourite place in the world is probably Astoria. It's not a beautiful place but It's the home of almost all my known family (and mine too if I have to be totally sicere). I've lived there for almost three years (actually almost six but I was too young and I don remember anything) and my closest friends are still there. The only curious thing about the town is the bridge  tht crosses the Columbia River (not a river but if the people says so I can't say it's wrong). The one and only curious fact that I know about the town is that  the film The Goonies was filmed there. I'm not sure why this is my favourite place but I can't change the fact that it is.

The town location it's perfect, between Portland and Seattle. It has some amazing beaches but the most important things are the woods. Astoria is really a quiet place with a lot of amazing views and natural sites that are really worth a walk. The city isn't big but you can have almos anything you expect from a metropoli. I really want to end this here.because I suck at describing things, I prefer to show them to people rather than writing about them.