Hood - Book 1 of the King Raven Trilogy

In the past couple of years I have shown a pattern of liking reimaginations or reinventions of classic characters. Gregory Maguire's novels, while not literary perfection, are fun to read. My favorite so far is Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I also liked Stephen R. Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle, which comprises five novels about Merlin and his life and adventures. I find them especially interesting because they tie in Atlantean myth. They aren't perfect, and get a bit preachy at times, but overall I enjoyed them.

I received Hood as a gift recently, and as the title implies, it's about Robin Hood. However, rather than plopping him down as usual in Sherwood Forest against the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham, he is heir to the throne of Elfael, a Welsh kingdom in the Middle Ages. Lawhead alters his characters names to reflect the conventions of the time. The hero is "Rhi Bran the Hud," which roughly means "King Raven the Enchanter." His name is mangled by the Norman invaders to "Robin Hood." Bran's right hand man is "Iwan," which is anglicized as "John." The nickname "Little" is given him by Brother Aethelfrith, whose name Iwan cannot pronounce, so he chooses to call him "Tuck," in honor of his love of food.

Here again, Lawhead ties in real history. The main plotline of the book is about Baron William de Braose (also mentioned in the Wikipedia article on Elfael) taking over Elfael and the opposition he meets from Baron Bernard de Neufmarché. Bran, of course, has to stop them both to reclaim his throne.

The stories of Robin Hood have always been more exciting to me than those of King Arthur, so it's no surprise that I liked this retelling better than the Pendragon Cycle. Even so, I think it's a lot more accessible in some ways than Lawhead's Arthurian books. Arthurian myth necessarily has heavy themes of heavenly preordination, and while these are present in Hood, they are not nearly as pervasive. I'm looking forward to getting Scarlet and Tuck, the second and third installments.

Legend - The Director's Cut

Last night I was sitting down to dinner and started flipping through my Netflix Watch Instantly list to see what I wanted to watch. I was recently crushed by the abrupt mid-season end to the original Battlestar Galactica series, and I needed something to improve my spirits. I had added the movie Legend because it had pretty good reviews on Netflix and it looked like it was in the same vein as Labyrinth (a timeless classic, I might add).

Legend was made in 1985, directed by Ridley Scott, and stars Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, and Tim Curry. Sounds good so far, right? I'll say right now that I only got about 15 minutes into the movie before I couldn't take it anymore. The film starts with the longest scrolling text intro I have ever seen. It doesn't help that it's chock full of clichés about the light banishing darkness and the magical power of unicorns and the birth of legends.

Tim Curry plays "Darkness," a being of pure evil with two huge devil horns. But something's just not right. You know how Tim Curry does that dramatic "mouth pop," for lack of a better term? It just doesn't seem right on the Lord of Darkness. Check it out: Youtube scene.

Tom Cruise plays the innocent peasant Jack, who loves Lily (played by Mia Sara). His teeth are pretty gnarly, and he does a pretty all-around terrible job of acting. He was the main reason I had to turn it off, but the score by Tangerine Dream didn't entice me to stay either.

The one good thing I'll say about it is that the costumes are very good. As you can see in the video, Tim Curry looks to be wearing about 20 pounds of costume, and it looks very convincing, very devil-like. He wasn't red in the beginning of the film though. He was more of a navy blue with bright green eyes.

Who knows? Maybe if I had kept watching it would have improved, but I kind of doubt it. I think the whole movie is in parts on Youtube, if you're really interested, and it's on Netflix as well.

Mission Statement

My life is full of media interaction. I watch lots of movies, listen to lots of music, play lots of games, etc. I know most people don't care what I think of them, and I know the internet doesn't need another entertainment blog. However, I really like introducing people to music, movies, games, and the like, so I thought that a blog would be a great way to do this.

I considered simply using my existing blog and expanding its scope, but then I don't want to bore people with information they don't need, so a new blog has been born.

I like discovering new things as well, so I welcome any suggestions.

Thanks for reading!