Tag Archives: film adaptation

What You May Want To Know Before Watching Dune

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The movie adaptation of Dune by Frank Herbert, which is directed by Denis Villeneuve, will be released in theaters on October 22 this year. The first movie is the first of a trilogy that will cover the first two dune books, Dune and Dune messiah. The book having 22 chapters and 412 pages. Dune the movie will cover around the first half of the book so around 11 chapters in 2 hours and 35 minutes.

Dune written in 1965, was in part inspired by The Sabres of Paradise by Lesley Blanch published in 1960. Dune is one of the most popular and influential sci-fi books of all time has changed sci-fi and set the standard for a great sci-fi book. Dune has been adapted into a movie before in 1985, where they tried to cover the whole book leading to the movie being a failure. This time with the movie only covers the first half and might portray the complex story better.

*There may be spoilers ahead*The story focuses on the character Paul Atreides a thoughtful and quiet boy and son of Duke Leto Atreides. Duke Leto is the Duke of Arrakis. Arrakis is the planet most of the story takes place on. The nickname or other name for the planet of Arrakis is Dune. Arrakis is called Dune because the planet is almost completely covered in deserts.

The villain is Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, the Duke’s political rival and former owner of Arrakis. A power-hungry person he becomes the main villain trying to take control of Arrakis from the Duke.

Dune is expected to be a success, and from the looks of the trailer has great CGI effects. Do you think Dune will be a success or a failure?

-Luke G.

Book Vs. Movie: The Maze Runner

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The Maze Runner is a series consisting of 5 books and 3 of which are now movies. The protagonist Thomas wakes up to find himself in a box. Every once in a while the box will bring up a different person yet everyone always have one thing in common, their gender. Everyone in that maze is a boy. Eventually, by the end of the first book, they escape the maze and find out it is run by a company called WICKED.

Yet one question remains unanswered, what was better the books or the movies? A very common question but the simple answer is both. There is no answer the books and movies are great in their own way.

The book has a great concept and is where the original idea came from. Although the book has no pictures or visuals like the movies, it gives you the room to use your imagination and create a scene yourself. Without the limitations of CGI, we can create little movies in our heads.

Then the book is made into a live-action film. The movies are well executed and use very good graphics. Yet the movies have limitations of their own, to say within the time limit they have to cut out many parts of the book. But with these setbacks, the movie is still made with great intricacy and still very intriguing. They also had a great selection of actors and actresses’ to play each character and brought the book to life.

Thinking better of one over the other completely depends on the person and what they enjoy, are they a bookworm or a binge-watcher?

Sanjana S.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

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Lolita: Nabokov, Vladimir: Amazon.com: Books

Most of the book is the confession of Humbert, a death-row prisoner, recounting the love story between a middle-aged man and an underage girl. The novel was initially rejected for publication in the United States and was first published in 1955 by Olympia in Paris. Finally published in the US in 1958, the book rocketed to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. Lolita has been adapted into a film.

In the novel, Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged French immigrant to the United States, had a first love affair with a 14-year-old girl Annabel when he was a teenager. In The end, Annabel died early from typhoid fever, which led to Humbert’s transformation to a pedophile. He defined “goblin” as “nine to fourteen years old”. First abandoned by a wealthy widow, Humbert later falls for Lolita, the 12-year-old daughter of landlady Charlotte Haze, calling her a goblin. Unable to break away from Lolita due to the shadow of his childhood, Humbert marries his landlady and becomes Lolita’s stepfather in order to get close to the precocious and passionate little girl. The girl in the novel is Dolores Haze, or Lolita or Lo, as the Spanish-sounding nickname for the book’s title.

The landlady in her husband’s diary later found out his secret and was very angry that he cheated on her. Humbert later picks Lolita up from camp and travels with her, thinking that by drugging her in her drink he can unknowingly molest her. The drug had no effect on Lolita (because it wasn’t really a powerful sleeping pill), and instead, the next morning, Lolita flirted with Humbert and had an incestuous relationship. Humbert then informs Lolita that her mother is dead, and with no choice, Lolita accepts that she must live with her stepfather. Humbert takes Lolita on a father and daughter tour of The United States, using pocket money, beautiful clothes, and delicious food to control Lolita and continues to satisfy his desire for her. As Lolita grows up, she begins to dislike her stepfather and starts dating boys of her own age. She takes the opportunity of a trip to break away from her stepfather. Humbert searched frantically at first, but eventually gave up.

Three years later, Humbert receives a letter from Lolita. It says that she is married, pregnant, and needs financial help from her stepfather. Humbert gave her $400 in cash, a check for $3,600, and a $10,000 deed to the house that he had sold. He asked Lolita who is the man who took her away from, and Lolita told him that the man is Quilty who is a professor of performance at her school. She told him that she ran away from Quilty because she rejected Quilty’s request to her and the other boys for making pornographic films. Humbert begged Lolita to leave her husband and go with him, but she refused, and Humbert was heartbroken. He tracked down and shot Quilty. Humbert died in prison of a blood clot, and Lolita died in childbirth on Christmas Day 1950 at the age of 17.

-Coreen C.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download from Overdrive.

Film Review: Crazy Rich Asians

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Crazy Rich Asians, the movie everybody is obsessed with. And yes, it was nice to see a lot of diversity in a movie but, as a Romantic Comedy goes, it did not really have that many jokes. And the story line was just like every other Romantic movie that has every been made. Though, Constance Wu is a great actor and I was really excited to see her in something other than Fresh Off the Boat, I was just kind of expecting more.

As someone who is Asian, I could definitely appreciate the jokes that was in the movie because, most of them were pretty relatable. But, in my opinion there could have been more jokes. Because, even though it was labeled a Rom Com I feel like it was mostly just a romantic movie with a little bit of comedy sprinkled in. Which, was not the way it was advertised or talked about. From they way people talked about it, I was expected it to be super funny and I had really high expectations which where not met.

Overall, the story line was about a New York economics professor Rachel Chu who falls in love with Nick Young who is part of a super rich family for Singapore. Nick brings Rachel to Singapore to meet his family who does not approve of her. But, eventually she gets their approval and Nick proposes to her. This follows the typical Romantic movie formula and as someone who doesn’t really care for Romantic movies to begin with it kind of bored me. Though, I might have not liked it because it is not really a style of movie that I care for.

But, if you are someone who is into Romantic Movies, it is probably a great movie for you to watch. And it is still slightly funny, especially if you can get the jokes. So if you’re looking for a Romantic Movie to watch I would watch this one but, just don’t expect it to be that different from any other romantic movie.

-Ava G.

Book Versus Movie: Starters/Selfless

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starters_lissapriceThe book Starters by Lissa Price, and the movie Selfless don’t seem to resemble each other at first. However, after looking deeply at both I started to see some similarities. The idea of putting the mind of an older mind into a young person’s body is interesting, but the way the characters use that ability is so different.

In Starters, Enders (older people) rent the bodies of Starters (younger people) who give their bodies to the organization. Enders get to live in a younger body for a limited time and can do things like skydiving or horseback riding. Starters get paid a lot of money after they are made over and rented. This business is very common, because in this world, Enders are very rich and Starters live as homeless people. During the rented time, an Ender’s body is safely asleep, awaiting its mind’s return. This routine seems very normal and harmless, but in Selfless it’s almost the opposite.

selflessIn Selfless, the purpose of the experiment is to enable old but intelligent minds to continue living in order to develop and fulfill new ideas. However, they don’t rent bodies; they steal them. Before an elder’s mind can be transferred into a younger body, they must disappear or fake their death so no one notices they are missing. The younger person’s family gets paid a lot of money once their body is sold, so they no longer have a life of their own. Also, the young person’s personality is lost in the process. This process, known as shedding, is kept secret so as not to be shut down. Shedding is tailor made for the rich, as only they can afford the luxury to live forever in a younger body.

Both the book and the movie have similar storylines but the direction each take are different, with one using it to help both parties and the other ultimately killing someone. I loved the reading the dystopian book and couldn’t wait to check out the sequel, Enders. The movie was also very intriguing, making it nearly impossible to take my eyes off the screen.

-Sabrina C., 10th Grade

Starters and Selfless are available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library.