Ling's Report

The Dark Knight Rises is the final movie in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movie trilogy. Nolan has set the bar for himself quite high ever since the second movie, The Dark Knight , gathered critical acclaim; he certainly does not disappoint with the third movie. This movie takes place roughly eight years after the event of The Dark Knight after the Joker’s rampage was put to a stop. Bruce Wayne has become a recluse, having hung up his cowl and still haunted by the death of Rachel Dawes. However, a new threat has come to Gotham, a threat named ‘Bane.’ Bane is a terrifying antagonist, incredibly strong and very cunning as well; Bruce Wayne returns to being Batman to face him, but the past years have not been kind to him and Bane is more than ready to take on the Bat.   This movie was definitely a fun one. Bane was a wonderful villain, a combination of monstrous fighter and criminal mastermind who has a great presence, causing audience members to be on the edge of their...

The Night Circus is a 2011 novel written by Erin Morgenstern. It features a circus known as “Le Cirque de R ê ves, a circus clad in black and white colors that only opens at night. The circus has become the site of a contest between two men: Prospero the Enchanter and Mr. Alexander H---. The two have selected two young illusionists to be their proxies, Prospero choosing his own daughter Celia and Mr. Alexander choosing a young orphan boy named Marco. However, none of the players know the rules of the game or even who their competitor is. This is a book that is very much magical realism, a world where magic and mundane are intimately linked together. Reading through The Night Circus truly does feel like walking through a childhood dream of a carnival of wonders. It is true that the magical elements of the book are never really explained, but that can be excused given the folklore-esque narrative and that such explanations would ruin the whole point of magical realism. The circu...

I remember when I was still in high school I had stumbled upon the Wikipedia page for a movie called The Ruins . I remember reading through the plot of the movie and noticed that it was based on a book. A couple years later and I finally got my hands on the book. The Ruins is a novel written by Scott Smith in 2006. It is about a group of four college students: Jeff, Amy, Stacy, and Eric. The four of them are on vacation and meet up with two other characters: a German named Mathias and a Greek that calls himself Pablo. Mathias’s brother Heinrich had run off to an archaeological dig site because he had fallen in love with one of the archaeologists and Mathias wants to bring him back. Jeff offers to accompany him and that is how the four end up going to the ruins. Despite several attempts to dissuade them, the six go up to the ruins only to be forcibly quarantined up there by several Mayans after Amy stepped on some of the vines growing there. Things get worse when Pablo fal...

During one of my latest visits to the local library I stumbled upon a novelization of the 2010 remake of The Wolfman , written by Jonathan Maberry. The 2010 movie was a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine; it wasn’t as much of a horror film as I hoped, but it was a pretty enjoyable action film and it was quite pretty to look at when the entrails of hapless victims weren’t being thrown about. The novelization almost exactly follows the movie’s script. Protagonist Lawrence Talbot heads back to his old home in Blackmoor after hearing that his brother Ben had disappeared. Back in Blackmoor he reunites with his estranged father Sir John and discovers that they had found his Ben’s corpse, mangled beyond belief. Lawrence is bitten by a werewolf while searching for the truth of his brother’s murder and transforms into the equally psychotic and dangerous Wolfman when the full moon rears her pretty head. Even though the book follows the movie script almost exactly, it is still a bit of a d...

I have recently finished reading this 2008 novelization of the 2001 Playstation 2 game “Ico,” written by Miyuki Miyabe and translated by Alexander O. Smith. I will freely admit to have never actually played the game due to not owning a PS2, so please let me know if I make any mistakes due to my limited knowledge of the game. The game’s plot is relatively simple: a young boy with horns named Ico who has been chosen to head into the Castle in the Mist as a sacrifice. While inside the castle he meets a girl by the name of Yorda and the two work together in order to escape the castle while shadowy creatures working for the queen of the castle attempt to hinder them and recapture Yorda. As you can tell, the plot is somewhat minimalistic and must be expanded upon for novelization. The additions to the novel aren’t bad when it comes to characterization. The first few chapters are dedicated to Ico’s life before being sent into the castle and focus on his relationship with his fe...

Hello to all. One of the things I enjoy most is writing; not only do I enjoy writing stories, I also like writing reviews for video games, movies, books, etc. A good story should be enjoyed by all while a bad story should either serve as a how-not-to guide for aspiring writers or something to laugh over. As a result, this blog will be dedicated to a variety of things: my stories, reviews, and general ramblings about storytelling in general. I hope that my own words, whether they are used for writing tales or ranting about other works, will prove entertaining for all who visit. Forgive me if some of the reviews are on things that have been released a while back. Hopefully I will have things to say that still make them interesting to read. Welcome and enjoy your stay.