Saturday, January 19, 2013

A Review on Chris Colfer's Works

Hi guys! How's it going?
Well I'm still quite busy but things are getting better before another waves of work come in later in March or so. So I'm savouring every second of freedom that I have now!
I have quite a lot of movie reviews that I haven't share, but I've decided to dedicate this one solely to Chris Colfer, one of the most successful young actors at the moment and of course, my favourite young actor too at the moment. Click here to see what I've wrote about Chris earlier. I've read his first book and watched his first movie and I can't wait any longer to share some of my thoughts.

The book... The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell
Many thanks to Deardo who bought the book online for me as my birthday gift and I was so addicted to the book despite my busy work schedule.
The book talks about a twin brother a sister who fell into a world of fairy tales in the the book -- The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell. The pair, who have grown up listening to fairy tales from their grandmother and father were given a hard time finding their way out of the book while experiencing some super amazing stuff such as meeting their favourite characters in the stories.
I certainly love how Chris gave some twists to the characters in those famous fairy tales you and me know. For instance, he made Red Riding Hood the weird queen who fell in love with Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk but Jack is in love with Goldilocks. I mean, it's super cool! And the way he sort of made the fairy tales characters speak in the modern days language is also super hilarious it made me laughed like crazy! And then the ending made me tear a bit but I do not want to reveal it here cos you need to read it yourself!
It is however obvious that writing wise, he uses the simplest English and I admit that in some parts he was too detailed in explaining a person's expression or thinking, leaving you with no space for imaginations. And yes, towards the end of the book, I noticed some grammar/typo mistakes too.
You know it says this is a children book but I think it is more suitable to perhaps teenagers onward who have all the knowledge about the fairy tales in the book. It all just made a lot of sense when you read the book and figure out what happen to these people after the 'happily ever after' final page of the storybooks you used to read. Personally I'm very thankful that he made my favourite character, Cinderella back to life and made her sounds so much more realistic. I truly enjoyed reading the book which has a lot of adventures and twists in between. If not because of my working hours, I think I can easily finish the 400 plus pages book in two days time!
Trust me, this is a MUST READ!!! :)

The movie... Struck By Lightning 
Struck By Lightning is Chris's first major movie and also his debut in screen-writing.
The movie is about Carson Phillips, a high school student who thinks he is unique and is hated by almost everyone in school. He has a huge dream in becoming a journalist and editor of some major newspapers and magazines so in order to do that he has to produce a school literary magazine. Since everyone hates him and no one wants to write for the magazine, he blackmailed some of the school's students so that they would write for him. I shall stop here for you to find out the ending of the rest of the movie.
Personally, I don't think it is a fantastic movie, but I wouldn't say that it is a failure too. Somehow I feel like there are parts of the movie that can be made better, especially how it all ended with the group of people Carson blackmailed, in detail. I also think it reminds me too much of Glee, like the cheerleaders, the gay couple, all that which are too cliche. And I think the repeat of the same scene where Carson is struck by lightning was a little unnecessary.
While I don't fancy Carson as a character who is so negative, I'm glad that it actually doesn't have any signs of  Kurt in Glee. Carson is much more manly, non-fashionable and very realistically a high school student which I think Chris Colfer did quite well portraying it. Rebel Wilson, one of my latest favourite comedy actress simply added a lot of bonus points to the movie. I just adore her! But I think the best acting should be awarded to Allison Janney who plays Carson's alcoholic and pill-popping single mum. She just makes the role really stand-out from the rest and can be so naturally crazy and sad! 

Like I've said, it is definitely not the best movie I've ever watched. But then it is not the cheesy lousy teenage comedy you would expect it to be too. It has the humour that's right, but it also has a very good message behind it (or at least I got it). I was tearing in the end of the movie as Carson said something like he died (okay, spoiler, he did die) but as he thinks back on his life, he has done whatever he could to reach his dream and has inspired some people, which is enough to erase the negative part of his life... 
Honestly, for a 22 year-old, this first try isn't too bad at all! Let's hope for better stuff from him in the future! :)
If you are say a fan of Juno, I think you will have some fun watching this movie too!

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