Category Archives: Yleinen

Lord of the Flies is a dystopian novel written by William Golding. To cut the plot short, the novel tells about a group of schoolboys who survived their plane crash on a desert island. At first they tried to survive and waited calmly to be rescued, but after a while they turned into savage people. Their life on the island wasn’t easy and the thoughts of a wild beast creeping in the night didn’t make it any easier.

During the time they waited to be rescued the group splits up into smaller tribes while their way of thinking is turning to the level of a caveman. Instead of doing things for common good they start to behave more self-centered. The theme of the book tells a lot about how easily we change our way of thinking, when it’s about life or death.

The book also tells in an awesome way about the feelings when you have no chance to do anything to solve a problem and about the difficulties when you have to co-operate with stubborn people who don’t see any other way of doing things. That’s also one of the reasons which creates the disastrous atmosphere on the island.

The main characters of the book are Ralph, Piggy and Jack. There are also other crucial and important people in the story, but the decisions of these three create the main path of the story. My favorite character was Ralph. At first Ralph seems to be an arrogant and mean person but his real, emotional and thoughtful personality is revealed as the story advances. During the time the group was on the island, he was the only one who cared and fought for common good whether he had energy or not.

Piggy, on the contrary, is a shy and overweighted boy who’s got asthma. Although Piggy seems to be a guy who doesn’t have the courage to say his thoughts out loud, he’s a very smart person who knows what to do and when. At first all the boys are insulting him but in the end Piggy and Ralph are those who stick together like best friends. I also think that Piggy’s mature way of understanding things effected Ralph’s acting positively.

Jack was a mysterious person. He was the leader of the choir boys but when all of the guys assembled for the first time and he lost the leader election to Ralph, he changed. At first he seemed to accept his defeat, but he was the first one who started to turn inhumane. He started to act really heartless against everything and everyone who didn’t accept his way to make something happen.

It was his fault, even though indirectly, that two of the boys died on the island. His behavior affected the guys who joined his tribe. Ralph, Piggy and all the other sensible guys hated him, me included.

The language of the book was understandable. Of course there where words I didn’t know but the most important thing was that the English wasn’t old with all its weird words and expressions. The narrator was omniscient and I don’t think that any other type of narrator would’ve fit the story. I liked the book very much. It was one of the best English novels I’ve ever read. I think I’m going to read more of Golding’s books, because his style of telling is nice, not too detailed, but so that the story remains interesting.

      Animal farm

Animal farm is a book written by George Orwell in 1945. The book contains a story of a Manor farm where all the animals got worn out of humans and obeying humans. Old boar called major tells in a secret meeting that humans shall not be tolerated anymore and after Major passes away pigs Snowball and Napoleon steps in charge and starts a Rebellion against human. This is a success and Manor farm gets a new name, Animal farm. Farm animals invent their own ism called Animalism in which all animals are equal and every animal that has 4 legs is good and what has 2 legs is bad. Soon the 7 commandments are developed. Everything is going great for a while and all the animals are enjoying from their freedom and own animal rights.

Farms true owner Mr. Jones tries to reclaim his land but fails and gets defeated by animals. After this two pigs in charge, Snowball and Napoleon, are getting their controversies and Napoleon gets rid of Snowball with dogs which Napoleon has taught since they were puppys. At this point the farm is heading straight to pigs tyranny when pigs are executing other animals and does whatever they like because their wisdom is superior compared to the other animals. Years pass and Animal farm is pretty much like it was in the beginning, only exception is that now the pigs are in charge but pigs are starting to seem a lot like a human beings. They wear clothes, drinks alcohol and carries whips with them and also the Animal farms name is changed back to Manor farm.

The main characters in this book are Napoleon, a fierce boar who’s not so much a talker but gets always his ideas through. Then there is Snowball, the reasonable pig who gets banished by Napoleon. Boxer was a great and muscular worker horse who got injured in working of a windmill so Napoleon sold him for money to buy whisky. There was also fat and small porker called Squealer who was always pleasing Napoleon.

The books events are inspired by Russian revolution and many of the characters are some well-known rulers for example Napoleon in the book is an allegory of Joseph Stalin.

The Hound of  Baskervilles is a novel written by  Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of the most popular books which he have written. Also it is have been used in schools since early nineteens. Doyle wrote only four Sherlock Holmes novel but this is only the full lenght novel.  Main events of the book happen in a small village of Dartmood. There is a mansion called Baskerville hall  which is surrounded by the moors. At the beginning of the novel Holmes’s friend Mortimer comes to meet him and tells that he believes that lord of Baskervilles  sir Charles Baskerville was murdered. Villagers believe that it was caused by some kind of supernatural phenomenon ,but Mortimer thinks that it was the monster Hound who scared sir Charles Baskerville and that caused the hearth attack leading to death.  Holmes sends his friend Watson to investigate the case. He need to travel there later because of other busy cases that have to be investigate first. Without Holmes Watson tries to find out who is the real murderer . He ask for questions from people in Baskerville Hall and send letters to Holmes who insists reporting all the time. New murders that happens in Dartmood make not the investigation of Holmes and Watson any easier.  Before Holmes solves the hole riddle they have a huge hunt on the moors.

In my opinion the book is good only bad thing was that language is very old and difficult but after moment of reading the text turns easier when mind get used to language. In book holmes made couple of wierd decisions which are proved to be wrong.  With school grade four to ten i would to this book grade 8. Its only 8 because of small language barrier and i don´t like from english books. Many people have done other versions for example Don Rosa the founder of Donald duck. There is over twenty films done from Hound of Baskervilles.  this particular book and his other books Dyle wrote gloomily.

Hobbit there and back again is movie series based on novel written by  J.R.R Tolkien. Book was published on 21 september 1937. Hobbit movies are directed by Peter Jackson. Screenplay was written by Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo Del Toro. They done three movies An Unexpected journey,The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the five armies. Films tell you what happend sixty years before Lord of the rings.
Filming started 2011 and ended 2013 in New Zealand where Jackson filmed Lord of the rings trilogy.
First movie An Unexpected journey began with a dinner of 13 dwarves one wizard Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins. That was company of Thorin Oakenshield. Names of the other were Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Ori, Nori , Dori, Oin , Gloin, Fili and Kili who were twins. Their purpose were to cather a company and reclaim their homeland of Erebor which is also called as a lonely mountain. Erebor was captured by dragon Smaug. The Most important actors of a company was Martin freeman (Bilbo) Ian Mckellen (Gandalf) and Richard Armitage (Thorin).
In the first part of trilogy the company gets themselves to a many serious problems. They got chased by orc group right after they came out from troll hole, but the company managed to escape because other wizard Radagast the brown helped them. Company ran to hidden valley of Rivendell witch inhabitants are elves whose leader are Elrond. When they Reached the Rivendell Elrond was not there ,but they found out that he and his soldiers just killed all the orcs that were hunting Thorin and his people. Elronds role in the movie is pretty small but important ,because he were one of few people who could read Thorins map that Gandalf had given to him. When they left from  Elronds house the company went to the misty mountains where they got caught by goblins because there were great thunder storm because of that they had to find place to stay over night ,but they accidentally went sleep to a goblins ”frontdoor”.Goblins took them to Goblin chief. Goblin chief  recognizes Thorin and send word to the Azog who is old enemy of Thorin. Thorin cut Azogs hand in ancient battle of moria. When orcs  decided to kill the company Gandalf came from nowhere and saved their lives.   While ago Bilbo lost the  company and ended up to a gollums gave. Gollum is strange creature and had lived in a mountains long time. Bilbo and Gollum sayd riddles to each other. Bilbo won the competition  by asking from Gollum ”what do i have in my pocket” and  Gollum gets mad he thinks that its unfair question. Gollumd had promised to show  Bilbo way out from mountains but he betrayed him , because he had lost his ring  which was founded by Bilbo earlier before they had met. Ring was powerful ring that made its carrier invisible. Bilbo put it in his finger and walked out from there. At the same time other were fought their way out from the misty mountains. The last scene of the movie was that Azog found Thorin but they climped to the trees their enemies tried to force the trees down and they succeed but at the last second eagles attacked and saved the company. I like this first movie pretty much. Screenplay follows the book pretty well and there is most important main events. In my opinion the succeeded with special effects especially stone giants in misty mountains and trolls turning to stone. New  Zealand is a great place to film this movies because it is so showy country.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Second part of the trilogy ”Desolation of Smaug” Started when company were escaping the seeking orcs but they noticed an other problem who is not enemy or friend. He is called Beorn acted by Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt who has came famous from Swedish Beck -series and his less wanted drug problem. He is skin changer which means, that sometimes he is a great strong man and sometimes huge black bear. After all company managed to escape to Beorns house even though he tried to catch them.  when he is bear he is wild but the human form is friendly. Next they ahead their way to the Mirkwood where the wood elves live.  Beorn gave them a ponies because if they would have to go on foot orcs could easily catch them. When the company  reached the Mirkwood Gandalf left them. Gandalf was asked to go to high fells of Rhudaur  because the necromancer (Benedict Cumberpatch) seemed to something else what he pretended to be. At Same time Bilbo and his fellows tried to walk through to forrest but giants spider captured them but missfortunately elves captured them when they managed to escape from spiders. Elf who captured them was Legolas  Greenleaf whose actor is Orlando bloom who is also knew from acting in lord of the rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. He took them to his city where elvish king lives. Dwarves eneded up to prison ,but Bilbo succeed to get them free because he did not get caught. They escaped by going down to river but it almost failed because or ambushed them. the elves came and slayed down many orcs  and orcs decided to escape. Dwarves hired ferryman to smuggle them to the lake town where they could get weapons and other supplies. They spend couples days there and then they went to the mountain. When they managed to go in the mountain first Bilbo tried to find the Arkenstone without success. His only success was that he woke up the dragon and barely managed to stay alive. They tried to kill a Dragon but they failed it and dragon came up with an idea to destroy lake town and that is where the movie ends. In my opinion this second part is better than first. Both movies where edited very good.  I recommend these movies to everyone.

Divergent, written by Veronica Roth, is the first part of the dystopian novel trilogy. To summarize the plot, the world has been destroyed and splitted into factions: selfless Abgenation, harmonous Amity, intelligent Erudite, honest Candor and fearless Dauntless. The heroine of the book, Beatrice, has to decide the faction, where she will spend the rest of her life. Then Beatrice has to prove her choice right; that she is capable to adapt the faction she has chosen.

Divergent is the story of the main character’s growth. Beatrice has to leave her Abgenation family (mentally and physically) and start a new life in Dauntless. The theme of the novel is her act of becoming independent and brave. She will go through the iniation process and she has to prove that she is brave enought for her new family.

Initiates who doesn’t integrate their new factions, are discarded from the whole community. That might symbolize our pressure of uniformity in society. The book criticizes the fact that being abnormal is sometimes considered even dangerous. In the story the main character Beatrice is told to be divergent (she has features of three factions instead of only one). She has to hide her divergency if she wants to stay alive.

To be honest, the faction system of the novel is a bit naive. The fact that divergents are so unique and dangerous sound hilarious to me. Obviously, the reader should identify Beatrice and find divergence normal, but I regarded that she was so normal that it was almost boring. How could that be so dangerous that she should be killed?

The most of the other characters of the book weren’t such touching either. Their personalities felt distant and unclear. Maybe there were too many characters to identify them. Beatrices mother, though, was interensting character: too bad, that she was killed too soon to be known better.

The main character, Beatrice learns to criticize the corrupted leaders of Dauntless: is it really brave to be violent and reckless? She understands that sometimes acting selflessly is bravery. Sometimes it is braver to sacrifice your own reputation to save someone.

Even though the motto of the faction system is ”faction before blood”, one of the important themes of the novel is that we have major need for our family and friends. Despite Beatrice has left her Abgenation family physically, she can trust them when life gets rough in her new faction. Friends are important for her too.

Divergent has been compared with other dystopian novels, for example The Hunger Games, that I have also read (http://www.risingshadow.fi/artikkelit/kirja-arvostelut/551-arvostelu-veronica-roth-outolintu). I have to agree, that there were some similarities in the stories. For instance, they both have female main characters who have to grow as a person and save the corrupted and splitted world.

Of course, like other novels of dystopian genre, Divergent also has a romance. Beatrice falls in love with the initation instructor, Four. Their relationship symbolizes forbidden love: Four is important leader person for Dauntless faction and Beatrice is just young and weak initiate from Abgenation. Fortunately there wasn’t a love triangle (regular in dystopian novels) in this book though.

The language of the novel is easy to follow and fluent. The book was easily read and even though it wasn’t the best novel I have read, I probably will read the sequels of the book.

Lähteet: http://www.risingshadow.fi/artikkelit/kirja-arvostelut/551-arvostelu-veronica-roth-outolintu

I spent an hour only choosing which film to watch. At first I thought that I would like to watch something impressive. For example The Bookthief or The Fault In Our Stars or The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. But those and the many other films were alreydy borrowed. So then I thought that maybe something romantic and a half hour later I decided that I just take the first film which seems good and just go and watch it. And I took the film which called 12 Years A Slave.

And I am so happy of my decision. The 12 Years A Slave which is directed by Steve McQueen. The Film was based on a true story and that’s why the story is so touching. And it tells about a black man’s life. The black man whose name is Solomon Northup lives a happy life with his wife and two childrens. And he is a free man. He is a literate and he plays the violin. But one day changed everything. Solomon was abducted and sold into slavery. And all what he had was gone. Even his own name.

I think the main thing which made the film so touching were the actors. They played their role so perfect. The pain and the suffering and all the tears seemed really real. And my favourite actor was Chiwetel Ejiofor who played the role of Solomon.

Also the great special effects and the beautifull and sensitive music which was made mostly by the violin were the reason which made the film so touching.

The film tells about the time before the human rights and how the white people could own the black people. And the white people have all the rights do what they wanted to do the black people. All the penalty with a birch and also all the suicide tries makes me feel aguished and in the end I cried and I couldn’t stop it.

In my opinion the film was successful one way or another, because it made an impression on me. And the message was clear and it made me think how happy we are and how well our things are going.

The Last Song is a film based on the novel The Last Song written by Nicholas Sparks. Produced by Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot and directed by Julie Anne Robinson. Starring Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth and Greg Kinnear. The premiere of the movie was on March 31, 2010.

The film is about a girl named Ronnie (played by Miley Cyrus) who has to spend a summer with his father, (played by Greg Kinnear) whom she doesn’t know almost at all. After been there awhile Ronnie runs into a boy named Will (played by Liam Hemsworth), when he spills a milkshake on her. After many scenes they eventually fall in love with each other, which is kind of obvious.

The Last Song is quite similar to the other films which base on the novels of Nicholas Sparks: romantic, dramatic, instructive and sensitive. The Last Song is coming of age teen romantic drama film. Coming of age is a genre of teen films which focus on the psychological and moral growth of a protagonist. In the film it shows well because the protagonist, Ronnie, learns that: “sometimes you have to be apart from people you love but that doesn’t mean you love them any less, sometimes it even makes you love them more.” The film has mostly a romantic atmosphere but it varies through the movie. Drama occurs in the film when Ronnie is struggling with the difficulties with her father and Will. Luckily Ronnie’s little brother Jonah (played by Bobby Coleman) brings a little humor into the film.

After releasing the film it became quite popular. I think the main secret for its popularity was the writer of the book -Nicholas Sparks, who is also my personal favorite- and of course the main actors. I think most of the fans of Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth made sure that they’d go to see the film, including me.

The camerawork of the film was nicely done because it made the film more impassioned and genuine. There were no special effects in the film but the music made it feel more sensitive and you could almost find yourself thinking about the things as your own. The Last Song includes songs singed by Miley Cyrus, which made it more intimate for me to watch.

I really loved The Last Song because it was easy to identify with Ronnie, maybe because she is the same age as me and was going through similar things. The film evoked especially empathy in me. I found myself crying several times whether it was the tears of joy or not. I would highly recommend the film for sensitive people who love romance and weepy scenes.

All told, I think the main message of the film is that you can get through anything if you set your mind to it. And that we’re not perfect, any of us, even not the ones we love.

Sources:  

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1294226/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Song_(film)

The film The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the third part of the highly succeeded fantasy-adventure trilogy which is based on The Hobbit, or There and Back Again written by J. R. R. Tolkien. The book was published on 21 September 1937. The film was published 17 December in the United States. The film was directed by Peter Jackson and written by Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Guillermo del Toro. It was Produced by New Line Cinema, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and WingNut Films, and distributed by Warner Bros.

Personally I liked the camerawork a lot just because it was just as I like it because they made it so you would feel like you would be in the movie. In example there was scenes where the camera gets crushed under falling rocks and also as if you were there in the middle of the hysteria caused by fleeing innocents. The soundtrack was obviously superb just as in The Lord of The Rings films, which represents the time after The Hobbit. The soundtrack had strong ambiences what made the scenes and events much more thrilling. The special effects in the film were exquisite. For instance the fearsome dragon Smaug was excellently made to look vivacious. As well as the fire that Smaug exhaled over the town of Laketown. Also all the ”orcs” were made to look perfectly realistic.

In my opinion Martin Freeman did a magnificent job on capturing the main character’s, Bilbo Baggings’ sipirt of a noble and sincere hobbit. I also liked the acting by Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield. Armitage did a great job when acting like he has completely lost all of his empathy and become completely mad. But still there is one that stands out from everyone else and he is Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey. I don’t know why but I have liked him the most of all characters since the beginning of The Lords of The Rings. And despite his age during The Hobbit he did an excellent job in all of the fighting scenes. I also liked the dwarves with their own silly sense of humor.

The film started with a few minutes long battle where Smaug incinerates Laketown and is after a while killed. The fact that killing the dragon didn’t take anything else but one shot with one big arrow which hits perfectly, disappoints me. But of course Smaug had to be killed or else he would’ve probably made the whole Middle-Earth a big wasteland. What really annoyed me though was the idiotic decisions and the lack of empathy of Thorin Oakenshield. Actually I’m not sure if a single big fight between the good and the bad is enough to cover a two and a half hour film. But to be honest it doesn’t really bother me in any way. I enjoyed watching the movie whatsoever and nothing else matters to me.

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) is the eighteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film is Directed by Roger Spottiswoode.

The film follows Bond as he attempts to stop effective media mogul Elliot Carter, the head of the Carter Media Group Network (CMGN) , who begins his plans to use the encoder to provoke war between Chine and the United Kingdom and initiate World War 3 as well.  With Bond’s new technologies and his natural sense of humor he managed with the job very well despite some wounds and bruises he got during the secret mission. Of course the producer did not let him die . -Maybe it was a little bit closer but not this time. In this film Bond is not so coward as he was in the precious movies. He fought to the end and victory.  As Roger Moore said: ” Pierce had charm and charisma and with a natural sense of fun ”.  I totally agree with Roger Moore. He definitely had a natural sense of fun and even more ! He was totally ruthless which gave more effect to the movie.

There were many things that surprised me in this movie for example the technology! I was really choked when I saw this great technology made in year 1997! Especially I was affected by an old phone with some new equipment on it and really hardcore armored car with voice guidance. And the another thing that i did not mention was the classic James Bond valuable black and white tuxedo.

I enormously admired all these stunt action moments that came over and over again.  This movie is worth watching for all people who like shooting action movies and of course are aficionado of secret agent 007 . I really liked the movie and it is one of my favorite James Bond movie this far.