Troll And Seeing Romance Where It Isn’t Shown
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about the Netflix movie Troll and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this fun and surprisingly good monster film, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I watched Troll on a lark. We saw Troll 2 had released and figured it must have been good or enjoyable enough to warrant a sequel.
My friends, it was both. It was fun and fantastical and emotionally deep in places. The characters were interesting and well developed. The expected army guy? He had depth and humor and was extremely likable.
It was also a Norwegian film, which made it even more fun, because characters switched between languages often and fluidly. (It had English subtitles.) And the scenery was gorgeous.
Did Troll have romance?
No. Not on the screen.
As a romance reader and writer, however, I saw how romantic relationships could form between certain characters and I was pairing (and more) characters up during the entire movie.
Troll will definitely inspire some future stories from me.
(smiles)
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Predator: Badlands And Intelligent Adversaries
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Predator: Badlands and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this SciFi Action Movie set on a fantastical alien world, you might wish to skip this post.
I LOVED Predator: Badlands and yes, I have enjoyed ALL of the Predator movies (my favorite being the first Alien vs Predator movie, which I would consider to be a romance if the hero’s fate wasn’t what it was – dang it).
But Predator: Badlands is special.
Because the alien world it is set in is absolutely amazing. It is worth viewing for this alone.
There are magical little details like the razor grass, which could very well have ancestors in common with our Earth vegetation. Grass cuts on our planet are extremely painful (they are similar to deep paper cuts, yet with the increased possibility of infection). And there are plants that are silver in color.
Every plant and/or creature in this alien world has possible relatives here on Earth. As someone who loves world building AND evolutionary biology, this level of care is impressive.
Another reason to watch Predator: Badlands is the big baddie.
The unkillable creature the Predator is hunting has earned its place at the top of this hostile planet’s extensive food chain.
One of my pet peeves are dumb big baddies. Yes, underlings can be idiots. That is highly likely. (grins) And yes, villains can make mistakes (one common human mistake is overconfidence).
But you don’t get to the top by being dumb (So NEVER dismiss a real life big baddie because you feel they lack intelligence. They don’t. You’re underestimating them.).
In Predator: Badlands, we are shown that the Big Baddie, the alien creature the Predator is hunting, can learn. Quickly. It can communicate. It can problem solve.
It is formidable opponent.
And that makes this already action-packed movie even more thrilling. And interesting.
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Bridgerton – Season 3 – And Subplots
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Season 3 of Bridgerton, Colin and Penelope’s romance, and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this season of the limited series based on the novels by Julia Quinn, you might wish to skip this post.
I delayed watching Season 3 of Bridgerton because…well…I don’t like Penelope’s character. I didn’t like her in the books and, after watching the season, I still don’t like the less mean TV version of her.
I don’t like gossips. I don’t like mean people (or characters). And I really don’t like people who betray their friends and family for any reason, frankly, but especially not for money.
That said, I enjoyed Season 3 of Bridgerton.
Why?
Because I greatly enjoyed the subplots.
I loved, loved, LOVED Francesca’s romance. I thought it was sweet and romantic and unique. It was magical.
I enjoyed Benedict’s exploration of his sexuality.
And Momma Bridgerton’s unexpected flirtation. And hearing more of Lady Danbury’s backstory.
For me, the subplots were the REASON to watch the third season.
And that is often the role of subplots. Yes, they should tie into the main romance. But they give readers, who might not like that main romance, a reason to continue reading the story and the series.
With me, with Bridgerton Season 3, this worked!
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Gladiator II And The Too Easy Solution
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Gladiator II, the long awaited sequel to Gladiator, a movie about…well…gladiators (grins) and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this half-naked-men-fighting-to-the-death-in-the-Colosseum movie, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I watched Gladiator II.
The first Gladiator was serious. It was well written. It was…well…not factual but it attempted to look historical.
This second Gladiator movie is silly. At one point, the Colosseum fighting ring is filled with water and stocked with very large great white sharks.
I often enjoy silly. Heck, I AM a bit silly. (grins) I wrote The Godrabbit. That’s a super silly concept.
But Gladiator II is also boring and predictable.
I knew this was a different movie when they once again killed off the hero’s wife.
When the wife or female love interest dies in a movie now, I brace myself for some lazy and uninspired storytelling.
And this proved to be true with Gladiator II.
They also killed the wife off for no good reason.
Because Gladiator II would have been a stronger, more interesting movie if she HADN’T died.
The wife was a warrior. She could have been a female gladiator. The hero might have faced her in the ring. Or fought alongside her. Or watched and worried while she fought and gained new urgency to free himself AND her.
THAT would have kicked a$$. And it would have been original, instead of striving to be a washed out copy of the first movie.
But, instead, the filmmakers reached for easy.
And they gave us boring.
If a solution in your story seems TOO easy, reconsider it. Interesting is rarely easy.
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Cruel Intentions And Last Acts
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Cruel Intentions, the 1999 teen movie inspired by Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. It WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this movie with romantic elements but NO ROMANCE ENDING, you might wish to skip this post.
I love the Dangerous Liaisons storyline and I very much enjoyed rewatching this teen-marketed modern (in 1999) retelling of it. It holds up to viewing over a quarter of a decade later and the cast is amazing. We see Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blair when they were babies. (smiles)
I also enjoyed it because of the redemption arc.
Sebastian and his stepsister Kathryn are two of a kind. They’re awful, mean people, and seem to have no redeeming personality traits.
And for much of the movie, they remain awful. They do terrible things.
Until Sebastian falls in love and has a change of heart.
His last act in the movie is sacrificing himself for another person.
This is the only true good thing he is shown to have ever done.
But it redeems himself in the eyes of the other characters and in the eyes of many viewers.
He becomes the hero.
While his stepsister, the person matching him for evil for most of his life, ends the movie as the villain.
This is the power of one selfless act. It can completely shift others’ views of us and of characters.
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The Art Of Racing In The Rain And Unique Perspectives
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about The Art Of Racing In The Rain and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this movie told from the point of view of a dog, you might wish to skip this post.
I recently watched The Art Of Racing In The Rain and the plot is fairly predictable.
It is a dog movie, showing the ENTIRE dog’s live (so keep your tissues handy). A human dies also. Again, this human’s death is so predictable it is almost a fridge-like cliché (ugh).
What is unique is…
The perspective.
It is not only told from the point of view of a dog but this dog’s human is also a professional race car driver.
This combination is engaging. I kept watching.
Does the story you’re reading or writing have a unique perspective?
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Fountain Of Youth And Siblings
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Fountain Of Youth and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this sibling adventure movie, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I recently watched Fountain Of Youth, an Indiana Jones-like adventure movie featuring two siblings searching for that famed ‘miracle cure to aging’.
The siblings are MIDDLE AGED, which makes Fountain Of Youth fairly unique in the movie world.
It doesn’t make it unique in the romance novel world. (grins) We LOVE our grown siblings. The parents might often be dead but our heroes, for example, usually have gazillion of brothers all destined to find love.
Other than future story bait, siblings tend to serve another important purpose.
They show the main character can love another person and they can maintain a fairly health relationship over years.
This is a key revelation for reassuring us their new romantic relationship will last also. They will have their romantic happy ever after.
It is also fun. (grins) Siblings tend to tease even the most serious characters and they show a side of our heroes and heroines the love interest wouldn’t otherwise easily see.
Who are your favorite siblings in romances and in the movies?
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Roofman And Lying Heroes
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Roofman and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this based-on-real-life movie, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I recently watched Roofman, a movie based on a real-life thief and…it was okay. I wouldn’t watch it again.
It has a romance storyline but this movie does NOT have a romantic happy ever after or happy for now ending.
Because the hero is a liar.
He isn’t an inadvertent liar or a forced-to-tell-a-lie-and-has-a-great-reason-for-doing-so truth bender. We often forgive those type of lying heroes in romance novels, especially if they are shown to be honest and trustworthy in all other situations and, they are truthful, in the future, with their love interest.
Writers have to work hard to redeem lying heroes.
The hero of Roofman isn’t working hard at anything. He definitely isn’t trying to be redeemed. I suspect he doesn’t even believe lying is wrong.
He lies about almost everything, has a history of lying and shows no willingness to tell the truth in the future. He also walks away from his wife and kids, steals…constantly, and deceives everyone around him.
So no, he doesn’t deserve a happy ending and he doesn’t get one.
Ensure your lying romance hero or heroine deserves their romantic happy ending.
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Atlas And Super Attractive And Sympathetic Villains
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Atlas and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this SciFi Action movie, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I watched Atlas, a SciFi movie featuring a human heroine and an AI mech body suit with his own personality.
I wouldn’t watch it again but it was entertaining.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby’s favorite part was when the heroine admitted to not liking anyone, saying that people just disappoint. He teased me that the heroine sounded like me.
(grins)
My biggest issue with Atlas is…
The villain is ridiculously sexy. Simu Liu is hot as he is but they gave him cyborg eyes and… (bites fist). My stars. I wanted to lick the screen.
His motivations are also understandable. Humans are f*cking up the world, creating misery and killing all other species. He wants to reduce the human population and put AI in charge to curb our rather violent tendencies. Which…well…it isn’t a bad long term plan for the planet.
This combination caused me to be conflicted. While I didn’t cheer for the villain, I also didn’t want him hurt or defeated. I definitely didn’t want him killed. My ideal resolution is he is sent to a planet where he can build more of his kind, protect the locals (likely from species like us), and find some sort of peace.
Yes, I’ve rewritten the ending in my brain. I wasn’t happy with the one provided.
The lesson here is…
Don’t create a villain your audience or reader doesn’t want to see defeated.
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Madame Web And Caring About Characters
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Madame Web and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this superhero origin story movie, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I both watched Madame Web, a superhero movie set in the not-so-distant past. I was excited for this movie as it features a group of female superheroes! Yay!
But it was…challenged. In many different ways.
The key one being…
I didn’t care about most of the characters, including the heroine, the future Madame Web.
And I believe this has to do with how they were presented to us.
For example, we see Cassie Web, the heroine, saving a life in her job as a paramedic. But she does this coldly, without emotion, like it is merely part of her job and nothing more.
Then we see her being cold and dang mean to innocent little kids wanting to thank her for saving their beloved daddy.
Sure, later, we see her feeding a stray cat. But our first impression of her is already set by then.
And that first impression is NOT good.
I disliked her. Intensely.
The irony is…
A two minute ‘scene’ would have flipped that for me. All the director had to do was show Cassie’s internal struggle. Show her talking to herself, telling herself to not get emotionally involved, to not feel for others, to not risk being hurt.
Then have a flicker of caring, of softness in Cassie’s demeanor when she is thanked by the kid before she pulls herself back into her cold emotional shield. Let the coldness be a struggle, not her natural personality.
We have to like SOMETHING about main characters. Remember that when writing tough-to-like heroines and heroes.
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