Wicked: For Good And Romance Endings
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Wicked: For Good, the second and final movie concluding the story of the Wizard Of Oz’s ‘Wicked’ Witch, and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this magical movie with a solid romance novel-worthy ending (YES!!!!), you might wish to skip this post.
I was dreading watching Wicked: For Good. I loved the first movie so very much and the trailers looked like the second part of Elphaba’s story would ruin that for me.
It didn’t ruin it. At all.
It made me love the story MORE.
I LOVED Wicked: For Good.
The characters held true. The relationships evolved and grew stronger. The tie-ins to the original Wizard Of Oz were magical. The girl power and friendship rocks messages remain.
And the ending…the ending, my friends. It had all the aspects of a great romance novel ending.
It was unexpected and hard fought for.
During the dark moment, I truly thought all hope of ANY sort of happy ending was impossible. I definitely didn’t think there would be a romantic happy ending.
Yet there was.
And it was delightful and different, not-at-all what I thought their romantic happy ending would be like yet it was perfect for them.
This is definitely a movie to rewatch when writing an ending to a romance novel. It is inspiring.
(smiles)
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The Running Man (2025) And Love Interests
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about The Running Man (2025) and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this action-packed remake, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I enjoyed The Running Man (2025). It is a one watch only movie for us but it was entertaining and I liked the updates made to the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger version.
One update that I really WISH they would have made was creating more room for at least one positive female-facing character.
Three of the four main female characters were…awful.
The female contestant was a terrible person, glorifying wealth and putting the people around her in danger. The mom of the helper was a bloodthirsty cruel being. The reluctant helper was the cliché shallow Kardashian-watching type of female whom the hero had to convince to do the right thing.
The fourth main female character, the wife, was missing in action. The love of her life, the father of their child, was in serious danger and she…did nothing. Nothing to help him. Sure, she cared for their child. But otherwise, she remained in hiding (that SHE didn’t even arrange to do) and, basically, went on with her life.
That’s some cold sh*t right there. She is definitely not a romance novel love interest. (shakes head)
And this was definitely a movie produced by men for men.
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Hamnet And Grief
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Hamnet and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this heart-wrenching movie based on the book by Maggie O’Farrell about the life of the WIFE of William Shakespeare, you might wish to skip this post.
I recently watched Hamnet and wowsers, I think this is the best movie dealing with grief I’ve ever watched. It is definitely a three hanky watch.
One of the things that makes it so good, so touching is…much of the movie is happy. We see and feel the happiness, the love, the building of hope.
The main character, Anne, Shakespeare’s wife, has a realistic, some might say rather cynical view on life. She doesn’t expect much from life or from other people.
This changes throughout the movie. She begins to hope. She forms connections with other people, with the community. She laughs. She smiles. Joy surrounds her.
Then she experiences a great tragedy and that hard-found hope is yanked away from her.
She is sad, of course. We often talk about the sadness with loss.
But she is also angry, really, really angry. And that is a part of grief also.
As is the feeling of isolation, the feeling we are grieving alone, that the rest of the world has moved on and forgotten yet we haven’t and we don’t ever want to.
The answer to this isolation in the movie is brilliant. That answer and Anne’s reaction to it made me cry even harder than the initial tragedy.
This is a great movie to watch right before writing the dark moment, the big make-the-reader cry moment in your romance novel.
But have some tissues on hand when you do this!
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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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