Autobots… ROLLercoaster OUT!
May 18, 2012 – Universal City, CA
The new Transformers the Ride 3D at Universal Studios Hollywood is more than meets the eye!
From the moment you take your first steps (in line) through the headquarters of N.E.S.T., to by the time you become an official freedom fighter (baptized by Optimus Prime himself), you are engulfed in an all-encompassing war between Decepticons and Autobots, that will keep you riveted and thrilled during the entire ride!
You begin by being a part of a group of humans that are directed to participate in the robot war to save the world, by realistically agitated military personnel that insist you “Fall in!” and “Go, go, go!!” (Kudos to the line ushers/actors.)
Once recruited, you and your squad take passage inside an unnamed blue car Autobot that will be entrusted with the most perilous mission of all. Lucky you, right?
At some point after some Bumblebee antics, you end up with the All-Spark! and for the next few minutes it’s up to you (with Optimus Prime by your side) to protect it from the ever-relentless Megatron!
This epic Transformers battle will whirl you through a track ride that takes you through about ten or twelve different soundstage rooms equipped with super giant screens where you watch all the explosive action in mesmerizing 3D!
Much like in Universal’s previous hit (Harry Potter’s The Forbidden Journey), these rooms are well-connected with excellent physical scenery and the transitions between scenes are seamless. At one point, there is action happening in two rooms at once, but because your Autobot is under a real-built-bridge, going from one side of the room to the other seems spectacular. And also like Harry Potter, you are careened through all these scenes by being bumped, jolted, tilted and spinned… but before any impatient fangirls interrupt my comparison (like it happened to me at Wizarding World), let me just say that Transformers also includes amazing flight and g-force simulation like Disney’s Star Tours, and also 4D goodies such as strobe lights, water spraying, mist effects, and even heat! (Megatron hurls a 3D missile at you and you can literally FEEL it when it explodes in your face!)
It’s a magnificent experience, that could easily be the best amusement park ride to date, using technology that was merely hinted at in Peter Jackson’s King Kong 360 3D, and that I wouldn’t doubt will define the future of theme park attractions.
Transformers The Ride 3D opens officially on May 25, 2012, but is currently open for Technical Rehearsals at Universal Studios Hollywood, CA
As an added bonus, there’s a photo-op section near the exit of the ride, where you can have your picture taken with super huge Optimus Prime and/or with Bumblebee! You can also sometimes catch the Autobots walking around the area near the ride and the tourists go crazy. It’s pretty cool.
Also, there’s a souvenir shop right outside the ride of course (Transformers Supply Vault) where you can satisfy your need-for-geek by purchasing all sorts of Transformers merchandise: from Transformers the Ride apparel, to Blu-Rays or DVDs of the recent Transformers movies; even vintage Transformers cartoons shirts and books, not to mention the toy Transformers themselves!
All in all, the whole experience is a blast! And I think that Transformers The Ride 3D puts the BAZING! in BAZINGA!
Rubeus Grumpy
Junior Blogger
& Bazinga Seeker
Universal + Hasbro Didn’t Sink My Battleship
May 15, 2012 – Los Angeles, CA
After having seen a preview of Universal’s new movie Battleship, at WonderCon 2012 in Anaheim, I was a little hesitant about wanting to see the whole thing. The preview showed some poor acting from Rihanna and hardly any naval action at all; it looked like just another typical alien invasion movie. Not deserving of the title: Battleship…
I was wrong about most of that. I’m glad I accepted the invitation of a good friend to go see a special preview screening of the entire movie, because Battleship turned out to be a decent enjoyable ride.
The movie begins with ‘heart’. Taylor Kitsch (John Carter, X-men Origins: Wolverine) starts us out by introducing a lovable ‘loser-would-be-hero’ of a main character, that is brilliantly portrayed by Kitsch with humorous charisma and playful good looks. Alexander Skarsgård (Straw Dogs, Melancholia) joins him, playing his older brother, and providing what will be the driving heart of Kitsch’s character, and maybe the film. Although there are some traces of his character from True Blood, Skarsgård manages to excellently give us a reason to like and even care about the brothers. At this point, not a lot of summer blockbuster action has happened, but plenty of warm laughter has already ensued (involving Brooklyn Decker and an epic quest to win her over with a chicken burrito…); and this is even before the title credit!
When Battleship truly sets sail, it sort of does seem like a typical alien invasion movie. Earth sends out a signal into space, looking for intelligent life out there; Earth gets a response in the form of an alien attack. Boy meets girl, Earth meets alien invasion.
The action, however, takes a turn for the better. The movie becomes what it should be: an homage to our endless childhood fun playing Milton Bradley’s Battleship, a game originally from the 1940′s. Naval strategy becomes a large fun factor in the movie, but there are some great eye-candy goodies in there as well. Of note is the explosion visual effect that I hadn’t seen in any other movie prior to this one. It takes the Matrix-old, slow-then-freeze explosion visual effect… and plays it in reverse(!) before showing you the explosion again(!), so that you can enjoy an instant replay of the blast. I’m not too convinced that this was totally awesome; in fact, at first I was confused as to whether it was indeed a new editing technique for a cool visual effect, or if the alien weapon actually bent time so as to create explosions twice around (that might have been pretty darn cool actually). Alas, it only happens once in the movie, so I never really did quite understand the purpose of this cool new explosion effect, but I enjoyed that it was there, if only to have a refreshing eye-candy boom… as opposed to the same old Matrix-y explosions.
But that wasn’t what won me over. It wasn’t Liam Neeson’s excellent portrayal of an austere Admiral. It wasn’t the comic relief provided by Hamish Linklater’s nerdy scientist. It wasn’t the fun heroic antics (and memorable oneliners) of Gregory D. Gadson’s character. It wasn’t even Rihanna’s hot performance (yes, her acting turned out to be pretty good actually)…
It was Captain Yugi Nagata (played by Tadanobu Asano) and his discovery of -when the heroes’ ship loses its radar- how to fight blindly, and ‘see’ where the enemy is, using radio frequencies and water displacement. This causes a battle of naval cat and mouse between our heroes and the aliens; a guessing game at sea… Battleship! ‘Foxtrot 19! Miss! Tango 26! HIT!’ … That sequence is pretty much WIN.
Obviously, the aliens don’t have Milton Bradley on their home planet, and it’s a good thing that the original Battleship game came out in 1943, because when the movie plays homage to U.S. American troop veterans… and an actual bigass battleship starts raining lead on the aliens… whichever side played Battleship as a kid is gonna win!
Battleship (directed by Peter Berg; released in theaters nationwide on May 18, 2012) is lots of good fun and a very explosive action flick. I think it puts the BAZ in BAZINGA!
-Rubeus Grumpy
Junior Blogger
& Bazinga Seeker
“Castle” of Tears
Yes, I’m talking about tonights season finale of ABC’s Castle.
And why, do you ask, is this entry titled a Castle of Tears? Well, I’m going to do that thing you’re not supposed to do and answer a question with another question.
DID YOU SEE THIS EPISODE?
It should be self explanatory if you’ve seen it. And you’re geeky girl. I don’t know many guys, geeky or otherwise, that cry at the end of TV shows. (Or commercials or movies or books, for that matter).
But this episode left me in a heap of messy tears. Tears of sadness replaced by tears of joy and then again by tears of sadness. I’m only going to discuss the first bout of sad tears, followed by the happy tears.
All of us Castle fans saw the preview of tonights episode. We saw the scene where Kate Beckett shows up at Richard Castle’s door looking like a drowned kitten and rushes into his arms.
And the fan girl in us that has wanted Castle and Beckett to hook up became more hopeful than we’d ever been. In fact, I think a bunch of us secretly rejoiced. We honestly believed that kiss would happen, because, come on, why would the both showing it to us, if they weren’t gonna deliver, right?
And then the show started. And we see Beckett hanging off the side of a building by the fingertips of one hand, calling for Castle. And then we see her fingers slip and she falls.
WHAT?
Okay, then we jump to three days earlier when Kate Beckett is working on finding leads to their current case which then leads to more leads on the guy who shot her in the chest last season and Castle professing his love for her as she lay on the ground bleeding out.
Of course, a couple few episodes earlier, we find out that Kate remembers every single moment of being shot. And she’d told Castle she didn’t remember any of it. But she slipped during an interrogation and Castle heard. She knew he’d said he loved her. And she ignored it. And the two of them started to drift apart.
What Kate didn’t know, was that Castle had been involved in trying to keep her alive after her old Captain, Capt’ Montgomery was killed, trying to keep her safe while she was digging in to her mother’s murder.
For a whole year Castle sat on information that could have helped Kate figure out who shot her and possibly solve her mother’s murder since we are lead to believe that both incidents are horribly intertwined.
Naturally, Kate feels betrayed. And once again, Castle tells her that he loves her. That he has loved her for a long time. And that if his love means anything to her, that she will stop digging into this mess, because it’s going to get her killed. Of this, he is certain.
And she rejects his claim of undying love. This is when it started getting emotional.
You see, Beckett’s team adores Castle and loves the way the four of them work together. Castle has become an integral part of the 12th precinct. Esposito and Ryan have become quite good friends with him, in fact.
While all of this is going on, Castle is also dealing with the fact that his beautiful and exceptionally smart daughter, Alexis, is going to be graduating in a couple days and going to college. She’s not going far, as she’s staying in New York and going to Columbia University, but it’s never going to be like it’s been. Alexis is working on her speech for graduation. And having a hard time keeping it real, speaking from the heart.
So, with Castle off the case the 12th is working on, and out of touch with everyone from the precinct, including his buds Esposito and Ryan, things start to fall apart.
Kate and Esposito go after the guy that shot her. Ryan stays behind, and tries desperately to get a hold of Castle. Castle ignores him and goes to his daughter’s graduation. You can see that Castle is hurt, hurt to the core, by Kate’s rejection, but he’s trying to be strong.
And while Alexis gives her very emotional and apropos speech, we see Kate and Esposito fight and lose against men who are far better fighters. The guy Kate is fighting (who, by the way played HELO on Battlestar Galactica!!!) is a bad ass and Kate falls over the side of the building, just as we saw her at the beginning of the episode.
She calls for Castle! Castle is there, even though we’ve just seen him sitting at the ceremony for his daughter’s graduation. But we knew he’d save her! Right?
As her fingertips slip from the building and she starts to fall, hands reach out and grab her, calling her name! She’s saved! Saved by….Ryan. And a couple few cops and, whoa, her boss. Her boss is not happy.
Back at the office, the Captain asks for both Esposito’s badge and Beckett’s badge. He throws his down with attitude and Beckett lays hers down and says keep it. I’m resigning. WHAT? More tears.
Alexis’ speech continues, talking about how everything must come to an end. We see Beckett clear off her desk. We see Ryan try to explain to his partner Esposito that he had to tell the captain what was going down. We see Esposito walk away, ignoring him. I cry harder.
We see Beckett out in the rain, walking around like a lost puppy.
We see Castle talking to Alexis on the phone, who we assume is at a graduation party. Beckett calls him. He ignores the call.
There’s a knock on the door just after he moves all of the “Beckett” files off his enormous screen.
He opens the door and there stand Kate Beckett, drenched and lost looking.
Castle, annoyed and shocked, asks what she’s doing there. She says she wants him.
And the tears stream down my face.
She launches at him and kisses him. He pushes her away. Over and over she says she’s sorry. She touches his face, his lips, and she explains to him that the guy got away and she didn’t care. All she could think about when she was going to die, was HIM.
And then? They launch into passionate kisses up against the wall. FOUR YEARS of pent up passion. OMG SO MUCH WIN.
Castle unbuttons her shirt and touches the scar on her chest where she got shot, and passion turns into earnest tenderness with urgency underneath. Fingers twine, and she leads him to what we assume is the bedroom.
And that’s not the end. But I’m not going to TELL you the end. Because you just need to WATCH to find out what happens and what will lead up to the next season!!!!
Avengers Assemble!
Wow. I mean seriously WOW.
As of this morning, The Avengers, a movie that combined Marvel Comics genius with the singular epicness of Joss Whedon (of “Firefly” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fame), has earned an all time record of $200.3 million for it’s opening weekend. It kicked out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 from the top spot as HP only earned $168 million on it’s opening weekend. Only. HA!
I seriously didn’t think ANYTHING would top Deathly Hallows, but Avengers SMASHED that record like the Hulk going through a building.
And while I am an utterly DEVOTED Harry Potter addict, I have to admit that The Avengers is one of the BEST action movies I have ever seen in my life. I was told by a friend that when I saw it, I would smile throughout the entire film. He was right. I had a smile on my face throughout the whole film, and I swear it didn’t stop the whole night. By the time I went to bed my cheeks hurt. Of course that may have partially been because of the party I went to afterwards, celebrating the Avengers de Mayo with the ever amazing Los Angeles Dumbledore’s Army.
I laughed so hard at this movie, which is not a surprise to me at all considering Joss Whedon not only directed it, but had a hand in the script. I’ve been an avid fan of Joss’s since Buffy and became a complete Firefly JUNKIE. And with this success, I know for a fact that Joss is going to have his pick of projects, now! I mean I have personally not heard a bad review of this film yet!
It was touching in parts, but more than anything it was exactly what you expected a COMIC BOOK movie to be. It had Joss’s signature sardonic wit and geeky references that would make any and all geeks giggle with insider joke delight.
One of my favorite scenes, one I cannot get out of my mind, is the scene where The Hulk and Iron Man have just teamed up to fight a bunch of baddies and are standing together on a New York street, panting and taking a much needed momentary break, and The Hulk reaches out and punches Thor. Talk about a PERFECT comic book moment!! I doubled over with laughter and I hope I didn’t annoy the people around me in the theater with my loud and boisterous laugh!
There were little gems like that throughout the film, which in my opinion, make an action film EPIC beyond belief. And while I have never been a comic book fan, per se, I would get into them simply because of this movie.
Now, if you read ahead there are SPOILERS, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, SKIP THIS NEXT SECTION!
Mists of Pandaria Day 2 – Technically
After a couple of days of frustration and not wanting to log in to World of Warcraft’s Mists of Pandaria, I decided to give it another chance. If you recall from my previous entry, I could not get past the quest for the brazier lighting because there were SO MANY PANDAS trying to get the same quest done. They pandas were lined up, but not moving. There were pandas standing ON the brazier, which was what we were all trying to get to. I must have spent an hour trying to get this quest completed. I logged out and logged back in in the hopes that I could get the brazier lit before the rest of the pandas loaded.
No such luck.
So, I gave up. And I hadn’t been back to play since.
But last night, while a friend of mine and I were watching TV at 1 am, I decided to try again.
EVERYONE HAD GONE. By waiting just a mere what, 48 hours, I was able to complete the quest and the next several quests with no problems what so ever.
The key here, I think, is patience.
Until the quest with the reeds came up. In the singing pools, there is a quest where you have to collect 8 reeds. Most of these reeds are next to balancing polls that your panda can practice his or her crane technique – a la the Karate Kid (the original one that is) – but there’s one problem. You can’t click on the reeds and collect them. I’ve tried EVERYTHING. And I was seeing on the general chat that I was not the only one having issues with this. So, after an hour, and getting only 4 out of my 8 reeds, I decided to call it quits for the night.
What I am hoping is that when I come back in I can get the other 4 reeds and continue on to questing and seeing what other problems arise. And yes, I am expecting problems.
This is a beta test after all. 
G&S and WoW: Mists of Pandaria Day 1.5
So, after yesterday afternoons failed attempt to get past level 2, I stopped playing Mists of Pandaria and decided to hunker down for the night and watch some epic TV. The problem with that was, well, there was NOTHING worth watching on TV last night. So, what did I do? I decided to watch Geek & Sundry. First, thought I wanted to finish the last 20 minutes of Season 5 of The Guild on Netflix first. And then I went over to G&S and watched all of Felicia Day‘s Flogs and then watched all of Wil Wheaton‘s TableTop which I hadn’t seen before and which I LOVED. I mean LOVED. It brought back all my memories of sitting around the table as a kid and playing board games and the new memories of table top gaming with my friends, who call themselves The Justice League (which I LOVE about them). I wish I had MORE table top gaming fun, in fact.
This also made me REALLY want to be on TableTop with Wil Wheaton, who makes table top gaming look even more epic than it already is. I wished I could have been table top gaming at the very moment. However, since it was 3am, and not the right time to call up friends and say “We need to game!” I decided to try Mists of Pandaria again in the wee hours of the morning, hoping the crowds were thinned out. And it worked! I was able to complete several quests, though it was still crowed. It just wasn’t quite the sea of pandas it had been earlier that afternoon, which was kind of nice.
I honestly don’t even know how I passed the quest to burn a scroll, I just pushed my Panda Rogue into the crowd and eventually it seemed like it just happened. It was like, my turn, or something. After that, the next set of quests were much easier, even with the massive crowds. If you have to fight or kill something, just pick one, and stand your ground. You will eventually be able to duel it several times in a row, thus completing your mission. And then getting back to turn in the quests was fine, even if they were mobbed with other pandas turning in and receiving quests.
So, I think I’ll stick with playing late at night so I’m not overrun by players, and I’ll stick to playing regular WoW during the day. Of course, I had to create a new toon since my friend was telling me about his EPIC friend who plays WoW and is like one of the top DPS players in the history of like ever. It’s good to know people who know people, right?
Of course, the good thing about creating a new toon is that I can blaze through the first 10 or so levels with out much problem at all. I mean I created a new toon at like, 4 pm and by 6 pm I’m at level 8. Not bad for a couple hours gaming, eh?
More on Mists of Pandaria after tonight’s session!
Mists of Pandaria – Day One
Well, I was not able to load Diablo III so that I could beta test it, BUT, I was able to load World of Warcraft’s new expansion Mists of Pandaria for beta testing.
I just spent the last hour playing. Here are my thoughts on the game so far:
Now, I will admit when I bought my computer I did not game. I said I didn’t need a computer with which to game. A scant year and a half later I can’t STOP gaming. I feel like I want to PLAY ALL THE GAMES. But, I’m pretty much only playing WoW and games on Facebook like Castleville and the Avengers Game, both of which are pretty fun by the way.
The point being that I expect my computer to lag a bit when I play WoW. That said, the lag wasn’t any worse than usual playing Mists of Pandaria (MoP) which made me quite happy.
However, there were so many goddamned people playing that it was a sea of CGI fur and Panda’s were practically climbing on one another to complete the first three tasks (which, by the way is as far as I could get in an hour) and when I tried to complete the third task, there was SO MUCH SPAMMING going on that I could barely see. If you don’t know what I mean by spamming, people make little bubbles appear above their heads when they “talk” and there was so much of it that it was just a sea of chat bubbles. I decided to shut off the game at that point, and I will go back to it later tonight and see if it’s any better. I am not holding my breath, to be honest, but after an hour of fight fur and spam I had to quit.
As for the graphics and the pandas, well they look pretty damn cool. I know there were people who thought the fact that they were not only creating a race of pandas but were making the new expansion all about them was a really bad or dumb idea, I think they did a pretty good job with them. The pandas, both male and female, look pretty damned badass for cute bears, and asian style background graphics and clothing make it feel very Kung Fu-ish, which is pretty cool when you are playing a Rogue Panda. I’m totally going to enjoy the expansion, I think, once I can get past the barrage of other Panda players and N00bs who are just messing around at the moment.
This will be an ongoing project for me, and I promise to update you all as often as possible about my experiences with the new expansion.
For now though, I am going back to my Facebook games to get a breather and calm down.
Later Gamers!
Harry Potter Skate Night
Once again I went to an event thrown by the amazing Los Angeles Dumbledore’s Army (LADA). I’m here to tell you, these people are the coolest people I’ve met in a while. But then, I tend to collect pretty damned awesome people. You all know who you are.
This event was the very first Harry Potter Skate Night. To say this was an epic event is a bloody understatement. This event picked up 650+ people. Yeah, I said it. Over six hundred and fifty people showed up. This place was PACKED.
Yeah, PACKED.
They played a combination of Harry Potter music, including the Weird Sisters from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
They played other songs I’d never heard but they were still cool. So many people dressed up in their school robes with a roller derby flair. Well I guess skates make it look derby whether you intended it to or not, but there were some GREAT derby HP outfits.
Even the non-derby outfits, such as the Rita Skeeter and Bellatrix Lestrange outfits look good with skates!
And yes, this blogger even put on some roller skates. I only went around the rink twice and I held on the wall like it was velcro and I was felt. I’m so not kidding. It’s been um, well, let’s just say a long, LONG time since I’ve put on a pair of roller skates. But damn did I have fun!
We drank butter beer (which the roller rink made special for us and ran out of btw) and WOW it was delicious!!!!! I’m not surprised that they ran out because like I said, upwards of 600 people!!!
Parents brought their kids, kids brought their friends, almost everyone dressed up in a way, whether it was a hat, t-shirt, scarf…something Harry Potter related. It was amazing to see that many people come together for a good time.
It was also amazing to be part of the group that was the reason this event came together in the first place. When LADA throws a party, they throw a party. And while the LADA crew may be 21 and over, this was an event for children of all ages.
The Power of Harry Potter brings people together from all over the Los Angeles area to support our love of being geeks of all levels and die hard Harry Potter fans.
I grow more and more proud to be a geek, especially when I see so many other geeks coming together for a good time. And I think it’s pretty safe to say that a good time was had by all. Not just a good time, a GREAT time.
We even had a ‘Darth Eater.’
He showed up just like that after attending Monsterpalooza!!
I think the best part about all of this, is that I get to meet people who not only love Harry Potter, but they love other geek fandom things that I like. Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, True Blood, Downton Abbey, Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I mean, you name it, I’ve bonded with people over multiple geek awesomeness. How can you NOT have a good time?!
Ladies and Gentleman, I give you the crew of LADA. This isn’t everyone, of course, but these were the ones that got in the photo at the end of the night!
The Awesome Members of LADA
And thanks to everyone in LADA that I jacked pictures from!!!!
JK Rowling’s New Book – PRE ORDER!!!!
This is some of the most exciting news ever. I’m an HP junky. As if my friends and readers (you are out there somewhere, right?) didn’t know I’d joined an HP meet up group and that well, goes NUTS for stuff like Harry Potter. So, yeah, this is um….EPIC.
Inflated Sparks
All over town there have been billboards for the new Nicholas Sparks movie “The Lucky One” based on his book by the same title starring the very delicious Zac Efron of High School Musical fame. Here’s the trailer:
And I can’t help thinking about an article I read on a wonderful website called Cracked.com. It is such a wonderful website because well, it’s funny as hell and often in its funny is a grain of truth. Or in this case a bag of sand of truth. I give you the Guide to [almost] All of Nicholas Sparks’ Novels.
Now, having read summaries of “The Lucky One” online (because well, I refuse to actually buy the books) this book differs slightly from the above chart. No one dies of cancer! Oops, spoiler alert. Um…too late? Well there will be more spoilers. Because in every book he writes someone dies. It’s not always from illness, but someone always dies. This time it’s someone not so nice. So, that’s okay, right? And from what I can gather there is no one reconciling with anyone. And it looks like these two lovers gets to stay in love and live happily ever after. After there’s like all kinds of angst about why they shouldn’t be together, some of which is orchestrated by the evil ex, baby daddy.
Okay, great.
What chaps my hide as both a writer and a reader is the author himself. Saying Nicholas Sparks is not arrogant is like saying Hugh Hefner can’t get a date or republican’s never campaign on family values.
In an interview Sparks gave to USAToday, while discussing his genre which he vehemently refuses to be called “Romance,” he prefers the term “Love Stories,” he says, “There are no authors in my genre. No one is doing what I do.”
…
I’m sorry I just snorted my cola out of my nose and on to my keyboard I was laughing so hard.
Okay, I’ll give him part of that sentence. No one I’ve read is making a living on re-writing basically the same story over and over and claiming they are the only one in their genre. I don’t see James Patterson saying he’s the evolution of Greek Tragedy authors like Sophocles or Euripides. Of course, James Patterson isn’t writing melodramatic romance novels that are turned into melodramatic tear jerking movies. He’s a mystery writer, and he acknowledges that he is one of many in his genre.
Now, one of my all time favorite authors is Diana Gabaldon. She is the author of the epic Outlander series. And you know what Nicholas? She’s found in the fiction section and not the romance section too. And I would classify her books as being EPIC love stories. And you aren’t in her genre? Are you sure? I’ve actually purchased her books from book stores and not online and they were in the fiction section. And her books have made me cry, and rage, and laugh. And buy more of her books. So far as I know, she doesn’t have this inflated opinion of herself that she’s better than that hack Shakespeare and comparing herself to the Greek tragedy authors.
In fact, I just saw a preview for Titanic-3D. Um, am I mistaken or is this not a love story as well? It may not be based on a best selling novel, but it’s still a love story.
What I find even more fun? Put “love story genre” into Google. Go ahead! Try it! I’ll wait.
What came up? ROMANCE, right? I know! I was shocked to! Were you shocked? I was totally shocked!
Not.
The whole point of this is so beautifully explained by the writers at Cracked.com.
“In a recent interview with USA Today, Nicholas Sparks criticized Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, and romance novelists in general for essentially writing the same story over and over:
“(Romances) are all essentially the same story: You’ve got a woman, she’s down on her luck, she meets the handsome stranger who falls desperately in love with her, but he’s got these quirks, she must change him, and they have their conflicts, and then they end up happily ever after.”
But he claims that he is not a romance novelist. He is a fiction writer who writes love stories.
“You read a romance because you know what to expect. You read a love story because you don’t know what to expect.”
Really Nicholas Sparks? Really?”
I reiterate this. Really Nicholas Sparks? Really?
The truth is there are NO original stories. Just new and unique ways of telling stories that have already been told. You’re not giving us anything new, Sparks. Sorry, man.
YO NICK SPARKS I’M REAL HAPPY FOR YOU AND I’MMA LET YOU FINISH BUT JANE AUSTEN WAS ONE OF THE BEST ROMANCE NOVELISTS OF ALL TIME! OF ALL TIME!
The last line was blatantly stolen from a commenter on cracked.com.
