Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Book Review

     This week I finished reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. As I promised when I reviewed The Sorcerer's Stone, I will now review The Chamber of Secrets. In my last review, I mentioned how I should've read this series a long time ago. To that I still hold because I really enjoyed this book.

     This book starts off with Harry back home living with his Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and his cousin Dudley. Because they treat him so badly all Harry wants is to go back to Hogwarts. However shortly before his term starts, he gets a mysterious visitor who tells Harry that if he returns to Hogwarts disaster will strike. And strike it does. The mysterious Heir of Slytherin has been causing attacks on students at Hogwarts.

   One thing I loved about the first book is that it was a fantasy novel as well as a mystery, and it had comedic moments as well. This book had all that going for it as well. It was also a darker book in my opinion. Three quarter through the book and the characters were at there lowest low. The attacker still hadn't been caught, the Quidditch season had been canceled, and Dumbledore was going to shut Hogwarts down. Which meant Harry would have to go back to live with the Dursleys. That brings me to another thing I loved about this book. In my Sorcerer's Stone review, I made a point of how much I cared about the characters. The Chamber of Secrets brought that to a whole new level. You really feel bad for these characters when they're at their lowest point. Also The Chamber of Secrets had a very interesting twist, and a satisfying ending which I will not spoil in case there is anyone like me who's reading this series for the first time.  

     Overall Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is right on par with the first one. I don't have any problems with it. I'm going to give it 5 out of 5 stars. I'm about halfway through the Prisoner of Azkaban right now. I'll post my review of it when I finish it.
    

Star Wars Episode VII Cast Announced!!

     Finally! Ever since it was announced that J.J Abrams is directing Star Wars Episode VII, we've had almost no other news about who's going to be in this movie. It's been a brutal year. but after more than a year of rumors we finally have the official cast of Star Wars Episode VII. The Cast of the movie will be as follows; Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac, Domhall Gleeson, Max Von Sydow, Adam Driver, and my personal favorite addition, Andy Serkis. I can't wait to see who they end up playing.

     I have to say I'm very excited about these castings. The Andy Serkis casting alone was enough to get me excited. I don't know if he's going to have an actual acting role, or if he's going to have another role where he does motion capture work. Either way I think he'll do a fantastic job. Disney went for great actors and they nailed it out of the park. I will say I think Disney did a better job at casting for their big movie than Warner Brothers is doing for theirs.  

    As many people know the movie will be directed by J.J Abrams, Produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Abrams, and Bryan Burk. The screenplay is written by Lawrence Kasdan, and Abrams, and John Williams is returning to do the score.  

   I am even more excited about this film than I was before I heard this news. I think Disney knows what they're doing, and they seem to know what the fans want to see. The movie comes out on December 18th, 2015. It can't get here fast enough.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Review

     I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone this afternoon. This was the 10th book I have finished this year. My goal is to finish 30 books so I'm happy to say I'm right on pace.

     A few months ago I was out with my brother and I had let it slip that I had never read the Harry Potter series. Upon hearing this he told me that he was begging me to read the series. This past Tuesday I finally picked up the first book and I finished it today. I was skeptical at first but like I said on Twitter, I am man enough to admit when I am wrong. I should have read this a long time ago.

   For those of you who don't know, the book is the story of Harry Potter who's parents were killed when he was a baby by the Dark Lord Voldemort. Voldemort then tried to kill Harry but somehow could not. So a few high-ups at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry send Harry to live with his Aunt and Uncle and their son. To say that they didn't treat him very well is an under statement they hated him. But on Harry's eleventh birthday he gets a letter that invites him to enroll at Hogwarts. One thing leads to another and he ends up going to Hogwarts. And he gets caught up in finding out about the Sorcerer's Stone, and he has to stop Voldemort from coming back. 

    What made this book so great to me was the characters. Before you even meet Harry in the first chapter you care about him. You feel sorry for him because his parents are dead and he has to go live with his Aunt and Uncle who don't treat him right. Two chapters in and I cared about the character. Also there's an interesting twist as to who's helping Voldemort. That was an interesting twist, and it had a very satisfying ending.
  
    Overall I really enjoyed this book, I'm looking forward to reading the second one. I'm going to give Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 5 out of 5 stars I don't have any problems with it. I'll post my review on the second book when I finish it. Also I heard a rumor that the cast of Star Wars will be released on May 4th. If that's the case I will post my thoughts on that as soon as I know any details.

Captain America The Winter Soldier Movie Review

     I just saw Captain America The Winter Soldier yesterday. I was super excited for this movie because as many of my readers may know, I'm a huge fan of the Marvel movies. Also this movie was getting great reviews. 
   
    Captain America The Winter Soldier is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo. It stars Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Redford, Anthony Mackie, and Cobie Smulders. It is the sequel to Captain America The First Avenger. I don't want to spoil too much so if you have not seen the movie, you're safe with me. The basic plot to this movie is that there's an assassin called the Winter Soldier who is sent to kill Captain America and he has to figure out who sent him, who he is, what his past is, etc. How is Captain America the Winter Soldier? It's really good.

     In this movie S.H.I.E.L.D gets turned on itself as an organization, and Captain America is suddenly hunted by this organization that he felt was good. One thing I absolutely loved about this movie is that Nick Fury and Black Widow are more relevant than they have been in any Marvel movie previously. Captain America's chemistry with Black Widow was very entertaining. Also his chemistry with Sam Wilson a.k.a Falcon was great as well. Sam Wilson is a war veteran like Steve Rogers and they have that kindred spirit. That was very entertaining as well.  

    The other thing I loved about this film is that with S.H.I.E.L.D getting turned on itself and the Winter Soldier hunting down Captain America. It had the feel of a spy movie. I really enjoyed seeing that in this movie. The Winter Soldier was not in the movie for a long time. I would have liked to see more of him. But the scenes with him were my favorite scenes in the movie. The fight scenes between Captain America and the Winter Soldier were very gritty, and visceral. Overall the Winter Soldier was an awesome villain. 

    Overall, This is the best stand alone Marvel movie. It is my second favorite Marvel movie only to the Avengers. This is also one of the best sequels we've gotten to any movie. I'm going to give Captain America 5 out of 5 stars.

Allegiant book Review

     Yesterday afternoon I finished reading Allegiant. It was the fifth book I read this year. That's not bad considering that I only read about four books last year. I've already eclipsed my total from 2013. That being said let's review Allegiant.

     Allegiant starts out with Tris and her friends fleeing the city. After the events of Insurgent, Tris and her friends decide to leave the city and see what's beyond the fence. They find this compound where Tris' mother worked before she came to the city. They find out where she came from, and what kind of work she did before the events of Divergent. However Tris and Tobias soon learn that there's not a lot of good people who work at this compound. It's smart not to trust anyone who is in a high position in this compound because they only care about keeping their experiments going. They don't care what the cost is.

    Before I read this book, I had heard some pretty mediocre reviews. So I was interested to see what that was all about. One thing that's different is that this book is split so that Tris has point of view chapters, and so does Tobias. I thought that was interesting and it was cool to see things through his eyes. I have to say about 440 pages in, I had a bad feeling about how it was going to end. I thought to myself, "The axe is going to drop and I don't know how." I was enjoying the book until I got to the very end. The end completely ruined the book for me. I don't want to spoil anything for those who have not read it, but I almost didn't want to finish it. I wanted to stop reading right then and there and start reading something else. I'm sure people who have read the book know what I'm referring to. That's how distraught I was. You know when these movies come out there going to split Allegiant into 2 movies because they always do. I'm not going to see it whenever it comes out.

    Overall Allegiant was good until the final ten chapters or so, but those last chapters where brutal. I'm going to rate Allegiant 2.8 out of 5 stars. The series as a whole is worth reading I'll rate the series as a whole 3.8 out of 5 stars. I'll be reading the first Sherlock Holmes novel "A Study in Scarlet" over the next few weeks. I'll probably be posting a review for that whenever I finish it.

Insurgent Book Reivew

     This weekend I finished reading Insurgent. This was the second book in Veronica Roth's dystopian Divergent series. For those of you who have not read the first book yet, I will try not to give too much away. 

    After the events of the first book, Beatrice and her friends are on the run from the Erudite. They go to other factions who were neutral in the conflict seeking refuge. Beatrice also deals with lots of guilt and depression. People have lost their lives because of her, people have died that she cares about so needless to say she is having a difficult time.

   If I have any complaints about Insurgent, it is the same complaint I had about Divergent. It's that it takes awhile for the book to get really exciting. I think back to the Hunger Games series where it was exciting from the first chapter and it held that for the most part until the series was over. In my opinion, these books don't get really exciting until the second half. I was hoping that Insurgent would be a little darker than Divergent, kind of like how Catching Fire was darker than the Hunger Games, but I would say Divergent and Insurgent are equally dark. There is one scene in the book I don't want to give it away, but it was really dark and when it happened I thought to myself, "I don't see this ending well." I read that part last week and it was at that point when I couldn't put the book down. I read almost 100 pages in one night. For me that's a lot. 

    Overall, I thought this was a very good entry in the Divergent series. I can't decide which one I like more, they're very close. so I'm going to rate Insurgent 4.5 out of 5 stars. Despite what some critics said about Allegiant, I'm still looking forward to reading it. After I finish that I will be reading more Sherlock Holmes novels, and I will finally read the Harry Potter series.

 

Sherlock Series Two Review

     Last night I finished watching series two of the BBC series Sherlock. As you may know I really enjoyed series one of the show. I will say right now series two takes it to a whole new level. I will take each episode and break it down starting with the first one. Don't worry I won't spoil anything in this review.

    The first episode is the Scandal in Belgravia. The Irene Adler episode. There's a really great scene when Sherlock looks at her and he can't size her up. He looks over at Watson and starts sizing him up. You can see cliff notes appear on the screen and he looks back at Irene Adler and you just see question marks appear. At that moment I knew it was going to be a great episode, I knew she would be great competition for Sherlock. There's also a very funny scene in this episode with Mycroft, who is Sherlock's older brother.

    The second episode was The Hounds of Baskerville episode. In this episode Sherlock's and Watson's client is a man who claims his father was murdered my a giant hound. At first Sherlock thinks his client is crazy, but as he digs deeper in the case he realizes that he is not. There's a pretty interesting twist in this case I don't want to give it away. Even though it was a very good episode, I think it was the weak link of the three. It's not necessarily a gripe with the episode I just feel like the other two episodes where so much better.

    That brings me to the final episode of series two, The Reichenbach Fall. This is the Jim Moriarty episode. This episode was intense to say the least! I knew going into this episode that Moriarty was crazy. But by the end of the episode I thought to myself, "This guy is so insane!" He's not just trying to kill Sherlock Holmes, he's going after his legacy and reputation. He's trying to take everything Sherlock has. Moriarty reminded me a lot of the Joker from the Dark Knight. Which is fitting because Sherlock Holmes and Jim Moriarty are the original Batman and Joker. Moriarty keeps telling Sherlock "You're just like me." It reminded me of when The Joker told Batman "To them you're just a freak like me." 

     Overall I loved series two of Sherlock even more than series one, and I loved series one. If you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes I highly recommend this show.  I'm going to give Sherlock series two 4.7 out of 5 stars. I can't wait to see series three. I believe it comes out on blu-ray on Tuesday. I will also be posting my review of Insurgent within the next couple days. So be on the lookout for that. Thanks for reading everybody