Crossed

Well, that was a whole lot of nothin'.

For whatever reason, I was on a dystopian YA kick a while back. As such, I promised myself that I'd keep up with the different series. So when I got the chance to read Crossed by Ally Condie, I was looking forward to it. I seemed to remember that this was an interesting story, what with poor Cassia trying to decide who she was going to love, either Ky or Xander, in spite of the oppressive Society. I couldn't wait to see what happened next.

To my surprise, not much happened. The story picks up with Ky in the Outer Provinces and Cassia in a work camp. The two of them look to find each other and then search for where they should go next.

And that's about it. The plot is really thin in this one. There's lots of rumination, lots of poetry quotations, lots of walking and climbing and rafting. And in the end, it felt like I was reading . . . well, nothing significant.

I might check out the next book in the series, but it's not going to be high on my priority list, that's for sure.

Wreck-It Ralph

Thanks to my wonderful wife (who is a wizard at finding cool deals), I was able to see a sneak preview of Wreck-It Ralph a little over a week early. This was a great opportunity, simply because I'd been looking forward to seeing this movie pretty much all summer. I heard it described as a sort of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? but with video game characters. Given how much I love my video games, I couldn't wait to see who got included. I was hoping for a whole smorgasbord of characters. Sadly, there weren't as many as I hoped for. On that account, I was a little disappointed.

But only on that point. I went in expecting a light, silly movie, one designed to stoke up nostalgia and little else. But what I found instead was a well-crafted story. A silly one, sure, but I was pleasantly surprised at how great this movie turned out.

You can get the gist of the plot from this trailer:



Poor Ralph. All he wants is to appreciated for once in his life. But his quest to become the hero endangers his game and many others.

What can I say about this movie? It's awesome. While I was a little dissatisfied with the lack of cameos (there were a lot of classic characters wandering around in the background), the ones that did show up made logical sense from within the story. The internal logic hangs together well too. The characters are a blast. The story, while somewhat simple, was a hoot.

The greatest surprise for me? Alan Tudyk voiced the Candy King. I had no idea until the end credits started rolling. I suspect the people I was sitting next to thought I was crazy when I saw that.

The one caveat I can share is this: beware the ending, especially if you're bringing kids. There's some dark stuff going on in the ending. I mean, I know they're video game characters, but some of the stuff that happens at the end struck me as a bit . . . well, dark.

But it's a great movie nonetheless. If you're a video game fan, go see this movie. Even if you're not, it's a great movie. Just be sure to see it soon!