November 26, 2017
Pinkalicious: The Royal Tea Party
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This was my daughter's second library book she ever brought home from school. It's a new series, but with the unicorn and all the pink on the cover (pink and purple are her favorite colors), it was easy to see why she would have chosen it. It was a pleasant surprise to find the book also featured a little brother who wanted to help with the tea party. This was a fun parallel as baby brother is always wanting to follow sister around and "help" in our house, too. Similarly, the older sister is not always impressed with her little brother's ideas and tries to sort of keep him out of the way before discovering he really did have some good ideas to help with the party after all. My littlest is still too young to really help outside of specific directions yet, but I imagine it won't be long until he starts offering his own ideas and sister will have to learn how to adjust and accept them, just like the girl in this story.
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November 20, 2017
Sword Art Online: Extra Edition
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This takes place just after the original SAO. The girls want to go swimming, but Kirito gets pulled into yet another "counseling session" with his government contact regarding events in SAO and the first edition of ALO before rescuing Asuna. Interesting how he always seems to bribe Kirito with sweets aside from his promises to pay him for information and help in various projects. A large part of this film goes over key events that happened in the very first series during both SAO and ALO, and how they all came to be close to Kirito.
Sword Art Online II
Sword Art Online II (2014)
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I first watched this when it originally came out, having already seen the original SAO and thoroughly enjoying that. While this pulls the main elements in, Kirito being the main character (with Sinon replacing Asuna for game play), it's another MMORPG with potential real lives on the line, though the players aren't forced into a trap. There is some doubt as to the validity of the threat Death Gun places, who he is, and exactly how he goes about executing his targets. As another SAO survivor, meeting him for the first time brings up some bad memories and emotions for Kirito, which oddly helps him gain more help from Sinon. This segment is still entertaining and interesting, though it's frustrating when it flashes back to ALO and the rest of the gain, highlighting further just how much Kirito belongs there instead of in GGO (as if using a sword in a gun game isn't obvious enough).
November 17, 2017
Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
While Sword Art Online II was fun, it did not really recapture my love for the original series. A lot of that came back with this movie installment, which ties in the most to the original SAO story, including original game functions and risks as the new RV tech that makes the games appear to come to life with actual physical play in the real world vs. the dream virtual play from the full dive equipment we know from SAO, ALO and GGO. Like the other games, with a few new additions in each arc, the main group largely stays the same, especially Kirito and Asuna. We actually even get a full scale revamp bringing back their original SAO avatars at one point as our heroes fight to stop this new threat from destroying their real lives once again. Some unexpected help from the virtual world not just from Yui, though she of course tries her best to help her "Mama" and "Papa." As far as placement goes, this film is the most recent installment, coming after SAO, Extra Edition, and SAO II.
Marvel Cinematic Universe 17: Thor 3 [Ragnarok]
MCU 17: Thor 3 [Ragnarok] (2017)
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
This is an interesting mix as we see Thor focused largely on Aasgard despite ending up on multiple planets. He does much better recognizing Loki's ploys this time around, yet at the same time the brothers perhaps seem to be the closest they ever have been. On top of the story with Hela (who I have to admit I did not like despite the phenomenal acting and effects), there's the rather large reference to Planet Hulk and finding the last living Valkyrie. The Grandmaster especially is a rather disturbing character whom I can't seem to decide what I think about. His entire world is beyond backwards and strange. Perhaps lucky for Thor that Hulk appears to have crash landed there, though how he managed that is still rather confusing despite his brief description of events. Supposedly there will not be any more solo Hulk films despite the many sequel films for other Avengers, so we need side plots like this in the other movies to fill in the blanks between the actual Avengers movies. The movie originally starts very slowly, which lost a lot of my first interest. A little past the halfway point, it picks up significantly, bringing in the tight story line and high action mostly expected of the MCU.
November 2, 2017
5-Minute Stories: Racing Stories
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
We always start these books with the intent of doing a story a night and inevitably end up reading several other stories in between before we finish. Still, this is one that my son especially loves as he is very fixated on Cars. The last story in the series is essentially the story of the recent Cars 3 movie. The other stories take place between the movies, involving various other races, mostly that were not in the films. There are a few that are also told in other Learning to Read books, so they may already be familiar despite the slightly different format. Still, it's a cute book with good length stories, large pictures, and a theme that any kid who likes vehicles, let alone the Cars franchise, would enjoy. Stories include the following:
Pit Crew to the Rescue
Revved up in Radiator Springs
Crash Course
Dustup in the Desert
Fame in the Fast Lane
Rammin' Slammin' Relay
Rematch
Neon Racers
Ice Racers
Rally to the Finish!
Racing for Good
A New Racer
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Yuri!!! on Ice
Yuri!!! on Ice (2016)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this series. The the animation style shows typical to many others (exaggerated long limbs in dancing/skating moves for example), the overall choreography and references used are based on actual routines and skating abilities, giving the story a bit of realism in all the animation. On top of that is the hilarious array of characters. Each one brings something new to the line up, and the combination is hard to resist. Considering I haven't been able to get the music out of my head for a week, I'd say it definitely is catchy.
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