Music Review- The 2nd Law by Muse (2012)

Release Date: September 28, 2012
Length: 53:49
Label: Helium 3, Warner
Producer: Muse, Nero

The sixth album by British rock group Muse was released just a few days ago. Like most other Muse albums, this record has had some mixed reviews. Some love it, but others say it leans too heavily on Queen, something they've been accused of doing before. But you aren't here to read other people's opinions. If you're reading this, than chances are you want to hear my take on it.
The 2nd Law kicks off with Supremacy, a catchy song that has ridiculous lyrics that at the same time almost expect you to take them seriously. Great bass line, great riffs. Next up we've got Madness, a song about the conflicts in a relationship that has a pop feel similar to "Undisclosed Desires" off their previous CD. Very catchy song. Panic Station, the next track, would fit right in with a Queen album, sounding a lot like "Another One Bites the Dust." The next song is one many of us heard at the Olympics a couple of months ago. "Survival" also has a very Queen-like feel, but unfortunately lacks a catchy chorus to keep people singing along. Follow Me is a decent song that has Muse sounding like U2 back in the early 90's, right around the time of Achtung Baby and Zooropa. Animals changes the feel of the album we've had thus with an acoustic sound that changes back to an electric halfway through the song. Like Survival, this song also lacks a chorus that can listeners can really feel and hear and the last minute sounds like a riot. The 2nd Law slows down in our next song, Explorers. At almost six minutes, this song has a more progressive feel than the previous songs. While one would expect the song to speed up about halfway through, it never does. Big Freeze speeds things up a little again with a catchy guitar melody, especially near the end of the song. Mat Bellamy gives up the microphone to bass player Chris Wolstenholme for the next two songs. His voice is okay, but very different from Bellamy's style we've all grown used to. Liquid State brings back the almost metal feel that Supremacy had, but much harder. Wolstenholme's voice fits in with the song very well, and it has a fairly good chorus that's easy to follow. The next song, The 2nd Law: Unsustainable, mixes techno and dance music with some more classical elements. The only thing I didn't really like about this song is that it didn't have any singing really. A very radical change from their earlier music. Followed up is the last song on this abum, The 2nd Law: Isolated System. This brings out the classical elements briefly seen in Unsustainable, but still doesn't have any singing. The only words in this song are given by different news stations that reference the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which says that an isolated system based on endless growth is unsustainable. Isolated System eventually picks up about two-thirds of the way through with a more poplike beat that's added to the piano melody that's been going on throughout the song. After another minute or so, the song fades out, ending the album.
The Good:
While Muse not-so-subtly combines elements of other popular music groups like Queen, U2, and Radiohead, they do it in a way that makes something relatively new that's also very catchy, no matter how ridiculous the lyrics are. Their songs remind you of other songs, but not in a bad way. They're very catchy, creative songs that act ludicrous while at the same time expect you to take them seriously, and there's a charm to that that I can't quite explain. The 2nd Law isn't as good as some of their previous albums, but it's got a few great songs in here.
The Bad:
A good number of the songs don't have very...identifiable choruses. They can be hard to sing along to. That's a bad thing when you want to have hit songs that get a lot of airplay.
This is a concept album. A very blatantly concept album. Muse takes their 2nd Law idea with the economic collapse and apocalyptic war and shoves it in your face from the first ten seconds of the record. Because of this, The 2nd Law feels like a soundtrack. That's good for those like me that don't mind concept albums, but for a lot of Muse fans that The 2nd Law won't be anything they expected, and they'll hate it. There are times in this record when the Queen influence does show a little too much, but I'm willing to ignore that and consider the songs at face value.
The Rating:
3.5 stars. Had some good songs, but there were also a few songs that were just weak. Still recommended for everyone to try. Not everyone will like it, but it's one of those things you've got to try listening to before you can really decide honestly whether you'll like it or not.
Top Songs:
Supremacy
Liquid State
Madness

The Return of the King: Differences Between the Book and Movie

The last film adaptation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy does a better job of following the book than its predecessor, but not as well as The Fellowship of the Ring.
The first thing you notice is that the timeline is a little different from the books due to the fact that the Frodo/Sam storyline ended in the last film with Faramir setting them free, while the book ends with Shelob's Lair and Frodo's capture by the Orcs. This is an understandable difference, and it's one of the few that can be found in this movie. The movie follows the book very well after that, right up until the Mouth of Sauron comes out of the Black Gate to negotiate with Aragorn and Gandalf. While the Mouth is killed by Aragorn in the movie, they let him go back alive in the book. I will admit that the beheading does have more of a shocking effect on the audience, and does a better job of showing that Aragorn doesn't want to negotiate with Sauron anymore. After that comes the one HUGE difference that fans have been complaining about since the movie was released in 2003, the scouring of the Shire.
I know Peter Jackson wanted to give Frodo a nice fairy-tale return to the quiet green place, but that wasn't Tolkien's objective when he wrote the book. His goal was to have Saruman destroy almost everything Frodo knew to show the reader how far the shadow had reached, and to show that Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin had grown enough to handle things without Gandalf. But before you agree with me and get mad at Peter Jackson, remember that adding that to the movie would easily add another half hour to it, and it was already a pretty long movie. That isn't enough justification for me, though. He could have put it in the extended version or something. In omitting the scouring of the Shire Jackson went against the intent of J.R.R. Tolkien and did his own thing, and I don't like it even though he had good reasons for it.
The relationship between Sam and Rosie is significantly changed from what it was in the book. When Sam arrives at the Shire after a year, Rosie is actually annoyed that he hasn't married her already. This is a big difference from the Sam that was too shy to ask Rosie to dance in the film adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring. While the movie implies that Sam and Rosie are living in Bag End, it never actually mentions it. The other huge thing that should have been there is that Frodo isn't really affected by what happened to him with the ring after he comes home. In the book you have him getting sick and feeling pain from the knife wound more than two years later.
That last thing is something that wouldn't have cost Jackson much time and could have easily been added in. Other than this though, the changes are justified enough for me to still be very satisfied with the film. We'll see in December how much they change The Hobbit. Until then, goodbye.

Book Review- Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian (2012)

The 8th and final book of the Artemis Fowl series. I know Eoin Colfer has said this before about books 3 and 6, but this time he really means it. Based on the pattern we've seen from the other books, this one should be another Opal book, right?
Right. Opal's past self is still wandering around after the events of The Time Paradox, and intends to break her present self out of prison. The present Opal uses her past self to gain an incredible amount of magical power, and gains access to two keys buried under Fowl Manor. One contains an army of Fairy spirits, and the other unleashes Armageddon on the surface world. She's unlocked the first key, and she's close to unlocking the second. Almost all the characters make a last stand here: Artemis, Holly, Butler, Mulch, and even Foaly all play a part in this last installment of the series.
The Good:
The Last Guardian makes up for the 6th and 7th books, which in my opinion weren't as good as the first five. The book launches you into the action very quickly, a lot like books 3, 4, and 5. The ending was very strong and Colfer succeeded in manipulating the reader's emotions in a way that no other author could do. Colfer made a very improbable plotline seem realistic, which can be very hard to pull off. Fast-paced, with good action scenes. I liked that for once Artemis had no idea what to do. Colfer did a very good job showing the reader just how far Artemis had come from book one.

The Bad:
Although the beginning and the end of the book were very good, the middle was a little boring. Opal was a little too comical and not quite villainous enough. Honestly, I was sick of Opal Koboi by book 6. Colfer overused Opal throughout the series. You didn't hear a lot from N01, and Minerva didn't make an appearance, something I had really been hoping for. Colfer kind of forgot about her, I guess.
The Rating:
4 stars. Pretty good as an independent novel, and excellent for a series finale. Recommended to those that have read the other books

Music Review- The Open Door by Evanescence (2006)

Release Date: September 2006
Length: 54:15
Genre: Metal
Label: Wind Up Records
Producer: Dave Fortman

This album took three years for Evanescence to make, mainly because one of their members had a stroke and because of lead guitarist Ben Moody's departure due to creative differences.
The Open Door kicks off with "Sweet Sacrifice," a Grammy-nominated song that I honestly thought was better than most of the songs off of Fallen. It continues the good start with "Call Me When You're Sober," which was supposed to be based on the story of Little Red Riding Hood. It starts to lag with "Weight of the World," a pretty good song but not nearly as good as the first two. The next couple of tracks fall into the standard repetitive formula that Evanescence frequently used in Fallen, but picks up again with "Snow White Queen" and "Lacrymosa," a song that plays the Mozart score in the background while layering it with their own melodies. Probably the best song on the album, but the cd lags again with four very average songs, "Like You," "Lose Control," "The Only One," and "Your Star." But it picks up again just in time for the end of the album with two more good songs, "All That I'm Living For" and "Good Enough," a song driven only by the piano and vocals.
The Good:
The Open Door is a lot like Fallen, but fuller and with more thoughtful lyrics. Amy Lee isn't constantly moaning about failed relationships, and she isn't always angry either. Ben Moody's departure from the band didn't hurt their sound one bit. Overall a better effort than their previous release.
The Bad:
About half of the album's songs sound too much like they could have been from Fallen. There's still some of that failed relationship stuff in here, and some of the chorus lines are very boring.
The Rating:
3.5 stars. Half of the album was a huge improvement, but the other half weighed it down a lot.

Top Songs:
1.Sweet Sacrifice
2.Call Me When You're Sober
3.Lacrymosa

Movie Review- The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

This is it. The movie people have been waiting for since The Dark Knight came out in 2008. And now that it's been out for three weeks, I finally decided to go watch it and write a review.
There was a lot of hype about this movie, especially when it started filming a year ago. Everyone was waiting for it, and when it finally came out... not everyone really cared. There are a couple of reasons for that, but I'll get around to that in a different post. But it failed to meet my expectations of shattering the opening weekend record Marvel's The Avengers set a couple of months ago. Does that mean it isn't as good as The Avengers? Not even close. But before I get into why it was so good, I'll give you a brief synopsis of the movie.
It's been 8 years since the end of The Dark Knight, when Harvey Dent went insane and died after killing five police officers. Since the time of his death, an act of law has been set to his name that keeps the mob bosses and the other people Harvey Dent put in jail imprisoned without peroll, and a holiday has been made in Gotham City called Harvey Dent Day. The masked vigilante called Batman hasn't been seen since the night of Dent's death. Bruce Wayne has become reclusive, leaving the business of Wayne Industries to Lucius Fox and staying in his house, allowing no one but his butler Alfred to see him. A 'cat' burglar named Selena Kyle robs Bruce Wayne, stealing fingerprints from his home and selling them to a businessman under the control of a masked mercenary known as Bane. Bane, an excommunicated member of the League of Shadows, has taken control of the League and comes to Gotham to fulfill Raz' Al Ghul's plan.
That's the most of the plotline I can give away without spoiling the movie, pretty much. Any more would probably ruin it for you.
The Good:
This movie was a tad long, at almost three hours, but the movie never lagged. In fact, it felt like the movie wasn't quite long enough. The effects of the movie were very well done, and the threat to Gotham City was plausible. The way Christopher Nolan tied in the plot with the events of the first and second movies was incredibly well done. Batman must conquer the fear he's developed of being involved as Batman in order to defeat Bane, and that brings back some of the fear he felt from when he was training under the League of Shadows in Batman Begins. This isn't a trilogy of loosely connected sequels. The first two are connected pretty well, but The Dark Knight Rises brings them together in a way that only Christopher Nolan could pull off. When the whole trilogy is watched in succession, you can see that these movies are one of the most stripped-down versions of the Hero Cycle you can get. That doesn't mean it's bad. This third movie wraps it up by making things even worse for Batman than they were in The Dark Knight, then almost literally bringing him down to Hell and bringing him back up. There's a theme throughout this film of rising and ascent that really moves the viewer.
The Bad:
There was very little bad about this movie. Bane's voice sounded a little funny, but who cares about that? I think Selena Kyle/Catwoman could have been a little more involved, but her role in the movie was pretty good anyway. I didn't really like that they didn't talk about The Joker at all, but I heard that Nolan did that out of respect to Heath Ledger, and I can understand that. I think the last half hour or so of the movie could have been wrapped up in a better way, but it was still fantastic.
The Rating:
When watching this movie after seeing the first two movies in the days before, I have to give this movie a full five stars. Not even a question. If any of those small issues I mentioned above had been fixed, it would have been six stars. It was a fantastic movie that was part of an even better film trilogy.

The only question I have is how they're going to connect Batman to the Justice League movie they're supposed to be making.

HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Just remember that it's still a very dark movie. Not as dark as the previous one, but pretty darn close.

Book Review- Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (1999)

I have to start this review with two things. First, it took three tries for me to finally read this book all the way through. Second, it's worth the amount of effort it takes.
Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen isn't a bestseller. It never was. The general public isn't nerdy enough to read this kind of fantasy. This takes the worldbuilding Tolkien did and steps it up several levels. The Malazan Empire is set in one of several continents: something very rare in an epic fantasy. Not even Tolkien had that much land covered. It covers five or six different plotlines and a cast of characters large enough to justify a three-page Dramatis Personae, basically a giant list of all the characters and their basic roles in the story. There's a background of gods and beings set in a history going back three hundred thousand years, the politics between the Empire, the unconquered cities, and the various gods and other powerful beings is mind-blowing.
Another thing to mention. This is the first novel by author Steven Erikson, a Canadian with a degree in Anthropology and Archaeology. He has the credentials, he has the worldbuilding skill, and he has the potential. But the problem with that is that he's working on his masterpiece series without any prior publishing experience. He has a TON of potential at this point and more skill than many experienced fantasy writers, but there are a couple areas that suffer greatly in his first novel.
But first, I'll try my best to do a summary of the book. The Malazan Empire has been fighting to conquer the continent Genabackis since before the death of the Emporer ten years ago at the hands of the current Empress, Laseen. After taking a major city called Pale, a group of the late Emporer's elite called the Bridgeburners are sent to one of the last major cities holding out against the Empire: Darujhistan. Joining them is Captain Ganoes Paran, the assistant to Lorn, Adjunct to the Empress. Investigating the slaughter of more than five hundred people, he is sent to uncover and kill a girl possessed by the God of Assassins. When Paran joins the Bridgeburners, the God of Luck Oponn plays his hand against the Assassin God and his master Shadowthrone. The key player in the game is Crokus, a thief living in Darujhistan. Meanwhile, Adjunct Lorn travels to an area outside the city, hoping to uncover a being that ruled in the days before gods and use it for the Empire's purposes.
There's a lot more than that, but I don't want to bore you with synopsis. Now, I mentioned earlier that there were several flaws Erikson had as a debuting author, and one of the big ones is characterization. He focuses so much on the plot that the characters lose a lot of their humanity, instead obeying the whims of the plotline. The motives of Shadowthrone and Oponn are largely unknown by the end of the book, and Paran switches sides several times on a whim. The other big thing that subtracts from the novel is that there are so many plotlines that it can often be very hard to follow. Hence the three tries needed to finish the book cover to cover.
But despite all this, the potential Erikson shows in this book is enough to keep me going. Despite all the flaws it was still a pretty good read, and the word of other readers that future books are much better helps as well. But this is NOT a book for everyone. Most people can't handle the number of plotlines and characters in Gardens of the Moon. But the fantasy geeks like me that are looking for something more extensive than the typical Brooks, Jordan, or Goodkind will love The Malazan Book of the Fallen. 
My rating: 3.5 stars as a fantasy geek,
                1 star as a casual reader
Seriously. If you aren't a serious fantasy nerd than DON'T TRY READING THIS BOOK.

I, Mistborn- The Similarities Between Brandon Sanderson and Isaac Asimov

By the Ranting Critic

I've been doing a lot of comparisons on here lately, haven't I? I'll have a couple of book reviews out in the next couple of weeks, so don't get too sick of these.
I noticed many of these similarities about a year ago, when I found out about the connection between most of Sanderson's books through his Cosmere, which I'll explain later in this comparison.
The first big thing I noticed is the similarity in style. NOT necessarily genre, as Asimov held fantasy in contempt, but in their similar use of rules and laws in their novels. Take the Foundation series, for example. Hari Seldon's Psychohistory is a method of mathematically calculating future events based on the predictable actions of large groups of people. It can predict the future, but only to an extent. This form of science is used by the Foundation as an object of mystic religion, but in reality is governed by strict rules concerning the actions of mass groups rather than individuals, as many in the series think. Sanderson's Allomancy from the Mistborn trilogy is very similar in regard to it's structure and the people's reaction to its powers. The skaa, or ruling class, regards Allomancy as a mystic form of magic that allows people to magically fly through the air and become unnaturally strong, but like Asimov's Psychohistory is governed by a strict and concrete set of rules. Allomantic Steelpushing, which allows the Allomancers to fly through the air, requires an extensive knowledge of Trigonometry and trajectory. Feruchemy, which allows the user to store physical attributes such as strength in metals, requires the user to give up that attribute for as long as they store it.
These strict governing rules are also seen in Asimov's classic novel I, Robot. 
1. A robot may not harm a human being, or through inaction allow a human to come to harm
2. A robot must follow orders, except where this conflicts with the first law
3. A robot must protect its own existence, except where this conflicts with the First and Second Laws
These two series, Foundation and Robot, both have strict rules regarding the special abilities granted to them by the author. The same is likewise with all of Sanderson's novels. The term Sanderson uses in his essays concerning magic systems is "Hard Magic," meaning it has a very well-defined set of rules and consequences. The Sanderson magic system, when it was introduced in Elantris and The Mistborn Trilogy, was something very new to fantasy. Other authors like David Eddings had come close, but nothing close to what Sanderson did in those books.
Asimov likewise arguably did the same thing for science fiction. I, Robot and The Foundation Trilogy were both published around 1950, a time when Sci-fi had an almost fantasy feel, and when fantasy novels were very rare. Authors like H.G. Wells used science in The War of the Worlds or The Time Machine much like fantasy authors of the 70's, 80's, and 90's used magic. I think the reason for that is probably because science was just starting to advance rapidly but there wasn't enough that was already happening to really make science fiction out of. The reason it happened in fantasy is because J.R.R. Tolkien explained very little about the magic of Middle-Earth, and the subsequent authors just followed his example.
Asimov used these hard rules and governing laws to revolutionize the Science Fiction genre. It took a while, but it happened. I believe that Sanderson is going to revolutionize Fantasy in a similar way, if he hasn't already. His books are steadily growing in popularity among teenagers and adults alike.
The other big similarity between Sanderson and Asimov is the fact that their book series are interconnected. Asimov connected his Robot novels, his Foundation novels, his Galactic Empire novels, and his 1991 novel Nemesis by making all of them a part of a 20,000 year future history. Sanderson's method is true to the fantasy genre, but has a science fiction twist of its own. For those of you that didn't know, the Cosmere is the universe that The Mistborn Trilogy, Elantris, Warbreaker, and The Way of Kings are all a part of. There was a conflict at one point that split up the power of divine creation into sixteen shards that are all held by men that are revered as gods or destroyers on their world. In Mistborn its Ruin and Preservation. In The Way of Kings its The Almighty and Odium. This interconnection between novels is something that both authors use in their more popular books. 
These are the biggest changes I can think of. If I come up with any more I'll write a sequel essay for you guys covering this topic to a further degree.
And now I end my post and my rant. I'm terrible at conclusions, aren't I?