(REVIEW) Kingsman: The Secret Service / This is Not That Kind of Movie (2015)

I'm not a big fan of secret agent kinda movie. It usually goes with a very cliche chic: a badass secret agent, his super secret mission to save the world (or Mr. President), his almost failed attemps, his almost killed moments or abduction followed by a smartass escaping moves, then eventually his mission acomplished. Yes, of course you do feel familiar.

Though maybe that's the reason why I love Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015). This is not that kind of movie.

It has the right elements of secret agent movie cliche: the secret agent, the secret mission, and the secret plan to ruin the world. Pick Liam Neeson or Tom Cruise to star the movie, voila: blockbuster. Only that Kingsman has neither of the two, and instead picked Taron Egerton, which is quite a newcomer. Of course it has Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, and Michael Caine too as the A-lister, but for me it's really more about Egerton. No, I'm not complaining.

Eggsy (Egerton) is a young man in Britain with sexy British accent and some bad decisions in life. He is talented and capable, yet having struggles after his father died in a secret duty he and his mother didn't know about. After some turning events, Eggsy meets Hary (Firth), former colegaeu of his father and eventually enters a training program to be a Kingsman Secret Agent, led by Arthur (Caine). On the other hand, Valentine (Jackson) is some lunatic billionaire philantropist with crazy plans to re-build the world and its environment by a massacrete. Things just started there, and there is a beautiful Roxy too, who is cool and everything.

Kingsman has some dark humour within, including a massive firework celebration. Why so serious? What's not dark is actually bright funny, making the two-hour movie feels entertaining from-the-bottom-to-the-top.

I didn't really find a complex plot. It is actually quite predictable, even with the minor twist added by the director. The way it's being delivered, though, that matters. When we know how a story would end yet found it still fascinating, the movie works just right.

One thing I complained is some unecessary killings by that bodyguard girl's legs-blade or something. Maybe it means to be another dark humour, but I found it a little unecessary-bothersome to see. Other than that, yes I loooove the movie!



Plus, Eggsy is super handsome.

In love,
Michelle

/Periplus Dare to Blog feat Strange Library Giveaway/ #3 Abundance of Katherines

From all the parade of John Green' works, I want to talk about all the fun I had when I was reading Abundance of Katherines.

Abundance of Katherines is my very first John Green's book back then. He is literary my hero ever since.

Before jumping everywhere else, let us have a deep deep abundance for how good John Green is on naming his book. As a wannabe-writer myself, I found it extremely hard to give your book a proper + great title. John Green, on the other hand, have books with just the "right" title in our ears. Me, like everyone else in the world, is a big admirer of John Green.

I love Abundance of Katherines! I must say Abundance of Katherines is not any less good than John Green's another, more popular work: The Fault in Our Star. TFIOS has Gus, and he is just-really-really-charming but AOK has this quirky genius (yet lovely) Colin. Whom I loved, deeply!

"When it comes to relationship, Colin Singleton's type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped." I love these lines so much that I decided to buy the book without thinking twice. I hadn't read the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Fault in Our Stars (as written in the cover), but I had faith that this John Green guy is really cool.

And I was right. Despite of his abundance, Colin is this prodigy who is smart enough to turn everything to a math formula; yet not to make himself a 20th century Einstein. Together with his bestfriend Hassan and not-a-Katherine Lindsey, Colin is in search to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability which he hopes will predict the future of any relationships. All for a place in this world.

What I love most about the book is all the honesty we found in our daily life. Like, wanting to be the coolest hero. Especially when you are a prodigy. Colin is upset about how ordinary his prodigy life is; he hasn't invented anything grand, yet. He needs to do something, he needs to meet the expectations. And though I am not a prodigy in any ways, I do sometimes feel not special even in the ordinary ways.

In the end of the day, you'll learn so much from this book. How Colin found himself a special shelter, being not-unique in the very best kind of way. Who needs the whole world when you have people who believes in you 24/7?

And the biggest question in the universe: Does he get the Katherine?

Lots of abundance,
The Michelle

/Periplus Dare to Blog feat Strange Library Giveaway/ #2 Princesses Behaving Badly

"They may begin once upon a time, but they don't always end happily ever after."

The real world is not a fairy tale. Real princesses didn't always get the happily ever afters. Born a princess can meant a lot, but it is not to be pretty and dressed beautifully all the time.

"Every girl pretends she is a princess at one point." However, I was in the not quite group with Linda Rodriguez McRobbie at this point. I've never been a big fan of Disney Princesses franchise. Growing up in a family with seven male cousins, I was more attached with things which were a hit back then; tamiya, playstation, gameboy, digifest.

History class, is another story. I'm crazy about my history class. I learned some princesses that actually is a badass there. The infamous Cleopatra, or Princess Tribhwuana Wijayatunggadewi from The Majapahit. But that's it, I don't have a broad knowledge about women of the history, especially princesses. Because let's face it; they're less famous than Alexander The Great and Hayam Wuruk (alert, feminists). This book clearly unveils everything for a hungry mind like mine; thumbs up for the research!

The book is divided into seven chapters: Warriors, Usurpers, Schemers, Survivors, Partiers, Floozies, and Madwomen. Each contains some stories about Princesses around the history. Even reading the contents page made me excited; it has the list of the princesses with short explanation about what they did. Neverthelessly, the book is definitely worth your time.

I especially love the tale of Pauline Bonaparte: The Exhibitionist Princess. Yeah, I have an unrequited crush for his emperor brother. She had a storybook beauty and though virtue is not exactly her traits, she loved her brother truly and deeply. She might be a given spender and party lovers with strange sexual life orientation, but this book covers more. By the end of the chapter, she is still Napoleon's sister, but I like her for her devotion for her family and some of the most daring qualities of bravery when her loved ones were in danger. You know, you don't have to be really smart, really strong or anything to stand up for your dearests.

The tale of Wu Zetian: The Princess Who Became Emperor of China is a story that worth repeated through generation. She was not kind hearted nor extremely beautiful. She used to be a royal concubine of the Tang Dynasty. But she did what no other women did in the 3000 year history of imperial China: rule. Her way to the throne was not clean, but under Wu, taxes decreased, financial waste and military expenditure were reduced, retirees got pensions, and salaries of deserving officials rose. Now it's badass.

I have grown my abundance towards many other princesses in the book: Princess Who Nearly Wrecked The Roman Empire, Princess Who Kept Male Concubines in Drag, Princess Who Partied for Hitler; but I don't want to spoil your excitement.

Princesses Behaving Badly offers a different perspective of princesses' true tales in a one fascinating read experience. Bed-time story now can do badass-ly, but maybe for older girls only.

Behaving good so far,
Michelle

/Periplus Dare to Blog feat Strange Library Giveaway/ #1 If I Stay

This will be my first daring post of Periplus Dare to Blog feat Strange Library Giveaway, and it will be about my current favorite; If I Stay by Gayle Forman! Wish me luck!

Reading a book after watching the movie feels wrong. At least, for me.

Doing so is just simply not right. Anything the writer wrote would set like something precise in my mind; when the best thing about reading is the limitless imagination. Of course doing otherwise is a totally different thing. Seeing a world in your mind alive is cool, at least when it's done right.

However, this Adam actually said this in the movie: "This is the you I like. But the you who you are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the same you I'll be in love with tomorrow." And I was like: "I need to read the book." Yes, I am a sucker of beautiful quotations. I want to know more about Mia and Adam; I want to have more reasons to love them.

From the first page, the Mia I potrayed in my head is not an average girl. She is Chloe Grace Moretz, and she is beautiful, and she is very good with cello. In my school, someone like that can't be invisible. She is dating the hottest guy in school, who is also a musician. Plus, she has this uber cool family. Wait, this is too perfect. Whenever a book start with this perfect life, something terrible is going to happen. Then within pages, bam, she lost everything; her dad, her mom, and her little brother.

Written in the first person PoV narration, I feel Mia easily. We are basically in the same age, maybe that's why. Boys, family, friends, and oh all the insecurity when your boyfriend hangs out with prettier, cooler girl than you.

Though, I bet not many of us have been given the chance to choose over life or death. Up until this part I randomly remember Tyrion's quotation from my favorite television series Game of Thrones: "Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities." How can she need to wonder what to choose? Then the book states it to me; how Mia's Dad stopped from the band for being a better father for her. How he sold his kits for Mia's first cello--the kind of love that makes you cry. At this point, I finally understand why Mia's Grandpa would let her go. Mia has a beautiful family, how can she live without them? Is Adam enough for her to go on?

This book is about an out of body experience this girl Mia has after a severe car accident, yes. This book, though, teach me more about love than many other romance ballad novels out there.
It teaches me about imperfection, don't we all struggling with that? You don't need to be perfect to be loved. You don't need to constantly worry; some people will unconditionally love you no matter what. Family is one of them. Lucky if you have more; I do, and suddenly I feel the urge to tell them that I love them so much too after finished reading.

Wandering out of your body is so not real, but the love Mia and Adam have, I can connect with that easily. The coolest thing about If I Stay is, I would still read it and love it even without Mia being in the spirit kinda world. I ship the love story, the bond between Mia and Adam, which is not perfect, just like our own. I ship the way they're falling for each other in the most beautiful way. I ship how the words are spoken by the characters, moving and deep.

The movie is a hit, so maybe many people have known how the story would end. The adaptation is actually doing a great job, but there is always more in the book.

If you love the movie, you won't be disappointed. If you haven't watched, yes, started with the book is always better. Happy reading!

Regards,
Michelle