Two Words, One Answer.
del Toro
 Nocturna (La Trilogia De La Nocturna) (Spanish Edition) $17.99 Soy un fan de Guillermo del Toro y por eso decid comprar su primera novela, Nocturna ("The Strain"). Decid leer la versin en castellano para no perderme de ningn detalle, pues mi conocimiento de ingls no es literario (despus de haber ledo el libro pienso que el vocabulario empleado es sencillo, por lo que leer la versin en ingls debe ser posible para toda persona con un nivel medio). Comenc a leer el libro y, por primera vez en mucho tiempo, consumir la novela se convirti en una actividad adictiva! No dej pasar un da, una pausa en el trabajo, mi traslado en autobs, sin leer unas pginas ms... tena que continuar la historia! La historia comienza con la llegada al aeropuerto JFK de un Boeing 777 proveniente de Alemania, el cual luego de unos instantes, misteriosamente, interrumpe toda comunicacin con el mundo externo. El hecho inusual atrae la atencin de las autoridades aeroportuarias, pero tambin la de las autoridades sanitarias, y otras instancias federales, quienes especulan todo, e.g.: un ataque biolgico, terrorista, etc, menos lo que realmente les espera... Del Toro y Chuck Hogan (coautor del libro, novelista premiado y reconocido por su estilo) llevan rpidamente al lector al centro de la accin, de lo que se convierte en una historia de intriga, suspenso, accin y horror! En efecto, no pens que las crticas en ingls fueran ciertas, pero la narrativa eficaz del libro, le permite al lector (o a mi en particular), imaginar un sinfn de situaciones que erizan el pelo y procuran momentos de angustia... no es exagerado decir que pas un par de noches inquieto por las escenas que mi imaginacin recreaban despus de leer 'ciertos captulos del libro. En resumen, si lo que les apetece es una novela entretenida, que reinventa el gnero y que si asusta, les recomiendo "Nocturna" de Del Toro y Hogan.  The Golden Labyrinth: The Unique Films of Guillermo Del Toro $29.95 I have never written an review on Amazon before but I feel like I should warn people about this book. I love Guillermo del Toro so I was happy to hear about The Golden Labyrinth. After I read it I went from happy to horrified because this is one of the worst books I've ever read! It is littered with fact-errors, spelling mistakes and pictures in wrong colours, and I know many swedish children who writes a lot better in english than Steve Earles... Do not waste your money buying this awful book!  The Devil's Backbone $9.49 As we learn in the movie, The Devil's Backbone refers to a deformity that was once thought to be evil. The way this plays into the movie seems to play on what happened at the orphage where an army of children sit and play, watching the time tick by as they stare at the bulk of an unexploded bomb. They start to see a ghost, something out of time, once thought to be evil but now possibly telling a story that needs to be heard. The only problem is getting someone to listen, and making them know exactly what happened on that one terrible night. That's the problem with things; a ghost needs to be heard and the world sometiimes hears it, but the things it says are distorted fishbowl sounds and are seen one way when they should be seen differently. When i watched the movie the first time, I was taken aback by a few things that I saw differently after a second helping. The first thing was the pace, which seemed a trifle slow, adding up minutes without anything happening. The second time I watched it i saw passed my first assumption, however, noticing that the world was not a slow motion clock but was instead a story coming from many angles. Speaking of angles, my second problem had to do with that. Instead of finding peace looking through a valley of plotlines, I found only boredom as i thought too many things were being introduced. I saw through that the second time as well, knowing that I needed all of these things if I were to understand what was going to happen. I guess, much like The Devil's Backbone, I also saw things in the wrong light. I didn't notice the skillful preperation of the actors or the way things were playing out so they could be interpreted a number of ways. I thought i wanted a haunting, got it in a way i didn't like, and that was that. Thank goodness i didn't leave my mindset that way. If you like the direction in former movies by this figure, then you should know what to expet. Think of the Orphanage or of Pan and think of the way it developed. This is the way things have to be because, unlike a Blade II, it cannot simply whisk through an already established plot. I came to see that and i think people that have seen the movie might see that as well with another viewing, so maybe even they should consider another look at this movie. It has elements that make it a ghost story and not really a horror movie, like a Fog with political threads that run deeper than those even did, and that is interesting. It is being educated about the place and seeing what took place at the same time. I say others might like the way this plays through as well, and know what to expect. Check it out, possibly renting it beforehand, unless you feel confident you will like the thing described. Either way, it does come through with pale fingers and a haunted hand, touching the world in the way a ghost might actually touch.  Cronos $14.98 The Bottom Line: A mediocre movie that does a much better job of showing that a young Mexican director named Guillermo Del Toro had some talent than actually telling a compelling and satisfying story, Cronos is not a movie which I bear any ill-will towards but it's not worth seeking out or watching unless you're a big fan of the director, and even then (I fit that category) you might well come away disappointed. 2.5/4 |
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