Iron Man, Prince Caspian, My Book

We went to see two movies recently.

Iron Man (4/5 stars)
I liked it quite a bit. It had good characters, a reasonable amount of action mixed with intrigue. Good acting and script. In all, it was quite entertaining.

Prince Caspian (3/5 stars)
Although entertaining, I didn't feel attached to any of the characters like I had in the first movie. I love Edmund and Peter's armor though (I'm a bit of a Medieval armor fan), and that probably adds a half star to any movie.

Edmund is still my favorite character of the lot. He's grown since the first film (character-wise), and Skandar Keynes puts in a solid performance in this film. There were far fewer "shocked" facial shots of Lucy in this film (thank heavens), and Susan actually killed and wounded men with her bow and arrows. It was definitely a little bit darker (although not bloodier; there's still no blood, which I don't mind) than the first film.

In all, I felt like there was too much battle and not enough compelling storytelling, but it was entertaining.

I finished Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series. Although I mostly enjoyed it, she spent far too much time talking about people and things I didn't care about. The resolution was mildly satisfying (and mildly unsatisfying). I don't feel a loss after finishing the last book, but neither do I feel like I have wasted time. The series gets 3/5 book stars.

One positive result of Elliott's series is that I have pumped out many new ideas (not based on Elliott's books, rather based on "hey, if that can get published, I can get published") for my own fantasy novel. I'm liking my storylines more and more, but any finished or even semi-finished product is a long way off. I'm not quitting my day job.