DAN BROWN “THE LOST SYMBOL” PART 1
I have been reading the third installment to Robert Langton’s adventures for a few days now and I cannot seem to decide how much I actually like it. Normally, I would be done with a book like this in a matter of days and I’m only half-way through. 
Which can mean only one thing- this part is not as engaging as the previous two. Especially since I am quite able to put it down for a day or two without even peeping in it (never happened with the other Langton stories).
Moreover, I seem to have a few bones to pick with it. I find it quite difficult to see Langton as a credible character at times. For first time readers or the first installment to this series, it would have been fine for Robert to be so close-minded. However, after all this character has been through in the previous novels with all their life-shattering discoveries, it simply does not ring true. And I find it quite annoying, to be honest. Perhaps because I expected a lot more from Dan Brown.
So whenever Langton is adamant in his claims that it can’t possibly be anything but a myth, it makes me cringe. Robert Langton, who discovered some of the greatest well-guarded secrets of the Catholic Church, now claims that, despite what intelligent people tell him, certain facts are simply too far-fetched to be plausible? Really? Dan Brown, I must say, you didn’t quite think that one through, did you?
My only hope remains that the story will pick up pace and turn out as a pretty good read, in spite of those little mishaps. Although I can tell you right now that “The Lost Symbol” has nothing on “The Da Vinci Code”.
A PIECE OF MY MIND
The big story in the last few days has been the death of Osama Bin Laden. It seems you can’t even turn the telly on without someone mentioning “the big American victory”.
Take “Dancing with the Stars”, for instance. Now, how appropriate is it to start speaking about such morbid issues on a show that is supposed to be purely entertaining? Do I want to hear about the updates while I am watching people dancing or do I want to just enjoy the dancing? Do I like my favorite show disrupted so the media can show the coverage of Bin Laden’s death ad nauseum?
And it seems like the issues regarding Bin Laden just keep coming up. It makes me wonder how long this story is going to last….
But never mind that. I have another bone to pick with Americans; one that was brought up by this whole Osama matter. The simple statement “the president of the free world”, refferring to the American president, nearly infuriates me. It is extremely presumptuos, to the point of arrogance, to say that the American president is also president of all the democratic countries. Becauses essentially that is what this statement means.
Now, I am Polish and I know for a fact that in my country we have our own president and we don’t recognise the authority of another nation’s head of the country in any shape or form. Not even American. Moreover, I know it to be true for all European nations. I would even hazard a guess that this would be true for any free country in the world, be it the western or the eastern cultures.
So what are you really saying, my dear Americans? That we, Europeans, are not free? Are you really that arrogant? Or simply ignorant?
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE
“Eclipse”, the third part to the “Twilight” saga, directed by David Slade and starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Dakota Fannig may just be the best one yet…
It is action packed (as far as the story allows it) and although some of the scenes featuring Bella and Edward are slightly too cheesy and a bit prolonged (I’m assuming to satisfy the love-struck teenage viewers), one can still enjoy watching the film.
In this installment of the saga, we get to learn Edward’s family members past and what made them who they are as well as how the warewolves (actually shapeshifters, but nobody seemed to notice that little slip) came about. However, here the film losses in comparisson with the book because we never get to see the tormented Leah (a new additon to the pack) and the role she will later play in the battle. Morever, the battle itself, although not too badly shot and edited, still leaves you wanting more. More of the action, which unfortunately ends too soon… And the culmination of the movie seems too abrupt, almost as if the team ran out of steam…
All in all, it is worth watching for the fans (who, as it is their perogative, are totally partial), for others- well, if you don’t mind a few borderline boring scenes (which are not so in the book but lack the same intentisty in the movie) and ejoy the conflict between the supernatural creatures, go for it… You may find that the money spent on the ticket might have been worth it. The desicion is entirely yours…