Interview with an Assassin

Today I had the chance to explore deeper into the mind of one of my characters.

W.S. Gager's reporter-with-an-attitude Mitch Malone decided to press his luck and put professional hitman Robert I Prescott in the spot. Now, who would do such a thing on purpose? :-)

http://wsgager.blogspot.com/2012/04/mitch-malone-mondays-j-h-bograns-robert.html

News: blog post and freebie!

I have two news to share today.

1. I was invited to write a blog post for Chris Redding's blog. I decided to explore about our relationship as authors with our own characters: here's the link:

http://chrisredddingauthor.blogspot....character.html

2. My story The Assassin's Mistress is enjoying a free day promotion at Amazon, so take advantage of this and get your copy today:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007BOC0OW

So you can understand why I'm so thrilled today :-)

The Wrath of Titans and Gemma’s continuous on-screen deaths.

After some debate, we settled to see Wrath of Titans in 2D. However, I conceded the point it’d be the version dubbed in Spanish to please my children.

Dark times are coming; the Gods are dying because people have stopped praying to them. The now widower Perseus has open road to woo fighting Queen Andromeda. Of course, he must first rescue his father from the prison in the underworld, save his son from certain death at the hands of Ares, and destroy his grandfather Kronos. I suppose Ancient Greeks really know how to hold a grudge and keep it all in the family.

However, the Wrath of Titans offers no memorable scenes. The action scenes aren’t as annoying as the ones in Transformers. But a lot of them happen in dark places that, combined with the close-angle of the camera, make it really hard to keep track of who is winning.

Not all is bad, hidden under the special effects is a tale of forgiveness and redemption. Also, it ends with the possibility of a third installment. Liam Neeson is superb as Zeus, as with any role he plays. Ralph Fiennes plays a good Hades, this time looking less like Voldemort with a nose. Sam Worthington looks weird with long hair, but makes a decent job.

All in all, it is an entertaining movie.

Oh, and before I forget, the metallic Bubo makes another cameo, this time even longer than the first time.

The title of the post refers to Gemma Arterton’s characters. I know she’s made plenty of other movies, but if we notice the most prominent ones we find a pattern to be worried about. In Quantum of Solace, agent Strawberry Fields tries to bring rogue agent James Bond back into the saddle, only to suffer a terrible death: asphyxiation by oil. In Prince of Persia, Queen Tamina falls into a pit. Thankfully the sands of time work in her favor and she gets a reprieve. In Clash of Titans, Io dies at the hands of Calibos while Perseus watches in impotence. Thank God—literally—Zeus felt pity for his son and brought back Io to accompany Perseus. I was looking forward to watching her again, but I only got a glimpse at her gravestone; which, by the way, was written in English instead of ancient Greek.

At least, the absence of Gemma Arterton did not ruin the movie as much as Rachel Weiss’ absence from The Mummy franchise did.

Trivia Bit: Andromeda is now played by Rosamund Pike, another former Bond-girl. So that makes two of them becoming female leads in the Titan’s franchise.