Hungry for More Hunger Games: Gale Edition

So here's part 2 of my ridiculously lengthy Hunger Games review :) Broken up into manageable pieces just for you :D

And, of course, I have to say SPOILERS AHEAD for both the books and the movie.

I read somewhere (and I have no idea where, sorry) that Gale was a non-entity in the film.

Which I personally find odd, since I was quite impressed about how much Gale they managed to fit in, considering we get very little of him in the books.

First I'd like to say that the casting here was perfect too. I started rereading the first book today and the physical descriptions of Gale (and Peeta) fit the actors amazingly well. They really worked hard to choose the right players for this film.

Gale and Katniss in the woods wasn't "necessary" for the plot, but it was completely necessary for our understanding of the world and it gave us a really great look at a side of Katniss that we do not see anywhere else at all. I loved the way Katniss just relaxed with Gale. The two of them are very free and easy with each other and you can tell they are best friends. Even that moment of tension when Gale talks about leaving - you just knew that was an aberration and that they don't normally bicker. Their teasing and open manner is such a contrast to the stiffness Katniss has when she's around Peeta. Even at their most relaxed (on the roof) they are nowhere near as comfortable with each other as Katniss and Gale are.
I loved the little moments during the reaping, especially when Gale starts mouthing the words of the "special film" they are forced to watch. The way they found each other so easily in the crowd spoke to the connection they have. But at the same time, there was no hint from Katniss that she felt this was anything more than a friendship. Gale's love for her was subtly obvious (if there can be such a thing) and once again Katniss is oblivious. He is her hunting partner, her best friend, and the only one she can trust to take care of her family.

When Gale carries Prim away as Katniss volunteers it just rips your heart out and their goodbye in the small room before Katniss is whisked away to the train made me sob. You can just see Gale put everything in his life on the back burner so he can be the friend she needs in that utterly too short moment they have together.

I understand why they have Gale alone out in the fields at the opening of the Games, but I am so glad we got the flashes of him during the interviews and the cave scenes. His eyes were ridiculously expressive and you could just see him dying inside as Katniss kisses Peeta. He tries so hard not to be angry, but it isn't quite working and it's completely believable.

When Katniss and Peeta return to District 12 I loved that Gale was there with Prim on his shoulders. And the hopeful little smile on his face was so sweet as his eyes met Katniss' across the crowd, just like they did at the Reaping. Which made it even more terrible when Peeta takes Katniss' hand in a very possessive gesture and raises their entwined fingers in victory. The undercurrents of confusion, love, jealousy, and heartbreak between the three of them worked very well.

I wasn't a giant fan of Gale in the books, but Liam Hemsworth sold the part for me. I have always been glad that The Hunger Games wasn't just a love triangle story. The point is not whom Katniss is going to choose, but how the three of them, along with everyone else, are going to survive a world where everyone has turned against them. But, at the same time, the triangle is an important part of the plot and of the character development. We learn to care about all three of them and that is one of the things that makes their final fates so compelling, not just because we're glad our OTP got together.

I stumbled across an absolutely brilliant analysis of the love triangle on tumblr - reposted from Raptorific - so if you are curious or interested, or just love these books and this movie as much as I do, then you should definitely read it. I couldn't have said it better.

So there's my Gale piece. Who to talk about next...

Hungry for More Hunger Games: Peeta edition

I was going to write a quick review of the movie, but once I started on Peeta I discovered I had a lot more to say than I thought I did. So I may do a number of these little mini reviews. Because I loved the movie THAT. MUCH.

And, I probably don't need to say this, but SPOILERS AHEAD. PRETTY MAJOR ONES. For both the book and the movie.

Okay.

I was not one of those that was hesitant when I heard about Josh Hutchinson's casting. I loved him in Bridge to Terabithia and reading Suzanne Collins' take on him as Peeta made me confident he could fill the role. I was right. I loved his rapport with Haymitch and Caesar Flickerman. When he follows Haymitch out of the dining car and Katniss is just exasperated and Peet says, "I'll talk to him," fit their personalities well. It was a nice nod to the gift for language that Peeta has and how he uses those powers of persuasion to his advantage. It was the same thing when he sees the Capitol for the first time and how he plays up to the crowd as they pull into the city. Just right (even though in the previews I feared that was going to be overdone).

The chariot scene was fantastic (the fire was a little underwhelming, but actually looked better during my second viewing). The way Peeta gets Katniss to hold hands and raise them up was brilliantly done and you could see how the crowd just focused in on them.

I truly believed that he cared about Katniss. His eyes whenever he looked at her? *sigh* Totally bought that whole side of things. One of the best moments in their developing relationship was when Katniss thought he had eaten the berries and she flips out on him. That glimmer of hope in his eyes that maybe she was actually falling in love with him? Heartbreakingly real.

The scene on the roof the night before the Games began was well done. Though I felt like it was a little too friendly after she had just attacked him a little while before, the scene in and of itself was beautifully handled. You could feel the connection beginning to build between them and Peeta's declaration of rebellion did not come across cheesy or awkward. It was perfectly authentic.

I was really happy with little details like his awkwardness moving through the woods and the way he walks up next to her while she's holding the bow ready right before the Mutts arrive. I knew she didn't end up shooting him, but in my head I was screaming "Get out of her line of vision you goof!" And his camouflage skills! Oh my goodness. The rock thing was almost creepy, but I loved that they played up that aspect and that he mentioned having done the cakes at the bakery. Such a nice touch to make him more than just the strong guy who can't do much else.

So much that I loved, but there were a few nitpicks I had as well.

I felt like he was too emotional as they were leaving District 12. I don't even really know why, but it annoyed me that he looked like he was about to burst into tears and then was fine once they were on the train. I also felt like his pronouncement of love for Katniss fell flat. Like I said, his joking with Flickerman was spot on, but I just didn't get the emotional pull that I expected when he says she came with him.

And I wasn't a big fan of the cave scene. I liked Peeta's openness with Katniss (though he seemed a little stalkerish when he repeated "Every day"), but without Katniss' reciprocation the scene felt a little overdone like HEY LOOK HE REALLY DOES LIKE HER and I wanted to see more softening of Katniss. But you did get some of these great moments where you could just feel to the depth of your core that Peeta is in love with this girl and she is so oblivious. And I loved Haymitch's note and the way Katniss kissed Peeta felt like it was taken straight from the book.

I also would have liked to see a bit more of his side of the arena. I understand that we mostly get Katniss because that's how the books were written, but in the novel we get the replay after the games so Katniss can see the way he teamed up with the Careers in order to protect her. In the movie we never really know for sure why he was helping them track her. And that was a huge thing for me.

And finally, he seriously healed over night? I could buy that the wound was significantly better, but not that his fever and infection had disappeared so quickly. I know it would have affected the fight scene with Cato on the cornucopia (which I loved), and I know that it was already a 2 1/2 hour movie, but for me, the scenes of Katniss screaming as she pounded on the door while they rush the seriously wounded Peeta away were key to understanding how much she had come to care for him without even realising it.

Oh yeah, and that leads me to one of the smallest and most nitpickiest things - why were they on separate chairs in that last interview with Flickerman? Katniss' dress was way too poofy. They were supposed to be in a seat together that made them have to kind of snuggle together and Katniss' dress was supposed to be simple and girlish (not poofy and glamorous) to garner sympathy and help sell to the gamemakers that they really weren't a threat, just desperate kids in love.

I know this makes it sound like there was more I didn't like than I did, but that's not true. These are just things that I would have liked to see or would have liked to see developed a little further. Someone on another review commented that it should have been done as like a 5 hour miniseries. This is a good idea. But for the time they had, I thought this movie was absolutely fantastic. I've seen it twice and I would go see it again at the drop of a hat. Can't wait to own it so I can watch it whenever I want!

It's a Harry Potter World

It's over. That's it. No more new Harry Potter.

If we could pause for a moment of silence and copious weeping.

Naomi and I realized that we would be in Toronto on the night of the midnight release. We had already planned on going a day early to do some sightseeing, as I talked about on Tuesday, but now we were really glad we had, because there's no way we could have gone to the midnight release at home, gotten to bed at 3 and then left in any kind of decent time on Friday to make it in time for Polaris.

So we ordered tickets online, finding a theatre only 5 minutes and a straight shot from our hotel. Yeah!

It was a huge fancy theatre. I have never been to one like this.

It looked much more impressive at night with a million neon lights
But I forgot to take a picture then

Trelawney has a prediction for you!

What is wrong with my face?

We got there early, not sure how the line would be, and it was pretty long already. We decided to dress up, because - come on! - it's the last Harry Potter for goodness sake! When we got there we didn't see anyone else in costume and I felt a little weird (Naomi would say I was a lot weird, but whatever) anyhoo.


Once we got inside it was better. Not because a lot of people were dressed up, because they weren't, but because of the whole atmosphere. The place was charged with anticipation, Potter love, and good natured Muggleness.

We got in line and after a while, they shifted us all forward. Our line snaked into this side entrance, which was basically a concrete floored, cinder block walled, hallway with no ventilation. Fortunately we discovered that the doors at the end of the hall led outside and were not alarmed. Naomi and I stood by the door and sang the Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog soundtrack to amuse ourselves.

Finally they let us into our theatre, but there was still at least half an hour before the movie started. Naomi and I had great fun listening to the conversations around us. Two girls to my right kept trying to one up each other with horror stories from their childhood. Everything from stove burns to wasp swarms. It was pretty hilarious.

Then. The movie.

I thought it was really well done. It was very satisfying and a solid ending to the movie series. I won't say anything more, because I avoid spoilers, so I'll just say I enjoyed it.

But the best part of the whole thing was the way the audience reacted. I've never experienced anything like it before. Not even when I went to the midnight release of Half Blood Prince. I don't know if it's Canada, if it's because it was the last movie, or if it was just the group of people in the room, but it was amazing. Everyone gasped, cheered, booed, clapped, awwwed, laughed, and just generally interacted with the happenings on the screen, but without being distracting or detracting from the movie. In my opinion it enhanced it and I will look back on that night with special fondness whenever I think about the final book or movie.

Have you seen it yet? Are you planning on seeing it? Did you like it? No spoilers please!
:D

Letters to Juliet: It's All About the Characters

I suddenly realized IT IS MONDAY.

And I totally didn't have anything ready to post for Writerly Monday, but then I remembered that I said I might post about TV or movies, so here you go.

That was a completely unnecessary prelude, but it's there and I don't feel like erasing it.

And that was a completely unnecessary aside.

Last week my Dad went to stay with some friends so he could work on his dissertation without any as many distractions. When I knew he was going to be gone, I decided to add a chick flick to the top of my NetFlix queue, since he isn't a big chick flick fan. (note: he watches them with us quite regularly and even enjoys most of them, but they're not his favorite, obviously)

I had been wanting to see Letters to Juliet since I saw the preview for it, so one night Mom and I settled in to watch it.

I love movies like this! Besides, it took place in Siena and the Tuscan countryside and Florence. AND I am crossing my fingers that things work out for me to go on a trip in May to Siena and Florence (and Rome) and now I want to go more than ever. Gor.Geous.

Letters to Juliet was a lot of fun. But the thing I noticed the most (since this IS Writerly Monday I should connect it to writing in some way, right?) was the characterization.

First, a quick overview of the story, without spoilers - of course, it's a romcom and it's really not about the plot twists, if you know what I mean.

Sophie and her fiance, Victor, take a pre-wedding honeymoon to Italy. Victor is about to open his own Italian restaurant and he wants to spend the entire trip talking to buyers, going to wine auctions, tasting tomatoes and cheese, etc. Sophie loves him, but doesn't really care about his business, so they end up spending a lot of time apart. She discovers the wall where broken-hearted women leave letters to Juliet asking for advice on relationships. A group of women, called the secretaries to Juliet, collect the letters and respond. Sophie joins them and finds a letter from many years before that had been missed. She answers the letter and ends up joining the, now elderly Claire, on a quest to find her long lost love, despite the objections of Claire's grandson, Charlie.

This makes the story sound so dull, but it's not. But remember, the thing I wanted to talk about is the characters.

The characters totally popped. You had such a strong sense of who they were almost as soon as they were introduced. And they were very realistic. Sophie was such a rich main character. Sassy, funny, thoughtful and tenacious. Victor made you crazy, but he wasn't just a jerk. He was passionate and tried to do something right, it just wasn't right for Sophie. Charlie - well, he is hilariously obnoxious at the beginning. But you just can't dislike him. And his growth was really the main journey of the story. As for Claire, she had some of the best lines in the movie.

Many movies do a good job with character development, but what made this one stand out to me was the way you really felt like you knew them almost as soon as they appeared on screen. That is so hard to do.

It's something I struggle with in my writing. How do you make the characters pop? In Letters to Juliet, the key tool they used was dialogue. And I think that is really important. How a character says something is almost more important than what they say.

Example: (from my WIP) Instead of saying, "I have a headache," my MC, Layla, says, "It feels like rutabagas are tap dancing inside my skull." This give the reader a much better sense of who Layla is. (at least in my opinion)

How about you? What do you do to make your characters pop? What else is important, besides dialogue? Seen any good movies lately?

This Movie Changed My Life

I recently watched a movie that forever changed my life. That movie was “Princess Caraboo”.

This is possibly THE worst cover I have ever seen in my entire life.

Contrary to appearances, Princess Caraboo was actually quite attractive.

It all started innocently enough. As AchingHope and I were heading out to the library, our brother, Dave, asked us to pick him up a good movie. We perused the DVD section and my eyes fell on “Princess Caraboo” and I knew it would be the perfect movie to tease him with. So we got it, mainly as a joke, and returned home. (We also picked up “Creature From the Black Lagoon” for him, so he was happy. No. Seriously.)

Well, since we had the movie, AchingHope and I decided that we should watch it before returning it. Just for kicks.

I don’t want to give away the twist at the end, but I thought I would review the movie for you here so everyone can understand the wonder that is “Princess Caraboo.”

As you can tell from the title, this is a movie about a girl that is wandering in Regency England wearing a pair of trousers, a rough shirt and a turban. She is found and brought to a nearby town. The vicar decides that she must be someone important. This is obvious because she is dressed oddly, carries her head at an angle and can speak no English.

I am a Princess as you can tell by my grungy shirt and exotic hand gestures.

The vicar brings her to the Worrells. For no apparent reason. At first, Mrs. Worrell takes her in.

You can tell how important we are - our furniture is made out of shells!

but then, Mr. Worrell sends her to the magistrate.

The magistrate wishes to imprison or hang her for begging, but Cute Vagrant Boy stands up for her. Unfortunately, he is already under penalty of imprisonment, so his word means nothing. Also unfortunately, Creepy Stalker Journalist stands up for her too. Not so unfortunately Mrs. Worrell shows up. The magistrate agrees to leave her in the custody of the Worrells.

I am a Cute Vagrant Boy. Therefore my word means nothing

I am a Creepy Stalker Journalist. Therefore my word means everything.

She returns to the Worrell's house where she astounds them by refusing to allow them to take off her turban, stating her name as Caraboo and writing in a strange, unknown language.

This is the universal signal for leave my hat alone!

The servants of the house are jealous, particularly the French butler – Frank Sauce. He is my favorite character. His outfits alone are worth watching the movie

Frank Sauce is Saucey!

Of course the only logical conclusion everyone can come to is that Caraboo must be an Oriental Princess. So the family spends a small fortune on clothing, a fancy four poster princess bed and whatever else Caraboo desires. Fortunately, she cannot speak English, so she doesn’t ask much.

You can tell I am a Princess because I have declared my own fashions!

Plaid must always be worn with floral.

Through a series of misadventures including cigar smoking,

praying on the roof,

standing on a ladder behind a tree,

and dancing with the creepily insane Prince Regent,

Caraboo wins the hearts of everyone around her. Mainly because Mr. Worrell sees her as a way to gain confidence from investors for his business in the West Indies and because everyone else sees her as a novelty.

Except the servants. They decide they actually really like her.

To the Princess Caraboo!

Everyone is happy until creepy, stalker journalist (also known as Mr. Grouch) decides to poke his nose into her business.

She had a book in English! Therefore she must be a fraud!

He decides that she may not actually be an Oriental Princess and sets out to ruin everyone's fun. However, he does this while claiming that if she really had taken everyone in and made everything up then he would "cherish her forever". Um.... STALKER! Creepy! Stalker!

I will climb a wall to break into the Prince Regent's Palace

to prove you are a fraud because I love you!

I will not give away the twist, but I will say this is the first chick flick-esque movie where I have actually pleaded with the movie for it not to end with a kiss.

They may have had me choose you in the movie,

but I'm glad I don't actually have to kiss my stalker, 'cause that would just be awkward...

I would have ended the movie with Caraboo getting on the ship and discovering that Cute Vagrant Boy was working on it while Creepy Stalker Journalist got run over by a horse. Now that would have been a good ending.

Harry Potter at midnight...what could be better?

I wasn't planning on going to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on opening night. I figured my sister, Mom and I would make it some time in the first week or two. But then I was at work and a couple of people were talking about going together and it just kept snowballing, until a whole group of us ended up deciding to go!

So, some of us had to work until 11, but the theatre is just down at the other end of the mall, so it wasn't a problem. My sister came and joined us and we had so much fun.

The movie was great - they left SOOOOOOOOOO much out, but that's been true about pretty much every movie, getting consistently worse with each one. They're good movies, but leave so freakin' much out. It's a good thing they're breaking the last one up into two, because there are a number of things in that book that I will throw a fit if they don't include them.

Okay SPOILER ALERT! Not too serious... I'm not going into great detail, but just mentioning the things I really liked and the things I was most disappointed with and it may give away some things you don't want to know if you haven't seen it.

How happy was I that they showed Fred and George's shop!? I was afraid they would have cut it. Not enough info, but I loved seeing it.

We've been going through a big renovation at work and a couple of my coworkers and I have been joking about needing Harry and Hermione to help get everything into their new places - then Dumbledore fixed up that entire house with a wave of his wand and Claire and I were like, Oh! All we need is Dumbledore!

I loved the drunk scene with Hagrid and Slugworth. Ha! In fact, the whole scene with Harry on the lucky potion cracked me up.

Not enough info about Riddle. Not nearly enough! My sister and I are hoping that maybe Dumbledore will leave Harry his pensieve and the memories and maybe that's what will drive Harry, Hermione and Ron as they apparate around all over the place later.

Dumbledore's death was sad, but I didn't cry until everyone lifted up their wands. Then I was trying not to sob and shake the whole row of seats. I don't think I was successful. :)

HOW COULD THEY NOT HAVE DUMBLEDORE'S FUNERAL!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!? Fawkes bursts into flames on top of the grave! He doesn't go flying into the sunset?! And, the spell from Snape's wand when he said the Avada Kedavra spell was totally red, not green (really minor nitpick here, but I have my reasons).

AND still NO house elves! If Dobby and Kreacher are not brought back in the last movies I will throw something at the screen. Then I will march right over to whoever put it together and smack them good. I love the house elves and they are absolutely KEY to the last book! So HOW, tell me, HOW, could they NOT have them like at all?!

Okay, all whining aside.... I love the movie. Yeah for Quidditch back, yeah for the bird spell Hermione did. Ha! Very well put together and very enjoyable.

Up-lifting

We always make a point to go see the newest Pixar wonder and Up was no exception. The movie was beautiful.

Sure it was funny - down right hysterical at times - but it was so much more than that.

The first ten minutes or so alone made up a movie in their own right and I would have left satisfied after just that segment. Any movie that can make me laugh and then cry within the first 10-15 minutes deserves major kudos.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. Trailers are often misleading and vague. Up delivered more than I anticipated. The characters were so well drawn that I completely sympathized with them. And the world was so well developed that I had no trouble buying into the fact that a house could be carried away by helium balloons and guided by curtains and bed sheets.

The music was amazing too and I had such a squee moment when I saw it was done by Michael Giacchino. That man is a genius. As my sister said, from the first two notes he set the tone of the movie. There was a definite "Ellie" theme that conjured the perfect emotions throughout.

Please, treat yourself to this movie. It's not just a kid's movie. "Up" is a movie for adventurers, lovers, and dreamers.

Star Trek: the New Frontier

I finally got a chance to go see Star Trek - and then I got to go see it again 2 days later! Crazy. My sister was mad that my parents and I went without her, so she and I went Sunday.

So funny - when we went on Friday, my parents and I were the ONLY ones in the theatre. It was sweet. We got to comment and laugh really loud. :)

I'm going to assume that if you're reading this, you've seen it, so expect SPOILERS AHEAD!

I loved it. I've seen all the other movies, I grew up watching reruns of the original show and Next Generation, watched quite a bit of DS9 and saw virtually every episode of Voyager, so I consider myself a bit of a Trekkie. I thought the movie was a great addition to the Star Trek universe.

The homages to the original stuff was a lot of fun and the movie definitely kept me entertained throughout.

The casting was done well. The absolute highlight for me was Bones. I thought he completely nailed it. I was sold on the character from the first sentence and I just about died when he said, "I'm a doctor, not a physicist!" Ah hahaha! Scottie was probably my second favorite. Chekov's hair was way too curly, so even though the accent was perfect, his hair distracted me.

When Kirk is sitting in the bar right after Pike tells him to enlist in Starfleet, Kirk picks up a little starship salt shaker and I all but shrieked, "I want those!" To which my Mom laughed and said maybe for Christmas. Yeah, I'm a dork :) Because that would be amazing!
(note to self: make sure before I accept any guy's proposal, that he is okay with starship salt and pepper shakers)

I thought that the romantic interest between Uhura and Spock was a little odd, but it also felt strangely okay. A lot of people seemed to be bothered by it, but it didn't do too much for me one way or the other. I didn't hate it, but I wasn't thrilled either.

I loved the scene when Kirk is swelling up all over the place and Bones keeps giving him shot after shot. So funny :)

It's been a while since I've watched Star Trek (other than some of the more recent movies) but I don't remember Romulans looking like that. It just struck me as strange, with the tattoos and everything.

Very Lostian ideas of time travel and alternate realities. I couldn't help thinking about them while watching it.

The ending seemed rather too easily wrapped up - I mean, Kirk goes from being a cadet to being a full-fledged captain? Way too quick (plus the extremely corny standing ovation - puh-lease). But then we realized that the whole next movie would have had to be about how he became captain, and that would just be ridiculous. This one was to set everything up so that they can take other movies in new directions, so it kind of had to end that way.

Yeah for Michael Giacchino's score! Loved the music and the second time around I started catching nuances of the original Star Trek score in different scenes. So cool.

My biggest nitpick actually had to do with the set, and no, it wasn't about how it looked newer and shinier. That didn't bother me. It was actually with the turbo lifts and how they didn't turn the little handles to move around. They had the old style communicators and phasers, but not those. Then I started rationalizing that this was actually before the voice activation, so it worked more like an elevator and that maybe in the next movie they'll have progressed to that. Haha. (What's sad is that the rationalization actually made me feel better. (though it's kind of weird that this was my biggest nitpick)

Also, had a question about the bug that they put into Pike. If they are the same kind of thing as in The Wrath of Khan, then why doesn't Pike seem to be affected by it when Kirk rescues him? It's like, you see the bug put in (and through the mouth, not the ear) and the next thing you see is Kirk rescuing him and he's mentally fine. Random thought came to me that maybe Pike is still under Captain Nero's suggestive influence via the bug and that will come into play as part of the next movie. Or maybe we're just supposed to think that it did its job, came out and Pike is fine.

So, there you have it, my scatter-brained review and thoughts on Star Trek.
Now I must boldly go where I have often gone before....

(sorry, couldn't help myself :P)