Things wot I have seen/read lately
A grab-bag, as again I find myself unable to do these things in a timely manner.
BOOKS!
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire + Mockingjay
It's been nearly more than a month since I finished both these books and of course since I didn't take any notes I have only the vaguest of recollections.
- Of course, the part I liked the most about the books besides the whole battle royale aspect remains THE COSTUMES. Cinna's designs sound so wonderful and I remain somewhat obsessed with the idea of all those different wedding dresses for the Victory tour.
- QUARTER QUELL OSHI---! What I didn't know in book 2 was how awesome the other victors would be and I seriously wish we found out more about Johanna and Finnick (and Mags and Beetee and and and). It makes sense to also have champions like Annie who managed to win and then withdrew mentally, but I will always like the characters more, who when faced balls to the wall with a situation like the Hunger Games found that necessary well of cold ruthlessness and then survived. Also I am possibly being influenced by some of the fic I read afterward but purposely killing someone with a trident and an axe as opposed to a long-range weapon like Katniss's arrows is fucking hardcore and sounds probably more liable to fuck you up. A kill is a kill, but that added proximity? Augh.
- AND SPEAKING OF FINNICK, HOLY FUCKING BATMAN I AM STILL BITTER HE DIED IN SUCH AN AFTERTHOUGHT WAY. Well okay, basically 80% of the fighting cast died, but the whole last act of the book felt insanely rushed to me. That is also my biggest complaint about how it ended. YOUR POV CHARACTER SUDDENLY PASSES OUT AND THEN THE MOST INTERESTING PART OF THINGS-- THE BUILDING SHIT UP AFTER THE UTTER CHAOS THAT HAPPENED BEFORE-- GETS TOLD SECOND-HAND ARGH. It felt too sudden, too pat and neat and while we're on the subject of deaths and ALLCAPS OUTRAGE-- PRIM, TOO???
- Another part I didn't like was how Peeta suddenly got a case of the crazy venom and was effectively rendered useless. No wait, it was interesting to see how he was dealing with the knowledge that his memories were tampered with, but this wasn't the Peeta-Katniss interaction I wanted. It felt lopsided and just didn't make Katniss's decision in the end feel as satisfying as I had hoped. I ADMIT THAT I AM VERY MUCH INDIFFERENT TO GALE THOUGH :/ I tried to care more about him, but ultimately had to face the facts that I am Team Peeta all the way. But seriously, how Peeta SUDDENLY became better in the end? AGAIN WITH THE RUSHED-NESS.
Will probably be rereading the books again soon because I am vaguely planning sth THG-related for my Yuletart, so it'll be interesting to see if my general opinions change. PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALSO READ THE BOOKS AND POSSIBLY HAVE BETTER RECALL THAN ME, WHAT DID YOU THINK?
Feed by Mira Grant
THIS BOOK. Wow. I had heard that it was good, but I did not expect to be so involved and caught up with the plot and the characters the way I was.
- NOW THIS BOOK HAD SOME AWESOME SUSPENSE GOING ON. But that being said, I guess I should also honestly state that the big reveal of the baddie was the most predictable part of the book, as it was kind of telegraphed since about the first few scenes said character had because there actually weren't any other characters who remotely pinged the DING DING DING BAD MOTHERFUCKER radar. Still, the way the whole conspiracy was built up, the way things slowly amped up for George and Shawn and co. was done in an utterly engrossing way.
- I thought I would have scoffed at the blogging aspect of things but it actually was explained nicely within the world-building, this added lift in prestige the bloggers had after the rising. The different classifications were also amusing- Irwins, Newsies and Fictionals? Heh. The blog entries of either George, Shawn or Buffy after the chapters became welcome additions to things as well.
- I was clicking through reviews after I was done with the book myself and apparently some people found the constant reiteration of the characters doing the blood-tests over and over agin tedious, but I felt that it just served to hammer home how much the world had changed thanks to Kellis-Amberlee. It was a nicely detailed way to describing "zombie-ism" as a disease and the fact that "smaller" world-building details like hardly anybody eating red meat anymore due to the amplification risk just made it seem more vivid and fully-realized.
- GEORGE AND SHAWN. OH HOW I AM A SUCKER FOR HYPER-CLOSE SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS THAT ARE WRITTEN AWESOMELY. George was such a lovely main POV character, so no-nonsense, sharp as nails but clearly fleshed out with her own emotions and desires and that love for her brother, ahhh.
- THIS BOOK ALSO MADE ME CRY AT LEAST TWICE. First of all, I am always very leery when some of the characters adopt pets and are also involved in ~mysterious conspiracies because the pets always end up dead first as a warning :// And yes, I cried when the cat died and not so much when Buffy did. Since this is a zombie book, I actually expected one of the core characters to die and thought that since George was the POV character and not the adrenaline junkie sibling it was gonna be Mason who would kick it. Which made the actual ending with George becoming infected right during the action climax and then writing that last "exposing everything to the whole wide world" blog post as her brother stands behind her with a gun waiting to shoot her in the head the moment she truly makes the conversion to the undead and her typing eventually regressing to that point AND THEN BOOM SUDDEN ABRUPT CHAPTER END. Afhjkashafhjsafhj D: D: D:!! I was honestly sobbing after those scenes and then sniffling my way through the last few pages of what ended up being Shawn's traumatized narrating and the subsequent wrapping up of details. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
MOVIES!
Chua Fah Din Salai
It was early October when I saw this, and right now my most vivid memories are of how sumptuous and epic this movie was shot and how I was mostly very engrossed in the plot BUT ALSO THE BITS WHERE THE ENTIRE MOVIE-VIEWING AUDIENCE WAS LAUGHING OUT LOUD. And sadly not at parts that were supposed to be funny. To say this movie had its stupid decisions and ended in a highly melodramatic manner** would be an amazing understatement! But the fact that Ploy is gorgeous and Ananda spent 80% of the movie shirtless or semi-nude were contributing factors towards making it a very enjoyable viewing experience for me.
**THERE WAS ROMANCE THAT VEERED INTO PETTY SQUABBLING! DRACONIAN AND CRUEL PUNISHMENTS COURTESY OF THE CUCKOLDED HUSBAND! CUDDLING WITH THE CORPSE OF YOUR DEAD WIFE WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE TO ESCAPE YOU INSTEAD OF KILLING YOU AS YOU WANTED AND WHO WAS STILL CHAINED TO YOU FOR A WHILE BUT YOU SOMEHOW DIDN'T REALLY NOTICE UNTIL THE DAY YOU DID AND THEN SNAPPED AND THEN RAN OFF TO BE CRAZY IN THE FOREST ONCE SOMEONE CHOPPED THE CORPSE'S HAND OFF AND THUS FREED YOU etc etc.
RED
This will forever be the movie where I convinced I. that no matter how crap I am at explained why movie or book or TV show XYZ is great, I should still be trusted because she really didn't want to see this until I steamrollered her into it. Went with D., her boyf and I.'s cousin and it was some no-brains needed, highly enjoyable entertainment. Bruce Willis, MLP and John Malkovich remain hilarious, HELEN MIRREN WAS A VISION AND A DELIGHT (I loved her ~romance with Ivan!) and I did not expect that the movie would have so much delicious Karl Urban in a snazzy CIA suit. I was afraid he would be killed in the end, but good on his character for surviving and being a legit good guy.
Kick-Ass
Aaron Johnson is really distractingly pretty in this movie-- all curls and those green eyes, but who are we kidding. This movie was basically all about Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Do I think that the pointless throwing around of the C-word was ill-advised? Yes, but I still enjoyed seeing Hit Girl utterly decimate everyone in her way. Holy shit, Chloe Moretz was honestly the best part of this movie. And the score + OST! Obvs. the composer liked the Adagio in D he did for Sunshine (another movie I want to watch that is SO HARD TO GET A COPY OF HERE, ARGH) so much he had to use it again, but it is an amazing piece of music.
The best part of watching this with Andy and Ma was how Ma apparently dreamed about it. Though it wasn't so much a superhero dream as her apparently chasing AJ from roof to roof and waking up "amazingly tired" lololol.
BOOKS!
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire + Mockingjay
It's been nearly more than a month since I finished both these books and of course since I didn't take any notes I have only the vaguest of recollections.
- Of course, the part I liked the most about the books besides the whole battle royale aspect remains THE COSTUMES. Cinna's designs sound so wonderful and I remain somewhat obsessed with the idea of all those different wedding dresses for the Victory tour.
- QUARTER QUELL OSHI---! What I didn't know in book 2 was how awesome the other victors would be and I seriously wish we found out more about Johanna and Finnick (and Mags and Beetee and and and). It makes sense to also have champions like Annie who managed to win and then withdrew mentally, but I will always like the characters more, who when faced balls to the wall with a situation like the Hunger Games found that necessary well of cold ruthlessness and then survived. Also I am possibly being influenced by some of the fic I read afterward but purposely killing someone with a trident and an axe as opposed to a long-range weapon like Katniss's arrows is fucking hardcore and sounds probably more liable to fuck you up. A kill is a kill, but that added proximity? Augh.
- AND SPEAKING OF FINNICK, HOLY FUCKING BATMAN I AM STILL BITTER HE DIED IN SUCH AN AFTERTHOUGHT WAY. Well okay, basically 80% of the fighting cast died, but the whole last act of the book felt insanely rushed to me. That is also my biggest complaint about how it ended. YOUR POV CHARACTER SUDDENLY PASSES OUT AND THEN THE MOST INTERESTING PART OF THINGS-- THE BUILDING SHIT UP AFTER THE UTTER CHAOS THAT HAPPENED BEFORE-- GETS TOLD SECOND-HAND ARGH. It felt too sudden, too pat and neat and while we're on the subject of deaths and ALLCAPS OUTRAGE-- PRIM, TOO???
- Another part I didn't like was how Peeta suddenly got a case of the crazy venom and was effectively rendered useless. No wait, it was interesting to see how he was dealing with the knowledge that his memories were tampered with, but this wasn't the Peeta-Katniss interaction I wanted. It felt lopsided and just didn't make Katniss's decision in the end feel as satisfying as I had hoped. I ADMIT THAT I AM VERY MUCH INDIFFERENT TO GALE THOUGH :/ I tried to care more about him, but ultimately had to face the facts that I am Team Peeta all the way. But seriously, how Peeta SUDDENLY became better in the end? AGAIN WITH THE RUSHED-NESS.
Will probably be rereading the books again soon because I am vaguely planning sth THG-related for my Yuletart, so it'll be interesting to see if my general opinions change. PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALSO READ THE BOOKS AND POSSIBLY HAVE BETTER RECALL THAN ME, WHAT DID YOU THINK?
Feed by Mira Grant
THIS BOOK. Wow. I had heard that it was good, but I did not expect to be so involved and caught up with the plot and the characters the way I was.
- NOW THIS BOOK HAD SOME AWESOME SUSPENSE GOING ON. But that being said, I guess I should also honestly state that the big reveal of the baddie was the most predictable part of the book, as it was kind of telegraphed since about the first few scenes said character had because there actually weren't any other characters who remotely pinged the DING DING DING BAD MOTHERFUCKER radar. Still, the way the whole conspiracy was built up, the way things slowly amped up for George and Shawn and co. was done in an utterly engrossing way.
- I thought I would have scoffed at the blogging aspect of things but it actually was explained nicely within the world-building, this added lift in prestige the bloggers had after the rising. The different classifications were also amusing- Irwins, Newsies and Fictionals? Heh. The blog entries of either George, Shawn or Buffy after the chapters became welcome additions to things as well.
- I was clicking through reviews after I was done with the book myself and apparently some people found the constant reiteration of the characters doing the blood-tests over and over agin tedious, but I felt that it just served to hammer home how much the world had changed thanks to Kellis-Amberlee. It was a nicely detailed way to describing "zombie-ism" as a disease and the fact that "smaller" world-building details like hardly anybody eating red meat anymore due to the amplification risk just made it seem more vivid and fully-realized.
- GEORGE AND SHAWN. OH HOW I AM A SUCKER FOR HYPER-CLOSE SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS THAT ARE WRITTEN AWESOMELY. George was such a lovely main POV character, so no-nonsense, sharp as nails but clearly fleshed out with her own emotions and desires and that love for her brother, ahhh.
- THIS BOOK ALSO MADE ME CRY AT LEAST TWICE. First of all, I am always very leery when some of the characters adopt pets and are also involved in ~mysterious conspiracies because the pets always end up dead first as a warning :// And yes, I cried when the cat died and not so much when Buffy did. Since this is a zombie book, I actually expected one of the core characters to die and thought that since George was the POV character and not the adrenaline junkie sibling it was gonna be Mason who would kick it. Which made the actual ending with George becoming infected right during the action climax and then writing that last "exposing everything to the whole wide world" blog post as her brother stands behind her with a gun waiting to shoot her in the head the moment she truly makes the conversion to the undead and her typing eventually regressing to that point AND THEN BOOM SUDDEN ABRUPT CHAPTER END. Afhjkashafhjsafhj D: D: D:!! I was honestly sobbing after those scenes and then sniffling my way through the last few pages of what ended up being Shawn's traumatized narrating and the subsequent wrapping up of details. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
MOVIES!
Chua Fah Din Salai
It was early October when I saw this, and right now my most vivid memories are of how sumptuous and epic this movie was shot and how I was mostly very engrossed in the plot BUT ALSO THE BITS WHERE THE ENTIRE MOVIE-VIEWING AUDIENCE WAS LAUGHING OUT LOUD. And sadly not at parts that were supposed to be funny. To say this movie had its stupid decisions and ended in a highly melodramatic manner** would be an amazing understatement! But the fact that Ploy is gorgeous and Ananda spent 80% of the movie shirtless or semi-nude were contributing factors towards making it a very enjoyable viewing experience for me.
**THERE WAS ROMANCE THAT VEERED INTO PETTY SQUABBLING! DRACONIAN AND CRUEL PUNISHMENTS COURTESY OF THE CUCKOLDED HUSBAND! CUDDLING WITH THE CORPSE OF YOUR DEAD WIFE WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE TO ESCAPE YOU INSTEAD OF KILLING YOU AS YOU WANTED AND WHO WAS STILL CHAINED TO YOU FOR A WHILE BUT YOU SOMEHOW DIDN'T REALLY NOTICE UNTIL THE DAY YOU DID AND THEN SNAPPED AND THEN RAN OFF TO BE CRAZY IN THE FOREST ONCE SOMEONE CHOPPED THE CORPSE'S HAND OFF AND THUS FREED YOU etc etc.
RED
This will forever be the movie where I convinced I. that no matter how crap I am at explained why movie or book or TV show XYZ is great, I should still be trusted because she really didn't want to see this until I steamrollered her into it. Went with D., her boyf and I.'s cousin and it was some no-brains needed, highly enjoyable entertainment. Bruce Willis, MLP and John Malkovich remain hilarious, HELEN MIRREN WAS A VISION AND A DELIGHT (I loved her ~romance with Ivan!) and I did not expect that the movie would have so much delicious Karl Urban in a snazzy CIA suit. I was afraid he would be killed in the end, but good on his character for surviving and being a legit good guy.
Kick-Ass
Aaron Johnson is really distractingly pretty in this movie-- all curls and those green eyes, but who are we kidding. This movie was basically all about Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Do I think that the pointless throwing around of the C-word was ill-advised? Yes, but I still enjoyed seeing Hit Girl utterly decimate everyone in her way. Holy shit, Chloe Moretz was honestly the best part of this movie. And the score + OST! Obvs. the composer liked the Adagio in D he did for Sunshine (another movie I want to watch that is SO HARD TO GET A COPY OF HERE, ARGH) so much he had to use it again, but it is an amazing piece of music.
The best part of watching this with Andy and Ma was how Ma apparently dreamed about it. Though it wasn't so much a superhero dream as her apparently chasing AJ from roof to roof and waking up "amazingly tired" lololol.