Last night, before I went to the movies, I did my Christmas shopping, so now the nieces and nephews are all taken care of, and this morning I completed my yuletide source review and wrote another 300 words of my story, so achievement unlocked! Halfway there! All the setup is done so the story can happen now, I think. I feel like I will want to talk a lot about this story when it's finally done, but by the time reveals happen, I will have probably forgotten everything I wanted to say. *hands*
I saw Catching Fire last night. They wanted $7 for a medium popcorn! I remember when you could see a movie for $7! Bah!
Anyway! I enjoyed the movie. I thought it did a good job with the book, even if the casting wasn't what I'd originally envisioned. I still think Peeta is unattractively passive-aggressive and I can't get behind Katniss/Peeta AT ALL, but I enjoyed the movie.
CINNA! NOOOOOOO! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE HE'S DEAD. HE IS MY FAVORITE. And the wedding dress! I thought the visuals on the wedding dress were much more fantastic than the ones on the fire dress in the first movie.
HAYMITCH! ♥♥♥ Woody Harrelson is another bit of casting I wasn't too keen on until I saw the first movie, but wow, he is excellent again here; he and JLaw and Lenny Kravitz are my favorite things about these movies (I ship both Haymitch and Cinna with Katniss, in addition to Gale, at least before he does the thing he does in book 3), though Jena Malone as Joanna was pretty awesome too. I got teary a couple of times, mostly in relation to Rue, or the districts rebelling, and I liked that Prim has progressed from trembly 12 year old to tiny in charge field medic. But I think my favorite thing was Katniss shooting the arrow and shattering the dome. That actually gave me chills. that's the Katniss I want to spend time with. And JLaw is amazing in this movie. Her FAAAAAAAAACE.
I also liked how much more human Effie seemed this time around, with her insistence that they're a team and her matching gold accoutrements. (also, "Mahogany!")
I liked some of the little touches - the mockingjay graffiti in the tunnel and on the walls - "The odds are never in our favor." I liked that Gale got a little more characterization this time; the Lesser Hemsworth does all right, and I still feel like at least he and Katniss are friends and have stuff in common, and if you're going to be choosing a boyfriend, those seem like good qualities.
I'm interested to see what they do with the third book - I feel like they HAVE to solve some of the issues with it, but I still am not thrilled about it being split into two movies.
In case you're interested,
my thoughts on the first movie and
my thoughts on the books.
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12/14:
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zulu asked, will Kalinda and Alicia's friendship ever come back as strong as season 1? Why/why not?
Sadly, I think not. Not just because allegedly Julianna Margulies has said that she doesn't believe Alicia will ever forgive Kalinda, but also because they haven't had a scene together in AGES. I think it SHOULD be done
though with the split an Kalinda offering her loyalty to Will, I don't know HOW it could be done, but even if they don't patch it up and become close again, I think we need to see them interacting; we need more than just Kalinda looking longingly at Alicia.
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It snowed here today, pretty much all day, so after an early outing to drop of my laundry and pick up coffee, I've been home where it's cozy. Now I've got a glass of wine and I'm rewatching Justice League. These early episodes are less good, but there's usually some good team moments. And maybe I'll get more written on my yuletide. My exciting Saturday night.
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