The Hunger Games.



Seen by many to be the most anticipated movie of 2012, I had very high expectations of 'The Hunger Games'. This new book to screen adaptation has been dubbed as the new 'Harry Potter' and 'Twilight', but I disagree strongly with this and The Hunger Games is a phenomenon in its own right and with a novel as unique as this, there's no reason to compare it to those gone before it.


The Hunger Games has a completely unique plot line which is absolutely gripping from start to finish. After an unsuccessful uprising in North America by the thirteen districts of Panem, a 'reaping' (it's more like a raffle really), is held every year to remind the remaining twelve districts of the authority of the Capital. During this 'reaping', twenty-four children are chosen, one boy and one girl from each of the twelve districts, to participate in 'The Hunger Games'. These children are taken away from their distrcits and placed into an arena where they must fight til the death. There can only be one victor and this winner will receive fame and glory. Katniss and Peeta are the two contestants from District 12, the poorest and least prepared of all the districts, that must compete in the 74th annual Hunger Games and it is the stories of these two that we follow whilst they're in the arena, where some unexpected things happen.


As far as book to film adaptations go, I would have to say that this is one of the best. There were several moments in the film where the scene was the exact image that I had had in my mind whilst reading the book. The plot sticks to the original story line as much as possible, though obviously with some bits taken out. I was completely astounded at how well they brought the images from the book onto the screen and I think 'The Hunger Games' deserves a very big round of applause for this. At no point whilst watching the film did I think, 'Oh, the book is so much better', in fact, the film has made me love and appreciate the novel, where this story began, all the more. It's been a very long time since I read The Hunger Games, but as I was watching, I remembered the exact extracts from the book from which they originated.


The Hunger Games is sort of a mixing of the old with the  new as the districts live in impoverished conditions whilst the rich live in technical spleandour. The mixing of these two was done perfectly and the effects of the modern scenes was mesmerising, as were the scenes of nature. I've never seen a film where the two meshed so perfectly together and I was really pleased to see the coming together of old and new done so well.

Many people are under the impression that The Hunger Games revolves around a teenage romance, which it does not, I repeat, it does not. Whilst there are a couple of romantic elements to the plot, this is seen as a dystopia story. That said, I found myself rolling around on the floor in some scenes because I'm a big Peeta-Katniss fan and there are some scenes which make your heart pound.


I literally just finished watching the film and I'm on such a high. I recommend this film to everyone who loves a good film and fans shouldn't be afraid of this 'ruining' the series, because it definitely doesn't. In terms of quality (and plot), I believe this film surpasses Twilight by far, though unfortunately, the fan base is not as large as this story deserves. Being a massive Potter-head, I can't say that this is better than Harry Potter, but it's definitely a very, very, close second on my list of favourite books and films. I'm literally buzzing after watching this film and I can't wait to watch it again and again and again!

I think that In Time is so good because it's what I imagine could potentially happen in our world. The rich are already paying extortionate amounts for plastic surgery to make them look younger, I wouldn't be all that surprised if in the (very distant) future they could buy time so they could live longer too. It explores an interesting idea where only the rich live long and the poor suffer and die because they didn't 'earn' enough time in their lives. It really makes you think about the morality of some members of the upper classes and the value of money. Imagine if time was your only currency - what would you do with your life? This may be science-fiction but it seems to have drawn in some philosophical and mind-boggling elements to really get your brain ticking.

I was a bit iffy about seeing this film because I'm not a huge fan of either cowboys or aliens; however, I thought that I would give it a shot seeing as cowboys and aliens together in a movie is a rare sight (unless if you're watching Toy Story).

The reviews for this movie are very mixed. Most audiences were split half-half, with 50% loving the movie, and 50% wanting their money back. Unfortunately, I was in the 50% who wanted their money back. Initially, I was very impressed with the movie but, in my opinion, the film got progressively worse. I was writing notes throughout the duration of this movie and if you only read the first page you would think that I absolutely loved it. If you only read the last page you'd think I hated it. I'm thinking this is the marmite of films because many other bloggers seem to have been very impressed by this film when I was thorough unimpressed.

Ella

To give you a basic plot outline, a cowboy wakes up in the middle of nowhere with a mysterious bracelet clamped around his wrist (seemingly impossible to remove), with absolutely no memory of how he got there. He finds his way to a nearby town that is soon attacked by aliens. The town then forms a group that promptly set out to track down an alien that they believe to have ejected from the space craft. Along the way, Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig), has several flashbacks in which he remembers certain events that help him piece his memory back together and he remembers his previous encounter with the mysterious aliens. The group is aided by a woman, Ella, who seems to know more about Jake than he does, but no one really knows who he is. As the plot progresses the group find out more about the aliens and Jake continues his quest to recover his memory (it's one of those films where you work backwards to uncover the story).


As I have already said, I believe that this movie went from bad to worse. Well perhaps it went from alright to marginally better to much worse. The opening scene is very mysterious with an unknown man waking up in the middle of nowhere and a metal bracelet stuck on his arm. At this point in time the bracelet didn't look too out of place even though it was evidently an alien device clamped onto a cowboy. Daniel Craig soon demonstrated his power and strength of character through a number of fights and he was definitely the perfect man for the job. He makes it look so effortless and his moves flow from one to the next emulating his masculinity and it is clear that Daniel Craig is the man for action films. It's just amazing how he can beat up a person, showing off every muscle in his finely toned physique without moving a single facial muscle. He has such a cool attitude, absolutely nothing phases him or hurts him in the slightest. Of course, they featured a scene involving him walking carefree whilst explosions and gunshots are being fired all around him.

... and aliens attack

I think this film started to go downhill after the alien part came in. It's a curious thing combining aliens and cowboys,  it's never really been done before and it's quite unusual and unique. It would've been great if they'd pulled it off, unfortunately I don't think they did. Everything suddenly became very messy and confusing and I've had to re-watch several parts in order to figure out what was actually happening. I thought that the colours of the screen during the alien attack scene were very dark and dull and this just added to the confusion because I couldn't even see what was happening. All I really made out from this scene were mysterious screams, thumping sounds, flashes of light, fast-moving shadows and random gunshots. There were many alien 'abuductions' but I was sorely disappointed by the way in which they decided to carry these out as it basically involved a giant claw shooting out from the mother ship and plucking random humans from the ground. This just reminded me of that arcade game to win the stuffed toys that nobody ever wins. In addition the attack scenes just looked like a scene of Star Wars - space crafts, flashes of blue and red everywhere (blue, alien lasers, red, fiery torches). It was definitely a clashing not a combination of cultures and I was disappointed. There were also parts - particularly near the end - that strongly reminded me of Lord of the Rings. The alien's lair was a modern-ish building (a bit like the gherkin in London) in the middle of nowhere. The humans climbed up the stairs to get to the enemies *cough* Frodo and Sam climbed the stairs to the Spider's cave *cough*. The group lay in wait outside, close to the enemies, where there were wide expanses of white rock and alien space crafts fly above whilst the group hides in bushes *cough* The Fellowship hide as a group of spy birds (forgotten the technical term!) fly above. Finally, the lair 'disappears' as the ground falls away *cough* the fall of Mordor.

I feel that the bracelet is very much out of place in this scene.

I didn't like what the aliens themselves looked like. They were very robotic creatures that didn't look even vaguely real. They left some green goo behind on the group - surprise, surprise - and they had a rocket ship - 'cuz that's not stereotypical. One other thing that I found ridiculous was cowboys trying to capture the aliens using lassos.  Lassos. LASSO?! Now I'm no expert but I'm thinking a piece of rope isn't going to save you from an incredibly strong alien life force.

Although I found the plot very disappointing, one thing that consistently impressed me throughout was the quality of the acting. I was most impressed by Daniel Craig because after playing such an iconic role such as James Bond, it can be quite difficult to break the connection and make your audience believe that you are anything but James Bond, but he managed to. I didn't think for one second that he was the guy who played suave and sexy James Bond, he was the mysterious cowboy from beginning to end. Craig's accent was absolutely spot on and completely transported me to the world of Western cowboys, as did that of many of the other characters. The other actor who I noticed was Paul Dano. He doesn't have a particularly large role in Cowboys and Aliens, he plays the trouble making son of the town Sheriff, but the few times that he was on screen he really impressed me with his acting ability. The first time we meet him he is drunk and he really makes you believe that he's had far too much to drink. He's got the swagger, the slur - every move he makes is just further confirmation that he's intoxicated. The only problem was, his accent was so good that you had to listen really attentively to understand what he was saying, otherwise you would miss whole chunks of conversation. Many people will have only watched this movie because Harrison Ford is in it, but I have to say, if he hadn't been in it, I don't think that I would've noticed. He had quite a major role in the film as he was leading the town in their hunt for the aliens but he really didn't make much of an impact on me and I didn't notice him doing anything spectacular.


The soundtrack was fairly good, starting off with that typical Western music with that twang. Somehow it managed to convey the feeling of modern action with classic cowboy added in. It definitely contributed to the action as it was often very loud and dramatic. At other times there was some very eerie music with a slight alien quality, even though it is instantly recognisable as Western cowboy. I thought that perhaps more could've been done to mix the two types of music together though I appreciate how difficult it would be to mix traditional noises with very futuristic ones. In addition there is some very beautiful country scenery in this film with trees, lakes, mountains, deserts - everything you'd expect to see in a cowboy film but extra special.

I guess I would have to say I got exactly what I expected from this film. With executive producers being Steven Spielberg and Jon Favreau and actors such as Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, I expected it to be very well executed from the acting side of things; however, the idea of Cowboys and Aliens mixing together didn't appeal to me and I don't think that they managed to pull it off. It would extremely difficult to mix such contrasting genres together and it would've been very impressive if they had managed to integrate the two genres together better but unfortunately they didn't and ultimately this led to the film's downfall.

Favourite quote: 'Got a kid, a dog, why not a woman?'

Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Very cool advert.

Uh oh. Trouble's brewing.

Transformers: The Dark of the Moon.

I was extremely disappointed with the latest Transformers movie. Granted, I didn't have much faith in it to begin with as the second one was also a major slope down from the first; however, I didn't think it would be this bad.

Ok, so the first thing I noticed was the mysterious disappearance of Megan Fox and the appearance of her replacement it seems Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, a British Victoria's Secret Model. Well, where did Megan Fox go?! The only explanation given is that she dumped Sam. There's no hint as to why, when, where etc. This really bothered me for some reason. I'm not a very big fan of Megan Fox but I felt that she played quite a large role in this franchise and I was disappointed that the producers messed with the flow of Transformers by replacing her. This was their first mistake. 


Secondly, if I'm perfectly honest I had no frickin' idea what the hay was going on for most of this movie. The first part was all about how sad Sam's life is and how he needs to get a grip, get a job and stop thinking about the decepticons. Whilst all the action is going on in this movie Sam and Carly's relationship unfolds and develops which is a bit distracting for the viewer as the story switches and merges plot lines. Sam is jealous of Carly's relationship with her new boss, a rich man (Patrick Dempsey), who buys her a car and then *shocker* her boss turns out to be in league with the Decepticons. 


There is a new bad guy: Sentinel Prime, who in my opinion just looks like a robotic ent. He was Optimus Primer's predecessor and was in charge of guarding the 'Pillars', but he secretly made a deal with Megatron and is now one of the bad guys. Using these Pillars the Decepticons want to set up a teleportation link bringing all the Decepticons to Earth, which has the resources they require. In my opinion this made the film look like a race between giant robots to find some sticks. Meanwhile, the Decepticons are murdering members of the US and Russian space missions to cover their traces, but of course, they're not very subtle about this. (Hint: man mysteriously flies out the window of a high storey building). The Decepticons threaten to wage war on Earth if the humans don't agree to exiling the Autobots, so of course, the humans pack off their only means of protection up in a space shuttle and shoot it into the sky. Then, after a bazillion fires, explosions, special effects, peace is restored - as expected.


I don't know why but for some reason the only thing I could think of everytime I saw Shia laBeouf was Even Stevens. I didn't feel this way during the other two movies so perhaps LaBeouf's acting had slipped back into old ways and he was reprising the role of Louis Stevens. 


What is quite cool is how they incorporate history into this movie by saying that the 'Space Race' of the Cold War between the USA and the USSR was caused because a Cybertronian spacecraft landed on the moon. 


Some people really liked this movie, but for the life of me I cannot figure out why. I guess the special effects are fantastic but it's effect is significantly lessened as there is no plot line to back it up. All in all I thought this movie was a bit of a mess. It lacked plot and detail that was needed and by the end of the movie I could see, hear and think was explosions, explosions, explosions. Thank god this is the last instalment so they can stop tarnishing the name Transformer.


IN CINEMAS NOW. 

Out on DVD now.

So this is something I wrote for http://dans-wackyworld.blogspot.com/ as a guest blogger.