Movie Review-The Hunger Games

So like many people I’ve been waiting for months for The Hunger Games movie.  The books were great and I was really excited to see how the movie would portray the books.  I’m not usually one to read books and see the movie, usually I just see the movie and forget about the book.  The book is usually way better than the movie and I just hate comparing the two, so this was sort of a new thing for me.  But besides all of  this, my review will have spoilers for the movie and the book, so read at your own risk!

First off I will say the movie is definitely not as good as the book.  The beginning was good with being able to see District 12 and Katniss and Gale hunting.  I think most of these scenes were satisfying.  Although I wish they would have showed a little bit more of life in the Seam.   I felt the relationship between Gale and Katniss was pretty well displayed with it being a bit awkward in that they both were not willing to put forth their feelings.

They did change the part with the mayor’s daughter giving Katniss the mockingjay pin.  Greasy Sae at the Hob gave her the pin.  But I feel changing this didn’t really effect the movie or the story that much. Although I do believe, in the book the mayor’s daughter gives Katniss the pin after she has volunteered for the reaping and it goes into what a mockingjay is.  I guess what they were trying to do was cut down movie time with having to introduce the mayor’s daughter and all of that so some people may be a bit disappointed by the importance of this pin being downplayed, but I think it was fine.

The reaping scene in the movie was probably for me the most moving part of the movie.   You can feel the fear and terror of the kids especially Prim.  Prim was excellent.  You feel all of the emotion of Prim being picked and her older sister volunteering to take her place.  The part was very well done.  I actually felt teary eyed because I got to thinking about what if this were me and my sister? I was surprised to see they didn’t show Haymitch falling around on stage.  After thinking about this I think they decided to wait to introduce Haymitch because people who have not read the book might be confused as to who this person is on stage drunk and falling down.

From here until the games was where the movie kind of flawed.  There were parts I really enjoyed seeing like the scenes with Cinna and Katniss.  I think they focused too many scenes on the training though.  I think one scene of training would have been enough.  I would have liked to see more of the games rather than the training.

The scenes of the games felt very short and not really rewarding.  I don’t know if this would have been different if I didn’t read the book or not.  You didn’t see Katniss dehydrated for a couple of days in search of water. It felt very rushed.  The relationship between Rue and Katniss was there but not nearly like it was in the book.  When Rue died, it was sad but the sadness was nowhere near what I felt when reading the book.  I think they could have spent a little more time developing this relationship.  The moment when it’s announced there could be 2 victors from a district win was also downplayed by Katniss only whispering “peeta” instead of screaming it like in the book.  I know this is small but show some emotion!  She doesn’t seem that excited about this at all.  Of course she finds Peeta easily…I know the movie only has so much time but she barely had to look.  The time spent in the cave with Katniss and Peeta is so short.  I didn’t feel there was a relationship at all.  No connection.  They kissed like twice.  Believe me I didn’t want this movie to turn into a Twilight with 2 different love interests, but I did want to see what I thought the books portrayed.  Katniss and Peeta were supposed to be all lovey-dovey, kissing and making a show for the audience.

The absolute most disappointing part of the movie though was the final battle in the games with the muttutions, Cato, Katniss, and Peeta.  They didn’t have Peeta get bit on the leg.  Peeta was supposed to be bleeding to death and Katniss made a tourniquet to save his life.  Peeta didn’t even look winded.  Peeta is supposed to be near death! They took out the scene with the hovercraft picking them up and Katniss screaming for Peeta while he was being worked on by doctors.  This would have been a very emotional awesome scene….but completely left out.  I wonder why?

Throughout the movie they showed the gamemakers controlling the game.  I thought this was cool.  You didn’t get any of this from the book but I think it would really help someone understand more about the Capital if they were only seeing the movie.

Overall the movie was good.  I wasn’t disappointed too much because I didn’t have high expectations.  I think if you go into this thinking it’s going to effect you as much as the book did you will be extremely disappointed.  I think all of the characters were pretty well portrayed. There wasn’t anyone that I was disappointed in.  I hope in the next movie they elaborate more on the relationships between the characters.  I know I will be seeing the next one! Happy Hunger Games!

One day I was thinking about life….

My Friend: http://youarenotsosmart.com
read this, its brilliant

Error42: eh but i dont think i equate money to happiness

My Friend: its a blog fool, read the whole article, its about more than that

Error42: yeah yeah im nearing the end

Error42: errr lol wait thats not the end lol

My Friend: lol yeah, i was like uhhh yeah….the article is liek 5 pages

Error42: does this guy have a video cause i cant read all this and work at the same time

My Friend: save it, save the entire thing

Error42: thats why i watch/listen to video

My Friend: im gonna buy the book

Error42: kk linked… thing is… i have a different view about life than most i think

My Friend: no you dont
My Friend: noob
My Friend: 😀

Error42: wow… i really thought.. that my sentance just then was going to spark a very deep conversation about life and my reason for living…. however… your response… kinda killed that with impunity

My Friend: 😀
My Friend: heheheheheheheheh
My Friend: go ahead mr. gopez
My Friend: testify!

Error42: no! i dont wanna anymore.

My Friend: awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Error42: lol

My Friend: 🙁

Error42: eh. its an odd thing really. dont know if i can explain myself very well. … it kinda came about while i was thinking about… a book i was writing

My Friend: figure it out whilst i call swapnil

Error42: figuring out this religion for this book
you know the whole… question about “why are we here” and all that
what is our reason for being
like scientists and all the religion haters.. would call bull shit and all that
evolution and all that right
no god etc etc
there is a philospher who said that the reason for being is doing what an animal does by instinct
like… a bird in the wild… is doing what it was created to do
it lives.. it breads.. and it does what it does… and when you look at the circle of life… you can show exactly how what a bird does on a daily basis.. actually.. is an important part of ecology
same thing with worms right… they do what they do .. and because of it… grass and plants can thrive… birds can eat… etc etc
circle of life and all that right
well i was thinking… well what are the nuts and bolts of man
like what is it that man does
and like if you were to sum it up.. one could say… we create.. and we evolve
more than any animal…. mankind .. has been able to create and change our surroundings… writen language, technology… etc… the whole achievements of civilization… (video game ref)
like thats what man does right
so anyways… i was thinking.. well thats what we do.. but why would we do that?
so i … started thinking about.. God right
and this is sorta where my book comes in
like there is a line right.. that God created man in his own image right
so like why would he do that?
so i was thinking.. what if… there is a god right… but.. he’s just a god right
but its not like… he can do everything right.. but he cant do everything
like what if he just wanted to create… another god so that he had someone to talk to
cause god is by himself right
if there is only 1
anyways … the idea is… that god could not create another god… .for some reason.. that was not allowed
so he instead created man
and gave man .. the ability.. to become gods… but could not just give them.. the power outright… he just came up with this idea that as long as we did it on our own… it was legit
so .. .. the reason… mankind… has this … ability to become more and create.. and change ourselves.. is because thats what we are meant to do
we are meant to evolve… to create technology… and one day.. we will become gods
and then God would be like…. “Dang that took longer than I thought,… so… you wanna play chess?”
and then Man will respond “Meh…. nah…….. checkmate”
ok that last part wasnt really part of my thinking.. but i felt the need to throw it in there.

My Friend: when is your book coming out?

Error42: idk… so anyways… one of the problems with the human race is that… we are divided
but… we recently… created a piece of technology… that should.. bring us to the next stage of evolution

My Friend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel
My Friend: 😀

Error42: the idea is that…. its not just one person that is suppose to become god… its that… we all.. are… that .. all of mankind.. is suppose to work together… but we cant work together
i mean.. you hear it all the time… we are connected you know
like my life will effect yours.. and yours will effect others…so and so forth. And if you sat down and wrote down.. everything you’ve ever done.. you’d be able to see… how your actions… changed the life.. of some dude in California… who changed some girl in Japan… who changed some girl in Russia
etc etc right
The Internet… has the ability to.. connect all of us
for the first time in all of our history… we now have the ability to connect to everyone around the world
its the first step… in becoming…. one race.. the human race
sooooo … my reason for being…. is to … somehow… change… humanity… for the better
everything we do….should be… to help evolve mankind… take mankind to the next step

My Friend: mabye you should sharpen your focus
and improve the lives of people close to you

Error42: however…. the problem is.. mankind is broken… we are too occupied.. with our own lives…. i think the WORST idea ever to come into mankinds mind.. is that Life is about Living and having a good time before you die
because…. if we all just cared… about ourselves… and nothing else…. what would be the point of having so many of us to be alive
if that was our reason for being.. than… there would only be one person.. he’d be immortal and he’d be sitting alone masturbating until the end of time
no i dont think we are suppose to live for ourselves…. we are suppose to live for each other
its weird… one thing that is important.. is that.. this way of thinking…is not suppose to replace religions…. there is a common ground that all religions can coexist
the United Nations.. was actually… in my opinion.. a huge step in the right direction… the problem is… the majority of people in POWER… only care about keeping that power… and getting more power…. wealth… and money… greed.. and all that…. so even though the United Nations is an awesome idea… it is hindered.. by other human motivations
religion.. in itself.. is a great idea…. however.. it is controlled by human motivations… so it becomes tainted
like in politics…. politicians.. using religion.. to gain power… this is the opposite of what religion is suppose to do
if you are to say that there is one god… and that one god created all of us humans… than that means he also created all the other religions…. but why would he do that? he wouldn’t do that so that we would kill each other until one religion survived… he did it because he himself is made up of everything… the religions of the world are suppose to come together
i know it sounds like an impossible thing… but then again.. if you believe in god… than you’re suppose to believe in impossible things existing

My Friend: pax

Error42: pax indeed

My Friend: what are you going to do with all of these thoughts and information?

Error42: dont know… currently the only idea that ive had so far… is to write it down
maybe when i get enough money… i’ll figure a way to get on TED and be like…. “yo peep this bitches….”

MLG Columbus Day 1

The game I’ve been waiting for. Millenium Stephano on the main stage. oh man. Stephano 1 – Polt 2. Man Game 1 was a hard battle for Stephano who eventually loses to just too many tanks. Game 2 was a complete turn around totally in favor of Stephano. But in Game 3 Polt pulls some quick unconventional build and Stephano, not having scouted it, gets mowed over. Ugh. So heart wrenching.

Come on Millenium Stephano you can pull though in the lower bracket! I know you can!

Tabletop Starcraft Cameo – Felicia Day – Geek and Sundry

So I follow Felicia Day’s updates. What can I say, I’m a fan. And I was watching some of her “commercial trailers” for her up and coming Geek and Sundry channel on Youtube. I’ll probably keep up with it. It looks good.

Anyways… One of the shows on Geek & Sundry, that will appear every other Friday, is TableTop with Wil Wheaton. Basically a show in which celebrity geeks play table top games. Sounds like fun to me.

So I’m watching this Wil Wheaton commercial trailer for Tabletop and that’s when I see a cameo! At first I was like, I guess I’ll watch this show, but after seeing the cameo, I am TOTALLY going to watch this show. Hopefully this person will be in the first few episodes!

If you like Starcraft, you’ll spot him right away!

Dreaming in Horrorvision

So a few days ago I had a pretty goretastic dream. I should have wrote about it then, but I kept forgetting to do it. And since so much time has passed since the dream I’ve pretty much forgotten most of it save for the bits that stick out in my memory.

A few months ago I read a book called Urban Gothic by Brian Keene. If you’ve read it, then you have an idea what kind of dream I had. If not, then lets say the dream was a bit House of a 1000 Corpses, meets Texas Chainsaw, with a bit of Hills Have Eyes. (I know you may think those are all the same movie, but yeah)

Like I said I don’t remember much, but this is what I do remember.

Andrea and I are trapped in some dark rundown house. Not sure what city we’re in. We are being chased around the house by about 4 people. These people are the ugly, mutant looking, homicidal types. Three of them are men, and one of them is a nasty white haired hunched over old woman. She is the Mother of the three men.

The mutant people are chasing us through this house from room to room. We get to this one room where I find what seems to be a thick tree branch. One end has been cut to a spiked point. The crazy lady chases us into the room yelling for her sons to follow her attack. Without giving it much thought, I lunge at the crazy lady and stab the branch spear into her gut. As I’m attacking her she threatens us by telling us that there are more of them. It’s not just the four of them. She goes on to tell us the entire neighborhood is full of her crazy people. And that there is no escape. They will get us. I repeat my attacks, and at some point find myself behind her stabbing into her spine.

This whole part is extremely gorey.

Suddenly, as I am repeatedly stabbing the crazy lady, one of the mutant guys comes up behind me a yells and attacks me. He yells out the word “PEBKAC!”. I quickly turn around shoving him off with the branch/spear and promptly wake up.

Well that’s all I remember about that.

For awhile I had forgotten what the word was, but I remember waking up and thinking that word that he screamed out was actually some weird techy term. Only now did I remember that it was PEBKAC. A quick googling yielded this: slang in technical circles with potentially derogatory meaning “Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair”. Odd thing to use as a battle cry.

Later

And now for some random clips of cinema gore.

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WARNING the following video clip is TOTALLY NOT SAFE FOR WORK. Click More for video clip.

NSFW